ESV · free iPhone quiz
Revelation and Epistles Bible Trivia
Questions on Hebrews, James, Peter, John, Jude, and Revelation. The app has 103 questions in this set. 6 more quote the ESV at length, and those stay in the app rather than on this page. 12 are printed here.
Questions and answers
Easy New Testament — General Epistles & Revelation
James 3 compares the tongue to a bit in a horse's mouth and to a very small rudder. What does the rudder steer?
- AA large shipCorrect
- BA war chariot
- CA loaded wagon
- DA plow team
Answer: A large ship
James 3:3–5 · ESV
James stacks up pictures of small things with large effects: a bit turns a horse, a tiny rudder turns a ship driven by strong winds, a spark sets a forest ablaze. The point is that the tongue is out of all proportion to its size, boasting of great things and capable of great damage.
James 3:3–6, leading into the warning that no human being can tame the tongue.
Why not this one. Chariots do not appear in the passage. The bit already covers the horse, and the second picture moves deliberately from land to sea, where the rudder does the steering.
Medium New Testament — General Epistles & Revelation
Hebrews 12:1 calls believers to 'run with endurance the race that is set before us,' laying aside every weight and what else?
- AEvery burden that weighs us down
- BSin which clings so closelyCorrect
- CEvery earthly desire
- DThe fear that holds us back
Answer: Sin which clings so closely
Hebrews 12:1 · ESV
The image is athletic. A runner strips off anything heavy, and Hebrews names two things to drop: weights, which need not be sinful at all, and sin itself, described with a rare word suggesting something that wraps close around the legs. The witnesses in the stands are the men and women of chapter 11, present as testimony to faith rather than as spectators judging the pace.
Hebrews 12:1-2.
Why not this one. This is a fair rendering of the first item in the verse, the weight, and other translations word it much like this; but it collapses the pair into one and drops the second thing named.
Hard New Testament — General Epistles & Revelation
Which chapter of Hebrews argues that Christ's covenant is better because it rests on better promises, quoting Jeremiah's new covenant prophecy at length and concluding that the first covenant is obsolete?
- AHebrews 8Correct
- BHebrews 6
- CHebrews 10
- DHebrews 12
Answer: Hebrews 8
Hebrews 8:6–13 · ESV
Chapter 8 is the covenant link in the chain of comparisons. It presents Christ as minister of the true tent, cites the longest Old Testament quotation in the New Testament, and draws the conclusion that calling one covenant new makes the first one old and ready to vanish.
Hebrews 8:1–13, quoting Jeremiah 31:31–34; the argument carries on into chapter 9.
Why not this one. Chapter 10 does quote Jeremiah 31 again, but only briefly and for a different purpose: to prove that where sins are forgiven, no further offering for sin remains.
Easy New Testament — General Epistles & Revelation
According to 1 Peter 2:24, Christ himself bore our sins in his body on what?
- AThe treeCorrect
- BThe altar
- CThe mercy seat
- DThe threshing floor
Answer: The tree
1 Peter 2:24 · ESV
Peter describes the cross as a tree, echoing the curse language of Deuteronomy, and says Christ carried our sins there so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. The substitution is the point: our sins, his body. The healing he mentions comes from the same prophecy of the suffering servant.
1 Peter 2:24, drawing on Isaiah 53:5 and Deuteronomy 21:23.
Why not this one. The mercy seat is where sacrificial blood was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement, and Hebrews works with that imagery. Peter's word here is the tree, meaning the cross itself.
Medium New Testament — General Epistles & Revelation
1 Peter 3:18 states that Christ suffered for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. In what state did he die, and in what state was he made alive?
- APut to death for our sins but raised for our justification
- BPut to death in the flesh but made alive in the spiritCorrect
- CCrucified in weakness but raised in power
- DHumbled to death but exalted to glory
Answer: Put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit
1 Peter 3:18 · ESV
The pair is deliberate, and the sentence is compressed almost to a creed: the righteous one suffered in the place of the unrighteous, and the aim was access, to bring us to God. Flesh and spirit here name two spheres rather than body and soul, so the death was real in the sphere of human weakness and the vindication real in the sphere of the Spirit. Peter writes it to Christians suffering unjustly, as the pattern their own suffering follows.
1 Peter 3:17-18.
Why not this one. That contrast is genuinely biblical and says something similar, but it is Paul in 2 Corinthians 13:4. Peter's pair is flesh and spirit, and the difference matters for how the verses just after are read.
Hard New Testament — General Epistles & Revelation
Name the seven churches of Revelation.
- AEphesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.Correct
- BEphesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Antioch, and Laodicea.
- CEphesus, Smyrna, Corinth, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
- DEphesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Colossae, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
Answer: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
Revelation 2–3 · ESV
The order is not random. It traces a circular postal route north from Ephesus up the coast to Smyrna and Pergamum, then inland and back south through Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea, so one courier could deliver the whole scroll in a single loop. Of the seven, only Smyrna and Philadelphia receive no rebuke.
Revelation 1:11; 2:1-3:22.
