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People of the Bible Trivia Questions
Questions tagged People of the Bible, taken from across the bank rather than from one book. The app has 815 questions in this set. 16 more quote the ESV at length, and those stay in the app rather than on this page. 12 are printed here.
Questions and answers
Hard Bible Numbers & Statistics
Jude 14 identifies Enoch, who walked with God and was taken, as which in line from Adam?
- AThe seventhCorrect
- BThe third
- CThe fifth
- DThe tenth
Answer: The seventh
Jude 14 · ESV
Counting Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, and then Enoch gives seven, and Jude states the number outright when he cites Enoch's prophecy. The genealogy of Genesis 5 is shaped so that the one man who did not see death stands at the seventh place, the number of completeness.
Genesis 5:3–24 gives the line and Enoch's translation, and Jude 14 supplies the count of seventh from Adam.
Why not this one. Tenth from Adam in the same genealogy is Noah, the man through whom the line survived the flood, not Enoch.
Hard Doctrine — Baptist Faith & Message
Who chaired the drafting committees for the 1925, 1963, and 2000 editions of the Baptist Faith and Message, in that order?
- AE. Y. Mullins, Herschel H. Hobbs, Adrian RogersCorrect
- BE. Y. Mullins, W. A. Criswell, Paige Patterson
- CL. R. Scarborough, Herschel H. Hobbs, R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
- DE. C. Dargan, Douglas Hudgins, Paige Patterson
Answer: E. Y. Mullins, Herschel H. Hobbs, Adrian Rogers
BF&M 2000, Preamble · ESV
Each chairman was a sitting or former president of the Convention. Mullins led in 1925, Hobbs in 1963, and Rogers in 2000; all three committees' rosters are printed with their reports. Hobbs was Convention president when the 1963 revision was adopted, and Rogers had held that office in earlier years.
The practice of naming those who sign a doctrinal statement echoes the plural witness of Acts 15:22-29. Each report was signed by the whole committee.
Why not this one. Scarborough signed the 1925 report and Mohler served on the 2000 committee, but neither chaired. Only Hobbs is placed correctly here.
Hard Doctrine — Christian Living
When the council ordered the apostles to stop teaching in Jesus' name, what answer did Peter give?
- AWe must obey God rather than menCorrect
- BRender to Caesar the things that are Caesar's
- CLet every person be subject to the governing authorities
- DWe are ambassadors for Christ, and not for any council
Answer: We must obey God rather than men
Acts 5:29 · ESV
The sentence is not a general licence to disobey; it is the answer to a specific command not to speak, given by an authority acting outside its competence. Peter's own letter tells believers to honour the emperor, and the apostles accept the beating that follows rather than resisting it. Obedience to God set the limit; it did not remove the cost.
Acts 5:27-42; compare 1 Peter 2:17.
Why not this one. Jesus' words also mark a boundary between what the state may claim and what it may not, which is why they feel right here. But they are his answer about the tax in Matthew 22, not Peter's answer to the council.
Easy Doctrine — Church & Ordinances
In Acts 8, who baptized the Ethiopian eunuch on the road to Gaza?
- APhilipCorrect
- BPeter
- CStephen
- DBarnabas
Answer: Philip
Acts 8:38 · ESV
Philip the evangelist explained Isaiah 53 to the Ethiopian official, and when the man asked what prevented him from being baptized, the chariot was stopped and Philip baptized him. Luke's order is hearing the word, then believing, then water.
Acts 8:26-39; Philip is one of the seven chosen in Acts 6:5 and is called Philip the evangelist in Acts 21:8.
Why not this one. Stephen was also among the seven, but he had already been stoned in Acts 7. The scattering that followed his death is what sent Philip out to Samaria and then to the Gaza road.
Easy Doctrine — God & the Trinity
Which disciple, seeing the risen Jesus, addressed him as "My Lord and my God!"?
- AThomasCorrect
- BPeter
- CNathanael
- DPhilip
Answer: Thomas
John 20:28 · ESV
Thomas moves from refusing to believe to the highest confession in the Gospel, addressing Jesus directly as his Lord and his God. Jesus receives the words and pronounces a blessing on those who believe without seeing, which would be intolerable if the confession were mistaken.
John 20:24-29, a week after the resurrection.
Why not this one. Peter's great confession comes earlier and differently, naming Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, at Caesarea Philippi.
Easy Doctrine — Grace & Election
In Acts 16, whose heart did the Lord open to pay attention to what Paul said?
- ALydiaCorrect
- BPriscilla
- CDamaris
- DDorcas
Answer: Lydia
Acts 16:14 · ESV
Luke says the Lord opened her heart, and Lydia's attention to Paul's message is the effect of that opening. It is one of the clearest narrative pictures in Acts of God's work preceding a sinner's response.
Acts 16:13–15, at the riverside outside Philippi, where Lydia was baptized along with her household and urged Paul's company to stay with her.
