Bible Places Trivia Questions and Answers

Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground to take possession of which land, promised to the offspring of Abraham?

ACanaanCorrect
BEdom
CAram
DPhilistia

Answer: Canaan

Joshua 3:17; 5:12 · ESV

The priests carrying the ark stood in the riverbed while the whole nation passed over on dry ground, ending forty years of wilderness life. The manna stopped the day after the Passover at Gilgal, and from then on Israel ate of the produce of the land of Canaan, the inheritance sworn to the patriarchs.

Joshua 3:14–17 records the crossing and Joshua 5:10–12 the end of the manna in Canaan.

Why not this one. Edom was the territory of Esau's descendants, and Israel did skirt its border on the way north from the wilderness. But God explicitly refused Israel any of Edom's land, since he had given it to Esau; the inheritance lay west of the Jordan.

What city was Paul from?

AAntioch.
BJerusalem.
CTarsus.Correct
DEphesus.

Answer: Tarsus.

Acts 9:11 · ESV

Ananias was told to look for Saul at the house of Judas on Straight Street, and the Lord identified him as a man of Tarsus. Tarsus was the capital of Cilicia in southeastern Asia Minor, a wealthy port with a reputation for learning, and Paul later leaned on that pedigree when he told a Roman tribune he was a citizen of no obscure city. Barnabas went there to fetch him when the work at Antioch outgrew itself.

Acts 9:11; Acts 21:39; Acts 11:25

Why not this one. Paul did say he was brought up in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel, which makes it a fair guess. But that describes where he was educated as a young man, not where he was born; his origin is fixed at Tarsus.

Before Omri bought a hill and built Samaria, which city served as the northern kingdom's capital in the days of Baasha and Elah?

ATirzahCorrect
BShechem
CJezreel
DPenuel

Answer: Tirzah

1 Kings 15:33; 16:8–9, 23–24 · ESV

The northern throne moved more than once. Baasha reigned twenty four years at this city, his son Elah was killed there while drinking himself drunk, and Zimri burned the king's house over himself there when Omri's troops closed in. Only afterward did Omri buy the hill and build a new capital.

1 Kings 15:33 and 16:8–24 trace the capital from Tirzah to Samaria.

Why not this one. Jeroboam built up Shechem and lived there when the kingdom first divided, so it genuinely was the earliest northern seat. But by the time of Baasha and Elah, two dynasties later, the court had long since moved to Tirzah.

On which mountain did Moses receive the Ten Commandments?

AMount SinaiCorrect
BMount Carmel
CMount Ararat
DMount Nebo

Answer: Mount Sinai

Exodus 19:20 · ESV

Israel camped before the mountain in the third month after leaving Egypt, and Exodus names it Sinai. The Lord came down on it in smoke and fire, the people were fenced back from touching it, and Moses was called up to receive the commandments. The same mountain is called Horeb in Deuteronomy and at the burning bush, which is worth knowing because the two names are one place, not two.

Exodus 19:18-20; Exodus 3:1-12; Deuteronomy 4:10.

Why not this one. Ararat is the other mountain most readers can name from these books, the range where the ark came to rest when the waters went down. It lies far to the north and generations earlier, and nothing was given to anyone there.

To which city did Jonah eventually preach repentance after fleeing from God?

ANinevehCorrect
BTarshish
CJoppa
DBabylon

Answer: Nineveh

Jonah 3:3 · ESV

Nineveh was the great Assyrian city on the Tigris, and Jonah's reluctance had nothing to do with fear of failure; he later says he ran because he knew God was gracious and might relent. After the fish, the word came a second time and he went. Jonah 3:3 calls it an exceedingly great city that took three days to cross, and the message he carried was eight words about forty days and an overthrow.

Jonah 3:1-4; Jonah 4:2

Why not this one. Tarshish is the place Jonah bought passage for, in the opposite direction from Nineveh, somewhere at the far western end of the Mediterranean. It is where he was headed while fleeing, and he never arrived.

Which tribe's inheritance was drawn from inside the territory of Judah, because Judah's portion was too large for it?

