Thanksgiving Bible Trivia
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This Thanksgiving Bible trivia quiz has 100 free questions with answers, built for church groups, Sunday school classes and family tables that want a faith-based round on Thanksgiving Day. It walks through the Bible's own thanksgivings: the psalm whose Hebrew title literally names it a song for the thank offering, Hannah and Mary singing after unexpected sons, Jonah praying inside the fish, Daniel kneeling three times a day with his windows open, the one leper out of ten who came back, and Jesus giving thanks over loaves, over a cup and at a tomb. Later questions cover the harvest festivals God commanded in the Torah, the todah offering in Leviticus, the Deuteronomy verse that gave the world grace after meals, Paul's short verses on gratitude that get printed on every Thanksgiving card, and the choirs Nehemiah marched around the walls of Jerusalem. A final round connects Scripture to the American holiday: the Geneva Bible carried on the Mayflower, Lincoln's 1863 proclamation, and the hymns sung on the fourth Thursday of November. Difficulty ranges from questions a Sunday-school child can answer to a few for seminary graduates. Every answer was checked against the King James text or Wikipedia before it went in.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which psalm's Hebrew title, 'Mizmor l'Todah', traditionally marks it as a song for the thanksgiving offering?
100
Psalm 100 gave its name to a hymn tune still sung today: Old Hundredth is so called because it carried the psalm's English paraphrase, 'All People That on Earth Do Dwell'.
Q 02Complete the King James line: 'Serve the LORD with ______: come before his presence with singing'?
Gladness
Gladness: Psalm 2 tells the kings of the earth to 'serve the LORD with fear', but in this psalm the same service comes with singing.
Q 03Psalm 136 ends each of its 26 verses by saying that what 'endureth for ever'?
His mercy
His mercy 'endureth for ever' after every line as the psalm moves from creation to the Exodus, so even 'him that smote Egypt in their firstborn' is answered with it.
Q 04Psalm 92's heading assigns it to which day?
The sabbath day
The sabbath day: the heading reads 'A Psalm or Song for the sabbath day', and synagogues sing it on Friday evening in the service that welcomes the Sabbath.
Q 05Which word completes Psalm 103:2, 'Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his ______'?
Benefits
Benefits: the psalm goes straight on to list them, from forgiveness and healing to a mouth filled with good things, so that 'thy youth is renewed like the eagle's'.
Q 06Only one of the ten lepers Jesus healed came back to give thanks, and he was what?
A Samaritan
A Samaritan, an outsider to Jesus's Jewish hearers, which sharpens the question he asks: 'Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?'
Q 07Which Gospel is the only one to record the story of the ten lepers?
Luke
Luke alone tells it: Matthew and Mark each record Jesus healing a single leper, but only Luke has the ten, nine of whom never come back.
Q 08In John's Gospel, who supplies the loaves and fish for the feeding of the multitude?
A boy
A boy: Andrew points him out but asks 'what are they among so many?', and after Jesus gives thanks the whole crowd eats its fill.
Q 09In the feeding miracle told in all four Gospels, how many loaves does Jesus bless?
Five
Five loaves and two fish fed about five thousand men, and the scraps alone filled twelve baskets, more food than the disciples had started with.
Q 10Which visitors to the newborn Jesus 'returned, glorifying and praising God'?
The shepherds
The shepherds went back to their fields praising God in the open, while the wise men, warned in a dream to avoid Herod, slipped home by another road.
Q 11Jesus prayed 'Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me' just before which miracle?
Raising Lazarus from the tomb
Raising Lazarus from the tomb: Jesus adds that he prayed aloud for the bystanders' sake, 'that they may believe that thou hast sent me', and then calls the dead man out.
Q 12In one of Jesus's parables, which character prays 'God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are'?
The Pharisee
The Pharisee prays this in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican; the tax collector standing far off asks only for mercy, and Jesus says he, not the Pharisee, went home justified.
Q 13Which elderly prophetess 'gave thanks likewise unto the Lord' when the infant Jesus was presented?
Anna
Q 21Daniel kept kneeling three times a day to pray and give thanks, in defiance of which king's decree?
