Q 01/05

Which gift from their father makes Joseph's brothers jealous?

A) Ring

B) Coat

C) Staff

D) Cup

Answer · why

B) Coat

Coat: 'of many colours' is the King James wording, but the Hebrew is uncertain, and other versions say an ornamented tunic or a long robe with sleeves...

Q 02/05

The Hebrew word Torah is usually translated as what?

A) Covenant

B) Scroll

C) Instruction

D) Holiness

Answer · why

C) Instruction

Instruction, or 'teaching', is the sense of a Hebrew root meaning to guide or teach; 'the Law' took hold after Greek-speaking Jews rendered Torah as n...

Q 03/05

What does the Greek-derived word Pentateuch literally mean?

A) Five laws

B) Five tablets

C) Five teachings

D) Five scrolls

Answer · why

D) Five scrolls

Five scrolls: teuchos first meant gear or a vessel, and came to mean a book through the cases that held papyrus rolls.

Q 04/05

Bereshit, the Hebrew name of Genesis, literally means what?

A) Names of men

B) In the beginning

C) And He spoke

D) The generations

Answer · why

B) In the beginning

In the beginning is the traditional reading of Bereshit, but a modern Jewish Publication Society translation opens instead with 'When God began to cre...

Q 05/05

What is the Hebrew name of Leviticus, meaning 'And He called'?

A) Shemot

B) Vayikra

C) Tehillim

D) Vayechi

Answer · why

B) Vayikra

Vayikra, 'And He called', was traditionally the first book young children studied since, a midrash says, the pure should study what is pure.