ASimeonCorrect
BDan
CBenjamin
DReuben

Answer: Simeon

Joshua 19:1, 9 · ESV

The second lot fell to this tribe, and Joshua notes plainly that its inheritance was taken out of Judah's share because that share was more than Judah needed. Its towns lie in the dry Negeb country in the south, and the tribe is progressively absorbed into Judah in later history.

Joshua 19:1–9 records the allotment carved out of Judah's portion.

Why not this one. Dan's allotment also proved insufficient, which is why six hundred Danites eventually migrated north and took Laish. But Dan's land lay west of Benjamin toward the coastal plain, not inside Judah, and the shortage there was pressure from the Amorites.

In which city was Lot living when two angels came in the evening to bring him out before judgment fell?

ASodomCorrect
BGomorrah
CZoar
DAdmah

Answer: Sodom

Genesis 19:1 · ESV

After choosing the well watered Jordan valley, Lot moved his tent as far as Sodom, and by Genesis 19 he is sitting in its gate as a settled resident. The two angels seized him, his wife, and his two daughters by the hand and set them outside the city before sulfur and fire fell from the Lord.

Genesis 13:12 places Lot at Sodom, and Genesis 19:1–25 records the rescue and the destruction.

Why not this one. Gomorrah perished in the same judgment and is almost always named in the same breath as Sodom. But Scripture never puts Lot's house there; the outcry, the angels' lodging, and the mob at the door are all set in Sodom.

At the gate of which town did Jesus interrupt a funeral procession and raise a widow's only son?

ANainCorrect
BEndor
CShunem
DChorazin

Answer: Nain

Luke 7:11–15 · ESV

As Jesus approached the gate a dead man was being carried out, the only son of a widow, and a large crowd was with her. He had compassion on her, told her not to weep, touched the bier, and commanded the young man to arise; the son sat up and spoke, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

Luke 7:11–17 records the raising at the town gate.

Why not this one. Shunem is where Elisha raised the son of the Shunammite woman, an account Luke's scene deliberately echoes, and both towns sit in the same northern district. But the widow, the bier, and the town gate belong to Nain.

After the Philistines sent the ark back on a cart, in which town did it remain some twenty years in the house of Abinadab?

AKiriath-jearimCorrect
BBeth-shemesh
CShiloh
DNob

Answer: Kiriath-jearim

1 Samuel 6:21–7:2 · ESV

The men who first received the cart were struck for looking into the ark and sent word asking another town to come and take it away. Its men brought it up the hill to Abinadab's house and consecrated his son Eleazar to keep it, and it stayed there through Samuel's ministry until David came for it.

1 Samuel 6:19–7:2 records the transfer; 2 Samuel 6:2–3 records David fetching it.

Why not this one. Beth-shemesh was the first Israelite town the cart reached, where the cows went straight up the road lowing and the Levites lifted the ark down. That is the memorable arrival, but the townsmen begged to be rid of it, and it was moved on for its long stay.

At which city did the Lord confuse the language of mankind so that they were scattered over the face of all the earth?

ABabelCorrect
BNineveh
CErech
DUr

Answer: Babel

Genesis 11:8–9 · ESV

Settlers in the plain of Shinar set out to build a city and a tower reaching to heaven so they could make a name for themselves and avoid being dispersed. God came down, confused their speech, and scattered them anyway, and the name of the city sounds like the Hebrew word for confusion.

Genesis 11:1–9 tells of the tower, the confusion of language, and the scattering.

Why not this one. Erech was one of the cities of Nimrod's kingdom in the land of Shinar, listed alongside Babel in Genesis 10:10, so it sits in exactly the right region. But the tower, the confused speech, and the scattering are told of Babel alone.

The ark of Noah came to rest on the mountains of which region after the floodwaters receded?

AAraratCorrect
BSinai
CLebanon
DGilead

Answer: Ararat

Genesis 8:4 · ESV

Genesis dates the landing precisely, the seventh month and the seventeenth day, and says the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. The plural matters: Scripture names a mountainous region, not a particular summit. Ararat corresponds to the kingdom the Assyrians called Urartu, in the highlands of eastern Anatolia and Armenia. The tops of the mountains were not visible for another two and a half months.

Genesis 8:4-5

Why not this one. Sinai is the mountain of the Bible that most readers can name, and it is where God descends and meets man, which fits the mood of the moment. But Sinai belongs to the exodus, a long way south and many centuries later.