Darius
Darius had been talked into a month-long ban on praying to anyone but himself; he then worked until sunset to save Daniel and spent a sleepless night hoping the lions would spare him.
Q 22Hannah's Old Testament song of thanksgiving celebrates the birth of which son she had promised to God?
Samuel
Samuel: Hannah says she chose the name 'because I have asked him of the LORD', and once he was weaned she took him to the sanctuary at Shiloh and left him there to serve.
Q 23Mary's song of praise, the Magnificat, is spoken when she visits which relative?
Elisabeth
Elisabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist, who leapt in her womb at Mary's greeting. The Latin name comes from its first word, 'magnifies'.
Anna, a widow of about eighty-four who 'departed not from the temple', gave thanks and then spoke of the child to all who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
Q 14Which of Paul's letters says 'In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus'?
1 Thessalonians
1 Thessalonians went to a church Paul had been hurried away from by night after a riot, so 'in every thing' was no easy line; it follows 'Rejoice evermore' and 'Pray without ceasing'.
Q 15'Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication...' opens a verse in which New Testament letter?
Philippians
It is Philippians 4:6, and the reward follows in the next verse: 'the peace of God, which passeth all understanding'.
Q 16Psalm 105 retells Israel's history, including which man 'sold for a servant' and held in fetters?
Joseph
Joseph: the psalm says he was laid in iron until the king sent and freed him, then made him lord of his house and ruler of all he owned.
Q 17Which word completes Romans 1:21, where the unthankful 'became vain in their ______'?
Imaginations
Imaginations: Paul's charge is that they knew God but 'glorified him not as God, neither were thankful', and the result was that 'their foolish heart was darkened'.
Q 18Which letter says every creature of God is good 'if it be received with thanksgiving'?
1 Timothy
It is 1 Timothy 4:4, answering teachers who forbade marriage and certain foods: every creature of God is good and 'nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving'.
Q 19'Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift' ends an appeal for a collection in which New Testament letter?
2 Corinthians
2 Corinthians: the same chapter holds the fundraiser's favourite line, 'God loveth a cheerful giver', because Paul wants the money given 'not grudgingly, or of necessity'.
Q 20Jonah gave thanks from inside the great fish after fleeing God's order to preach in which city?
Nineveh
Nineveh: Jonah sailed the other way and was thrown overboard, and he prayed 'with the voice of thanksgiving' while still inside the fish, before it had put him ashore.
Q 24Moses and the Israelites sang 'he hath triumphed gloriously' straight after which event?
Crossing the Red Sea
Crossing the Red Sea: the song celebrates Pharaoh's chariots drowned behind them, and Miriam then took a timbrel and led the women in the same refrain.
Q 25'Then sang Deborah and Barak' opens a victory song in which book of the Bible?
Judges
It is Judges 5, celebrating the defeat of Jabin king of Canaan and his general Sisera, whom Jael finished off with a tent peg in the previous chapter.
Q 26Which king of Judah wrote a song of thanks after God added fifteen years to his life?
Hezekiah
Hezekiah had been told by Isaiah to set his house in order; he prayed in tears instead, and the shadow moving backwards on the sundial was the sign of his reprieve.
Q 27On bringing the Ark to Jerusalem, David handed a psalm of thanks to which musician and his brethren?
Asaph
Asaph, who sounded the cymbals that day, was then left with his brethren to lead worship before the Ark every day; twelve psalms carry his name.
Q 28After rebuilding Jerusalem's defences, Nehemiah marked the dedication by sending two thanksgiving choirs where?
Along the top of the wall
Along the top of the wall: the two companies set off in opposite directions, met at the house of God, and made such a noise that 'the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off'.
Q 29As the Second Temple's foundation was laid, how did the old men who had seen Solomon's Temple react?
They wept aloud
They wept aloud while the younger crowd shouted for joy, and the two sounds blended so that no one could tell the weeping from the cheering.
Q 30In Leviticus 7, the thanksgiving sacrifice comes with cakes, wafers and, unusually for an offering, what else?
Leavened bread
Leavened bread: Leviticus 2 bars leaven from anything burned on the altar, yet the thanksgiving sacrifice calls for it, and the meat had to be eaten the same day.