Bibliology Bible Trivia Questions

Medium Bible Numbers & Statistics

How many books does the Protestant Bible contain in total, counting both Testaments?

1. A60
2. B63
3. C66Correct
4. D73

Answer: 66

General biblical canon · ESV

The sixty-six were not selected by vote. The Old Testament came to the church already settled as the Scriptures of Israel, and the New Testament books were recognized over time by their apostolic origin and their use in the churches, with the disputed cases being few and marginal. Councils confirmed what was already being read as Scripture rather than conferring authority on it.

Recognized Protestant canon of thirty-nine and twenty-seven books

Why not this one. Seventy-three is the Roman Catholic total, adding books such as Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and the two books of Maccabees, along with additions to Esther and Daniel. Rome formally defined that list at the Council of Trent in 1546.

Medium Doctrine — Baptist Faith & Message

BF&M2000 Article I affirms that the Bible has ‘truth, without any mixture of error.’ Which term best captures this affirmation?

1. AInerrancyCorrect
2. BInfallibility only
3. CSufficiency
4. DPerspicuity

Answer: Inerrancy

BF&M 2000, Article I · ESV

Inerrancy is the claim that Scripture does not err in what it affirms, on any subject it touches. The 2000 revision sharpened this by adding that all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy, which closes a gap the older wording had left open to a narrower reading.

BF&M 2000, Article I.

Why not this one. Infallibility says Scripture will not lead you astray in matters of faith and practice. It is true as far as it goes, and it was often used in the twentieth century as the softer alternative that allowed error in history or science. The phrase without any mixture of error is the stronger claim.

Medium Doctrine — Christ

At the transfiguration the voice from the cloud identified Jesus as the beloved Son and then gave the disciples a command. What was the command?

1. AListen to himCorrect
2. BFollow him to Jerusalem
3. CTell no one what you have seen
4. DBuild three tents on this mountain

Answer: Listen to him

Matthew 17:5 · ESV

Moses and Elijah appear and then vanish, leaving Jesus alone, and the Father's command settles who is to be heard. It is the prophetic office of Christ stated as an order: the law and the prophets pointed forward, and now the Son himself is the word God's people are bound to hear.

Matthew 17:5-8, on the mount of transfiguration; compare the prophet like Moses of Deuteronomy 18:15.

Why not this one. Jesus gives that instruction himself as they come down the mountain in Matthew 17:9, but it is not what the voice from the cloud says.

Easy Doctrine — Christian Living

According to Psalm 1:2, on what does the blessed man meditate day and night?

1. AThe law of the LORDCorrect
2. BThe works of creation
3. CThe counsel of the wicked
4. DThe promises made to Abraham

Answer: The law of the LORD

Psalm 1:2 · ESV

The psalm describes meditation as sustained attention to God's written instruction, and pairs it with delight rather than with mere duty. The same day-and-night phrase is used of the book of the law in Joshua 1:8, where it is joined to keeping the words in the mouth. The image that follows is a tree planted by streams of water.

Psalm 1:2, in contrast with the three verbs of verse 1; compare Joshua 1:8.

Why not this one. That appears in verse 1 as what the blessed man does not walk in, so it names the opposite of what he meditates on.

Hard Doctrine — Church & Ordinances

Which detail in Luke's account of the Ethiopian's baptism is most often cited as evidence for immersion?

1. APhilip and the eunuch both went down into the water and came up out of itCorrect
2. BThe eunuch was baptized inside the house of a believer
3. CWater was carried to the chariot in a basin
4. DPhilip drew water from a spring and poured it over him

Answer: Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water and came up out of it

Acts 8:38-39 · ESV

Luke's wording has two men descending into the water and rising out of it, which suits dipping rather than pouring. Combined with the ordinary sense of the verb and the burial imagery of Romans 6, it is the standard Baptist argument on mode. Luke could have described water being brought to the traveler and did not.

Acts 8:36-39; Romans 6:4 supplies the burial imagery the mode is meant to picture.

Why not this one. Nothing of the sort appears in the text. The eunuch points to water they have come upon along the road, and the chariot is stopped so that both men can go down to it.

Easy Doctrine — God & the Trinity

Which New Testament book opens by calling the Son the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature?

1. AHebrewsCorrect
2. BRomans
3. CColossians
4. DRevelation

Answer: Hebrews

Hebrews 1:3 · ESV

The opening of Hebrews places the Son within the being of God rather than beside it. Radiance is not a copy of light but light shining out, and an exact imprint is not an approximation. The same passage has the Father address the Son as God and credit him with laying the foundation of the earth.

Hebrews 1:1-3, with the Father's address to the Son at 1:8-10.

Why not this one. Colossians makes a comparable claim, calling Christ the image of the invisible God, but the wording about radiance and imprint belongs to Hebrews.

