This Thanksgiving Bible trivia quiz has 50 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 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which psalm's Hebrew title, 'Mizmor l'Todah', names it as a song for the thank offering in the Temple?
100
In English it opens 'Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands' and became the hymn 'All People That on Earth Do Dwell'. Rashi said it was recited over the todah sacrifice.
Q 02Complete the King James line: 'Enter into his gates with ______, and into his courts with praise.'
Thanksgiving
The next verse explains why: 'For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.'
Q 03Which psalm repeats 'for his mercy endureth for ever' in the second half of every verse?
136
Jewish tradition calls it the Great Hallel. It runs through creation, the Exodus and the conquest, answering each event with the same line.
Q 04Which psalm opens 'It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD' and is subtitled a song 'for the sabbath day'?
92
It is still recited in synagogues on Friday evening. Jewish tradition attributes Psalms 90 to 100 to Moses.
Q 05'Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his ______' (Psalm 103:2). Which word completes the verse?
Benefits
The psalm then lists them: forgiveness, healing, redemption from destruction and satisfying your mouth with good things.
Q 06Jesus healed ten lepers on the way to Jerusalem, but only one came back to thank him. What was that man?
A Samaritan
Jesus asked, 'Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?' The story appears only in Luke's Gospel.
Q 07Which Gospel is the only one to record the story of the ten lepers?
Luke
It sits in chapter 17, between teaching on forgiveness and a passage on the coming of the kingdom.
Q 08Before feeding the five thousand, Jesus took five loaves and two fish, looked up to heaven and did what?
Gave thanks and broke them
It is the only miracle apart from the resurrection that appears in all four Gospels. Twelve baskets of pieces were left over.
Q 09After the feeding of the four thousand, how many baskets of leftovers did the disciples collect?
Seven
Jesus had 'given thanks' over seven loaves and a few small fish. This second miracle appears only in Matthew and Mark.
Q 10The word Eucharist, used for Holy Communion, comes from a Greek word meaning what?
Thanksgiving
At the Last Supper Jesus 'took the cup, and gave thanks' before passing it to the disciples. The Didache was already using the term by the end of the first century.
Q 11'Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.' Jesus prayed these words just before doing what?
Raising Lazarus from the tomb
He added that he said it aloud for the sake of the crowd, 'that they may believe that thou hast sent me', then called Lazarus 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 tax collector standing far off simply asks for mercy, and Jesus says he, not the proud man, went home justified.
Q 13Which elderly prophetess 'gave thanks likewise unto the Lord' when the infant Jesus was presented?
Anna
Q 21Daniel was thrown to the lions for praying how many times a day toward Jerusalem?
Three
King Darius had been tricked into banning prayer to anyone but himself for thirty days. Daniel simply carried on 'as he did aforetime'.
Q 22Hannah's Old Testament song of thanksgiving celebrates the birth of which son she had promised to God?
Samuel
She had been barren and had promised the child to God. Her song, which begins 'My heart rejoiceth in the LORD', is often compared with Mary's Magnificat.
Q 23Mary's song of praise, the Magnificat, is spoken in Luke's Gospel 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'.
Luke says she was a widow of about 84 who never left the Temple. She spoke of the child to everyone waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.
Q 14Which verse reads (KJV) 'In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you'?
1 Thessalonians 5:18
It follows two even shorter commands, '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 16Colossians 3:17 says do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, doing what 'to God and the Father by him'?
Giving thanks
Two verses earlier Paul writes 'and be ye thankful', and a verse before that tells them to sing psalms and hymns with grace in their hearts.
Q 17In Romans 1, the pagans 'became vain in their ______'. Which word fills the blank?
Imaginations
The result, he says, was that 'their foolish heart was darkened'. It is the New Testament's bluntest statement that ingratitude is a root sin.
Q 18Which letter says every creature of God is good 'if it be received with thanksgiving'?
1 Timothy
Paul is arguing against teachers who banned certain foods and marriage. It is a favourite grace-before-dinner text.
Q 19'Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift' closes which chapter, one about a collection for the poor?
2 Corinthians 9
The whole chapter is about cheerful giving: 'God loveth a cheerful giver' is a few verses earlier.
Q 20Which Old Testament prophet prayed a psalm of thanksgiving from inside a great fish?
Jonah
He had spent three days and nights inside. The prayer ends 'Salvation is of the LORD', and the fish promptly vomits him onto dry land.
Q 24'Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD.' What had just happened?
They had crossed the Red Sea
Miriam then took a timbrel and led the women in the same refrain. Some scholars think the Song of the Sea is the oldest text in the Bible.
Q 25'Then sang Deborah and Barak' opens a victory song in which book of the Bible?
Judges
They were celebrating the defeat of Jabin king of Canaan and his general Sisera, finished off by Jael with a tent peg.
Q 26How many extra years of life had God promised King Hezekiah after his illness?
Fifteen
The sign was the shadow going back ten degrees on the sundial of Ahaz. Isaiah 38 preserves 'the writing of Hezekiah' after his recovery.
Q 27On bringing the Ark to Jerusalem, David handed a psalm of thanks to which musician and his brethren?
Asaph
The text, in 1 Chronicles 16, begins 'Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name'. Asaph's name is on twelve of the psalms.
Q 28At the dedication of Jerusalem's rebuilt wall, Nehemiah appointed 'two great companies' to do what?
March in opposite directions around the ramparts
One choir went right toward the dung gate, the other left, and they met at the house of God with trumpets and cymbals.
Q 29When the Second Temple's foundation was laid in Ezra 3, the young shouted for joy while the old men did what?
Wept aloud, remembering the one Solomon built
The noise of weeping and shouting mixed so that people could not tell one from the other, and it was heard far off.
Q 30In Leviticus 7, what had to accompany the animal sacrifice in a peace offering 'for a thanksgiving'?
Unleavened cakes and leavened bread
The Hebrew name for this offering is todah, the same word behind Psalm 100's title.