Why not this one. Damaris did believe after Paul preached at the Areopagus in Athens, but Luke records no such statement about her heart being opened by the Lord.
Medium Doctrine — Last Things
In Jesus' account in Luke 16:19-31, where is the beggar Lazarus carried by the angels when he dies?
- ATo Abraham's sideCorrect
- BTo the third heaven
- CTo the altar in the temple
- DTo the garden of Eden
Answer: To Abraham's side
Luke 16:22 · ESV
Lazarus is carried by angels to Abraham's side, while the rich man is in torment, and both are conscious, aware and able to speak. Whatever else the account teaches, it rules out any unconscious existence between death and resurrection.
Luke 16:19-31, where a great chasm is fixed between the two and the rich man is refused a messenger to his brothers.
Why not this one. Paul speaks of a man caught up to the third heaven in 2 Corinthians 12, but that phrase belongs to his own account of a vision. Jesus places Lazarus at Abraham's side, a Jewish image of comfort among the faithful dead.
Easy Doctrine — Man & Sin
What did Cain do to his brother Abel in Genesis 4?
- AHe killed himCorrect
- BHe sold him to traders
- CHe stole his birthright
- DHe drove him out of the land
Answer: He killed him
Genesis 4:8 · ESV
In the first generation after the fall, Cain rose up against his brother in the field and killed him. Sin entered by one man's disobedience and appears in the next chapter as murder within a family.
Genesis 4:8 records the killing; Genesis 4:7 records God's warning that sin was crouching at the door.
Why not this one. The stolen birthright belongs to Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25 and 27, and nobody dies there. Genesis 4 is a killing, and the New Testament calls Cain a murderer in 1 John 3:12.
Easy Doctrine — Salvation
In Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, which man went down to his house justified?
- AThe tax collectorCorrect
- BThe Pharisee
- CThe rich young ruler
- DThe elder brother
Answer: The tax collector
Luke 18:14 · ESV
The man who pleaded for mercy as a sinner went home justified, and the man who recited his own record did not. Jesus makes justification turn on receiving mercy rather than on presenting achievements. The Pharisee's list was largely true, since he did fast and tithe, and it still left him unjustified, because the verdict is never awarded for a record.
Luke 18:9-14, spoken to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous.
Why not this one. The elder brother belongs to the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15; he is not a figure in this parable at all.
Medium Doctrine — The Holy Spirit
In Judges 6:34, the Spirit of the LORD clothed which judge, who then sounded the trumpet to summon Israel?
- AGideonCorrect
- BJephthah
- CSamson
- DDeborah
Answer: Gideon
Judges 6:34 · ESV
Judges repeatedly says the Spirit came upon a deliverer to equip him for a task; the verb used of Gideon pictures the Spirit clothing himself with the man. Such empowering was temporary and task-specific, unlike the permanent indwelling of every believer under the new covenant.
Judges 6:34, with similar language of the Spirit rushing upon men in Judges 11:29 and 14:6.
Why not this one. The Spirit does rush upon Samson (Judges 14:6), but the clothing image and the trumpet that summoned the Abiezrites belong to Gideon.
Medium Doctrine — The Scriptures
In 2 Peter 3:16 Peter says the ignorant and unstable twist Paul's letters as they do the rest of the Scriptures. What does that show about how Peter regarded Paul's writing?
- AHe placed Paul's letters alongside the other ScripturesCorrect
- BHe judged Paul's letters useful but not inspired
- CHe restricted Paul's letters to the elders of the churches
- DHe rebuked Paul for writing what could be misread
Answer: He placed Paul's letters alongside the other Scriptures
2 Peter 3:15–16 · ESV
By setting Paul's letters in the same class as the rest of the Scriptures, Peter treats a living apostle's writing as canonical. The New Testament therefore bears witness to its own inspiration while it was still being written.
2 Peter 3:15–16, where Peter also calls Paul a beloved brother writing according to the wisdom given him by God.
Why not this one. Peter blames the readers, not the writer. He calls them untaught and unstable and says they twist the other Scriptures in the same way, and that they do so to their own destruction.
Hard Miracles of the Bible
At which city did Elisha heal a spring of bad water by throwing salt into it?
- AJerichoCorrect
- BGilgal
- CBethel
- DSamaria
Answer: Jericho
2 Kings 2:19-22 · ESV
The men of the city told Elisha that the situation was pleasant but the water bad and the land unfruitful. He asked for a new bowl with salt in it, threw it into the spring, and declared in the Lord's name that the water was healed, and it has been ever since. He had just crossed the Jordan with Elijah's cloak, and this was the first sign of his own ministry.
2 Kings 2:19-22 gives the city, the salt, and the healed spring.
Why not this one. Gilgal is where Elisha cured the poisonous stew with flour, a different remedy at a different place in the same chapter cluster of signs.