Easy Doctrine — Grace & Election

According to James 1:18, how did God bring believers forth?

1. AOf his own will, by the word of truthCorrect
2. BBy the will of the flesh and of man
3. CIn answer to prayers they offered before conversion
4. DThrough the merit stored up by their forefathers

Answer: Of his own will, by the word of truth

James 1:18 · ESV

James credits the new birth to God's own will and names the instrument as the word of truth. Regeneration is sovereign, and it is ordinarily worked through the preached gospel rather than apart from it.

James 1:17–18, where every good and perfect gift is said to come down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation.

Why not this one. John 1:13 rejects this phrase almost word for word when describing those born of God, saying they were born not of blood nor of the will of man. Scripture will not trace the new birth back to human willing.

Hard Doctrine — Last Things

Which approach to interpreting Revelation reads its visions as symbolic portrayals of the conflict between God and evil recurring throughout the church age, rather than as a sequence of datable events?

1. AIdealismCorrect
2. BHistoricism
3. CFuturism
4. DPreterism

Answer: Idealism

Revelation 1:1 · ESV

Idealism, sometimes called the spiritual or symbolic approach, treats the visions as timeless patterns of persecution, judgment and vindication that recur until Christ returns. It is one of four approaches held by orthodox Christians, and the confession endorses none of them.

Revelation 1:1 and 1:19 frame the debate over whether the book charts a sequence; BF&M 2000, Article X confesses the return and judgment without an interpretive scheme.

Why not this one. Historicism also takes the visions as spanning the whole age, which makes it the near miss, but it maps them onto a specific succession of events in church history rather than to recurring patterns.

Easy Doctrine — The Holy Spirit

According to John 14:26, what did Jesus say the Helper whom the Father would send in his name would do?

1. ATeach them all things and bring his words to their remembranceCorrect
2. BShow them the day and the hour of the Son's return
3. CDeliver a new law to them written on tablets of stone
4. DRestore the kingdom to Israel before that generation passed

Answer: Teach them all things and bring his words to their remembrance

John 14:26 · ESV

The promise is given first to the apostles, guaranteeing that their testimony about Jesus would be accurate. It undergirds the trustworthiness of the Gospels, and it shows the Spirit working through the word rather than around it or beyond it. Later readers benefit indirectly, through the apostolic word they left behind.

John 14:26, expanded in John 16:13–14 where the Spirit guides into all truth and glorifies the Son.

Why not this one. Jesus says in Matthew 24:36 that no one knows the day or hour, and in Acts 1:7 he explicitly refuses the disciples that information.

Medium Doctrine — The Scriptures

In systematic theology, which term names the doctrine of Scripture itself, covering its inspiration, canon, authority and sufficiency?

1. ABibliologyCorrect
2. BPneumatology
3. CEcclesiology
4. DSoteriology

Answer: Bibliology

Bibliology is the branch of theology that asks what the Bible is and what follows from that. It is usually treated first, because every other doctrine is drawn from Scripture and stands or falls with what one believes about it.

Its central texts are 2 Timothy 3:16–17 and 2 Peter 1:20–21, which speak of Scripture's origin in God and its profit for the church.

Why not this one. Pneumatology is the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the one who carried the biblical writers along, and who illumines readers now, but the doctrine of the book itself goes by another name.

Hard Miracles of the Bible

Which Gospel alone records the raising of Lazarus?

1. AJohnCorrect
2. BMatthew
3. CMark
4. DLuke

Answer: John

John 11:38-44 · ESV

The raising at Bethany appears only in John, where it stands as the last and greatest of the signs before the passion and directly provokes the council's decision to put Jesus to death. John presents it alongside the claim that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He wept at the tomb before calling the dead man out by name.

John 11:38-44 records the raising, and John 11:53 the council's response.

Why not this one. Luke records two other raisings, the widow's son at Nain and Jairus' daughter, and he names a Lazarus in a parable, but he does not report this event.

Easy New Testament — Acts of the Apostles

To whom does Luke address the book of Acts in its opening verse?

1. ATheophilusCorrect
2. BTimothy
3. CTitus
4. DPhilemon

Answer: Theophilus

Acts 1:1 · ESV

Luke opens Acts by addressing Theophilus and pointing back to his first book, the Gospel that bears his name. The two volumes form one continuous account, carrying the story from what Jesus began to do and teach through to the arrival of the gospel in Rome.

Acts 1:1 names Theophilus and refers back to the earlier volume; Luke 1:3 addresses the same man by name at the start of the Gospel.

Why not this one. Timothy travels with Paul through much of the second half of Acts, and two New Testament letters are indeed written to him, but those letters are Paul's. Luke never addresses either of his two volumes to Timothy.