Q 01/05

At what time does Mark 15:25 put the crucifixion, a detail that clashes with John's account of the trial?

A) Six in the morning

B) Nine in the morning

C) Noon

D) Three in the afternoon

Answer · why

B) Nine in the morning

Nine in the morning is Mark's 'third hour', while John 19:14 still has Jesus before Pilate at about noon. Mark then marks darkness at noon and death a...

Q 02/05

What did the women do on leaving the empty tomb in Mark 16:8, the verse where the oldest manuscripts stop?

A) Ran to find the Eleven

B) Worshipped at his feet

C) Went home to Galilee

D) Said nothing to anyone

Answer · why

D) Said nothing to anyone

Said nothing to anyone, 'because they were afraid', is how the earliest text of Mark ends, with no resurrection appearance at all. Verses 9 to 20 were...

Q 03/05

What, says a promise found in Mark's disputed longer ending, 'will not hurt' believers at all when they drink it?

A) Bitter gall

B) Sour wine

C) Deadly poison

D) Unclean water

Answer · why

C) Deadly poison

Deadly poison, along with picking up snakes, is promised in Mark 16:18 to do believers no harm, and the poison clause has no parallel anywhere else in...

Q 04/05

About how many pigs drowned after the demons called Legion entered them in Mark 5, a count only Mark gives?

A) 200

B) 500

C) 1,200

D) 2,000

Answer · why

D) 2,000

2,000 pigs 'rushed down the steep bank into the lake', a figure Matthew and Luke both drop from their versions of the Gerasene story. A herd that size...

Q 05/05

What did the blind man at Bethsaida say people looked like after one touch from Jesus, in Mark 8?

A) Shadows on a wall

B) Sheep without a shepherd

C) Clouds drifting past

D) Trees walking around

Answer · why

D) Trees walking around

Trees walking around is what he saw until a second touch restored his sight fully, the only healing in the Gospels that takes Jesus two attempts. The ...