The Twelve Disciples
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99 free The Twelve Disciples trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Four fishermen, a tax collector, a twin, a zealot, a man called 'son of Tolmai' and a treasurer who sold his master for thirty pieces of silver: the Twelve Disciples are the most famous group in the New Testament, and also one of the most confusing, with two Jameses, two Simons, two Judases and a Nathanael who may or may not be Bartholomew. The Gospels tell how they were called, sent out in pairs and commissioned; tradition adds how each of them died. These 99 questions cover the Twelve from calling to martyrdom: the meaning of 'apostle', Andrew the first-called and his X-shaped cross, Cephas the rock, Peter's three denials and head-down crucifixion, the sons of Zebedee, James the Great's sword and shrine at Compostela, John's eagle, Philip always fifth, Bartholomew's flayed skin, Matthew the tax collector of Capernaum, Thomas the twin in Kerala, James the Less, Jude of lost causes, Simon the Zealot's saw, Judas of Kerioth, the money bag, the Field of Blood, the kiss in Gethsemane, Matthias chosen by lot, the seventy, Paul the apostle to the Gentiles and the Cenacle. Easy questions stick to the thirty pieces of silver and fishers of men; the hardest ask about Patras, Joseph Barsabbas and Eusebius. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for Sunday school or a Bible study night.
30 of 99 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The word 'apostle' comes from a Greek term originally meaning what?
Messenger
Messenger: the Greek apostolos is literally 'one sent forth', from a verb meaning to send away. 'Disciple', by contrast, comes from the Latin for a pupil, so the Twelve were learners first and envoys second.
Q 02Matthew's Gospel ends with Jesus sending the apostles to do what?
Teach all nations
Teach all nations, or in newer Bibles 'make disciples of all nations': the Great Commission is set on a mountain in Galilee with only eleven apostles left, and Matthew admits that even then 'some doubted'.
Q 03According to Mark 6, how did Jesus first send the Twelve out to the towns of Galilee?
In pairs
In pairs: Mark says he sent them out 'two by two' and made them travel light, with a staff and sandals but no bread, no bag, no money and no spare tunic.
Q 04What were the Twelve told to do if a town rejected them?
Shake the dust off their feet
Shake the dust off their feet, as a testimony against the place. The one time the New Testament shows it being done, Paul and Barnabas do it on being thrown out of Antioch in Pisidia.
Q 05The Orthodox Church calls the apostle Andrew Protokletos, meaning what?
First called
First called: in John's Gospel Andrew is one of the first two men to follow Jesus, and he at once fetches his brother Simon with the words 'We have found the Messiah'.
Q 06Whose disciple was the apostle Andrew before he followed Jesus?
John the Baptist's
John the Baptist's: Andrew heard him call Jesus 'the Lamb of God', followed Jesus home and spent the rest of that day with him.
Q 07Which two brothers are identified in Matthew and Mark as the sons of Zebedee?
James and John
James and John, whom Jesus nicknamed Boanerges, 'Sons of Thunder'. When he called them they walked off the job, leaving their father sitting in the boat with the hired men.
Q 08The tax collector called Matthew in his own Gospel is called what in Mark and Luke?
Levi
Levi: Mark and Luke tell the same story of a tax collector called away from his booth but give him that name, and Luke adds that he threw Jesus a great feast in his house.
Q 09Matthew was sitting at his tax booth in which town, Jesus's base in Galilee, when he was called?
Capernaum
Capernaum: Matthew got up and followed at once, then filled his house with fellow tax collectors for dinner, which drew Jesus's retort that it is the sick, not the healthy, who need a doctor.
Q 10What does the Aramaic name Cephas, which Jesus gave Simon, mean?
Rock or stone
Rock or stone: its Greek form, Petros, is why Simon is remembered as Peter, and Jesus plays on the name when he tells him 'on this rock I will build my church'.
Q 11Which town does John's Gospel describe as 'the city of Andrew and Peter'?
Bethsaida
Bethsaida, which John also names as Philip's home. Three apostles did not save its reputation: Jesus cursed the town for shrugging off his miracles with the words 'Woe to you, Bethsaida!'
Q 12Under which emperor was Peter crucified in Rome, according to Christian tradition?
Nero
Nero: tradition places Peter's death in the emperor's gardens on the Vatican Hill, and the grave said to be his became the spot over which St Peter's Basilica was built.
Q 13According to the apocryphal Acts of Peter, how was Peter crucified?