Why not this one. Colossae was a real city in the same region, had its own New Testament letter, and lay only a few miles from Laodicea, which is what makes the substitution plausible; but it is not among the seven.
Easy New Testament — General Epistles & Revelation
Revelation 22:13 has Christ declare himself the 'Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.' What Greek letters are Alpha and Omega?
- AThe first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet
- BThe middle letters of the Greek alphabet
- CThe first and last letters of the Greek alphabetCorrect
- DThe first and last letters of the Aramaic alphabet
Answer: The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet
Revelation 22:13 · ESV
Alpha opens the Greek alphabet and omega closes it, so the title claims everything from beginning to end. What gives it weight is who says it. The same words are spoken by God on the throne at Revelation 1:8 and 21:6, and here at 22:13 by Jesus, who then calls himself the root and descendant of David. Isaiah 44:6 had used that first and last language of the Lord alone.
Revelation 22:13; 1:8, 17; Isaiah 44:6.
Why not this one. Those would be aleph and tav, and rabbinic writers did use them for a totality much like this one, so the idea is not foreign; but Revelation was written in Greek, and the letters named are Greek.
Medium New Testament — General Epistles & Revelation
1 John 2:16 names three things that are in the world and not from the Father. Which list is his?
- AThe desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and pride of lifeCorrect
- BThe lust of the heart, the greed of the hands, and the love of money
- CThe cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and desires for other things
- DEnvy, strife, and the boasting of the tongue
Answer: The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and pride of life
1 John 2:16 · ESV
John analyses worldliness into appetite, acquisitiveness, and self-display. The command just before is not to love the world, since the Father's love and the world's cannot occupy the same heart, and the reason follows in the next verse: the world and its desires are passing away, while whoever does God's will abides forever.
1 John 2:15–17, addressed to the fathers, young men and children of the preceding verses.
Why not this one. That triad comes from the parable of the sower in Mark 4:19, describing the thorns that choke the word. It is a real list, but not John's.
Hard New Testament — General Epistles & Revelation
In 3 John, the apostle John rebukes a church leader who rejected the apostle's messengers and put believers out of the church. What is this man's name?
- ADemetrius
- BGaius
- CDiotrephesCorrect
- DArchippus
Answer: Diotrephes
3 John 9 · ESV
John says he likes to put himself first, refuses to acknowledge the apostle's authority, talks wickedly against him, and stops those who would welcome the traveling brothers, putting them out of the church. The letter is written to Gaius precisely because he does receive such workers, and the contrast between the two men is the point of it. John says he will take the matter up when he comes.
3 John 9-10.
Why not this one. Demetrius is named in the same short letter, only a few verses later, which makes his name easy to attach to the wrong man; but he is the one everyone speaks well of, commended even by the truth itself.
Easy New Testament — General Epistles & Revelation
James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5 both quote which Old Testament proverb: 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to whom?'
- AThe righteous
- BThe lowly
- CThe faithful
- DThe humbleCorrect
Answer: The humble
James 4:6 · ESV
Both apostles quote the same line from Proverbs 3:34, following the Greek Old Testament, and both put it to the same use, closing an argument about pride. James applies it to quarrels driven by wanting, Peter to younger men and their elders in a church under pressure. The verb translated opposes is a military one, of drawing up in ranks against someone.
James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5; Proverbs 3:34.
Why not this one. This is very close in sense, and the Hebrew of Proverbs 3:34 is often rendered with words like afflicted or lowly; but the wording both New Testament writers use, and which the ESV keeps, is humble.
Medium New Testament — General Epistles & Revelation
1 Peter 3:20 recalls the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared. How many persons does Peter say were brought safely through the water?
- AEightCorrect
- BFour
- CTen
- DTwelve
Answer: Eight
1 Peter 3:20 · ESV
Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives make eight. God's patience waited in those days while the ark was built, and Peter mentions the number to encourage a small, pressured minority: God has preserved a few in the middle of a hostile world before.
1 Peter 3:20, summarizing Genesis 7:13; 2 Peter 2:5 also counts Noah as one of eight.
Why not this one. Four would count the men only, or Noah's household without the wives. Genesis lists Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth together with their four wives, which Peter totals as eight.
Hard New Testament — General Epistles & Revelation
Hebrews 7 argues from the priesthood of Melchizedek. According to that chapter, what necessarily follows when there is a change in the priesthood?
- AA change in the law as wellCorrect
- BA change in the sanctuary as well
- CA change in the sacrifices as well
- DA change in the covenant people as well
Answer: A change in the law as well
Hebrews 7:12 · ESV
This is the hinge of the argument. The law tied priesthood to Levi, and the writer notes that our Lord descended from Judah, a tribe with no priestly claim under Moses. A priest from Judah cannot be fitted into the old arrangement, so the arrangement itself must change, which opens the way to the new covenant of chapter 8.
Hebrews 7:11–14.
Why not this one. Hebrews does argue elsewhere that Christ serves in a greater tent not made with hands, but 7:12 draws its inference about the law, which is what made the priesthood hereditary.