Q 01/05

Which two-word verse, the shortest in the King James Bible, comes as Christ nears Lazarus's tomb?

A) Jesus wept

B) Rejoice evermore

C) Pray without ceasing

D) Remember Lot's wife

Answer · why

A) Jesus wept

Jesus wept is John 11:35, and moments after it Christ has the stone rolled away and calls Lazarus out alive. He had first asked the mourners where the...

Q 02/05

Which phrase opens the verse Tim Tebow wrote on his eye black at the 2009 BCS title game?

A) In the beginning was the Word

B) For God so loved the world

C) I am the way, the truth

D) Ye must be born again

Answer · why

B) For God so loved the world

For God so loved the world opens John 3:16, and Tebow's eye black made the citation the most popular search term online for more than 24 hours. Evange...

Q 03/05

Which word completes 'The Lord is my ___; I shall not want', the first line of funeral favourite Psalm 23?

A) refuge

B) fortress

C) shepherd

D) strength

Answer · why

C) shepherd

Shepherd was David's own trade: the psalm's heading ascribes it to the king said to have tended flocks as a youth. It became a funeral fixture only in...

Q 04/05

What does 1 Timothy 6:10, a verse people routinely shorten, actually call 'the root of all evil'?

A) the want of money

B) the lust of the eyes

C) the pride of life

D) the love of money

Answer · why

D) the love of money

The love of money, not money itself, is the culprit in the King James text, which adds that some who coveted it were 'pierced through with many sorrow...

Q 05/05

Which familiar saying is not scripture at all but a line popularised by Butler's 1663 mock-epic Hudibras?

A) A soft answer turneth away wrath

B) Spare the rod, spoil the child

C) Wine is a mocker

D) Go to the ant, thou sluggard

Answer · why

B) Spare the rod, spoil the child

Spare the rod, spoil the child first appears in Hudibras, whose satire of Puritans ran in three parts from 1663 to 1678. The Bible's nearest verse say...