Head down
Head down, at his own request. Jerome later said Peter felt unworthy to die as Jesus had, though the Acts of Peter itself turns the moment into a sermon on a world whose values are upside down.
Q 21Why is one of the two apostles named James styled 'the Greater'?
He was older or taller
He was older or taller than the other apostle James, as far as anyone can tell. The tag was a handy way of telling two men of one name apart, not a ranking of their importance.
Q 22Which three apostles formed an inner circle present at the Transfiguration?
Peter, James and John
Peter, James and John, the same three Jesus took in to see Jairus's daughter raised from her deathbed and kept closest to him on the night of his arrest.
Q 23On which Greek island is the apostle John traditionally said to have written the Book of Revelation?
Patmos
Q 14Three times the risen Jesus asks Peter whether he does what?
Loves him
Loves him: 'Do you love me?' Jesus asks, once for each denial, and each yes earns the order to feed his sheep. John sets both scenes beside a charcoal fire.
Q 15What sound reminded Peter of Jesus's prediction after his third denial?
A rooster crowing
A rooster crowing: in Luke's telling Jesus turns at that very moment and looks straight at Peter, who goes outside and weeps bitterly.
Q 16Jesus promised Peter 'the keys of' what?
The kingdom of heaven
The kingdom of heaven, along with the power to bind and loose on earth. The verse is why Peter is painted holding keys, and why keys appear on the coats of arms of the popes.
Q 17On what shape of cross is the apostle Andrew said to have been crucified?
X-shaped
X-shaped, the form still called a St Andrew's cross. The earliest accounts in fact describe an ordinary upright cross, and the X did not become standard in pictures of his death until the later Middle Ages.
Q 18Andrew, said to have been martyred at Patras in Greece, is the patron saint of which nation?
Scotland
Scotland: in one legend a churchman called Rule sailed from Patras with some of Andrew's bones and came ashore on the coast of Fife, where the town of St Andrews took the saint's name.
Q 19Which apostle was the first to be martyred, executed 'by the sword' by Herod?
James the Great
James the Great was put to the sword by Herod Agrippa in about AD 44. Acts adds that the killing went down so well in Jerusalem that Herod had Peter arrested next.
Q 20Which Spanish city claims the remains of the apostle James the Great, the country's patron saint?
Compostela
Compostela, in full Santiago de Compostela: Santiago is simply the local form of 'Saint James', and pilgrims have walked the Camino to his shrine there since the ninth century.
Patmos: the author calls himself John and says he was on the island 'because of God's word', which early writers took to mean a sentence of exile under Domitian. Many scholars doubt he was the apostle.
Q 24Which bird is the traditional symbol of the apostle John in art?
An eagle
An eagle, because the Gospel that bears his name soars from its first line, 'In the beginning was the Word'. Matthew, Mark and Luke have a winged man, a lion and an ox.
Q 25One future disciple, told about Jesus by Philip, scoffed, 'Can anything good come out of' which town?
Nazareth
Nazareth: the scoffer was won over minutes later, when Jesus told him he had already seen him sitting under a fig tree, and he hailed Jesus on the spot as the Son of God.
Q 26Many scholars identify the apostle Bartholomew with which figure from John's Gospel?
Nathanael
Nathanael: 'Bartholomew' is only a surname, 'son of Tolmai', and the three Gospels that list a Bartholomew never mention Nathanael, while John has a Nathanael and no Bartholomew.
Q 27Bartholomew is most often shown in art holding what gruesome attribute?
His own flayed skin
His own flayed skin, because one legend has him skinned alive, though another says he was beheaded. Michelangelo painted him that way in the Sistine Chapel's Last Judgment, knife in one hand and hide in the other.
Q 28After preaching in India, where do popular traditions say Bartholomew went next?
Armenia
Eusebius says he left a copy of a Gospel behind in India; the Armenian Church counts him as a patron saint.
Q 29What does the name Thomas, like his Greek nickname Didymus, mean?
The twin
The twin: John's Gospel introduces him as 'Thomas, called Didymus', the same word in Aramaic and in Greek. He earned 'doubting' by refusing to believe in the resurrection until he could touch the nail marks.
Q 30In which modern Indian state is Thomas traditionally said to have landed in AD 52?
Kerala
Kerala, where the Saint Thomas Christians still trace their churches back to his arrival. The same tradition has him killed twenty years later at Mylapore, on the far side of India.