ESV · free iPhone quiz
Bible Geography Trivia Questions
Questions tagged Places and Geography, so a place is asked in the book where the story sits. The app has 273 questions in this set. 3 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 Bible Numbers & Statistics
On the seventh day at Jericho, how many times did Israel march around the city before the walls fell?
- ASeven timesCorrect
- BOnce
- CThree times
- DTwelve times
Answer: Seven times
Joshua 6:15 · ESV
Israel circled Jericho once a day for six days, and on the seventh day seven times, with seven priests carrying seven trumpets before the ark. The city fell to a shout rather than to a siege, so the first conquest in Canaan was plainly God's victory and not Israel's engineering.
Joshua 6:3–4 gives the plan in advance, and verse 15 records the seven circuits made on the seventh day.
Why not this one. Once a day was the pattern for the first six days, which is exactly what makes the seventh day's seven circuits the signal for the shout.
Hard Doctrine — Baptist Faith & Message
The controversy that led to the 1963 revision centered on an Old Testament professor at which Southern Baptist seminary?
- AMidwestern Baptist Theological SeminaryCorrect
- BSouthwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
- CThe Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
- DNew Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
Answer: Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
BF&M 1963 · ESV
Ralph Elliott taught Old Testament at Midwestern in Kansas City. His use of higher-critical methods, including a denial of Mosaic authorship, provoked the churches and led directly to the revision. Kansas City, where Midwestern stood, was also where the Convention met to adopt the revision.
The Convention's answer was to reaffirm that Scripture has truth without any mixture of error, on the ground of 2 Timothy 3:16-17. Christ treats Genesis as history in Matthew 19:4-6.
Why not this one. Southern in Louisville had its own controversies in other decades, but the 1961-62 dispute that produced the 1963 revision was at Midwestern.
Easy Doctrine — Church & Ordinances
In which city were the disciples first called Christians?
- AAntiochCorrect
- BJerusalem
- CEphesus
- DRome
Answer: Antioch
Acts 11:26 · ESV
Barnabas brought Saul from Tarsus to Antioch, and for a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. Luke notes that the disciples were first called Christians there. The name appears to have begun as an outsider's label for people known to belong to Christ, and the New Testament uses it only twice more.
Acts 11:25-26.
Why not this one. Jerusalem was the first church and the seat of the apostles, but Luke's own note assigns the name Christian to Antioch, the base from which the Gentile mission was later sent out.
Easy Doctrine — Last Things
In Revelation 21:2, the holy city coming down out of heaven from God is prepared like what?
- AA bride adorned for her husbandCorrect
- BA bridegroom awaiting his bride
- CA garden watered by a river
- DA vineyard ready for harvest
Answer: A bride adorned for her husband
Revelation 21:2 · ESV
The final state is pictured as a city descending from God to a renewed earth, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Salvation ends not with believers escaping to heaven but with God bringing his dwelling down to be with his people.
Revelation 21:2-3, where the voice from the throne announces that God's dwelling place is now with man, and he will dwell with them.
Why not this one. A river of the water of life does flow through the city in Revelation 22, and Eden stands behind the whole picture, but the simile in this verse is nuptial: the city is dressed as a bride for her husband.
Medium Doctrine — The Holy Spirit
In Acts 16, the Holy Spirit forbade Paul and his companions to speak the word in which region?
- AAsiaCorrect
- BMacedonia
- CAchaia
- DGalatia
Answer: Asia
Acts 16:6 · ESV
The Spirit directs the mission by closing doors as well as opening them. Having been kept from Asia and then from Bithynia, Paul arrives at Troas, where the vision of the man of Macedonia redirects the gospel across the Aegean into Europe. Guidance comes here by restraint as much as by vision.
Acts 16:6–10, where Luke's narrative also shifts into the first person plural.
Why not this one. Macedonia is where the Spirit was steering them rather than where they were forbidden to go; Paul crosses over to preach there within a few verses. The forbidden region is named as Asia.
Easy Miracles of the Bible
Whose walls fell down flat after Israel marched around the city and the people shouted?
- AJerichoCorrect
- BAi
- CHazor
- DGibeon
Answer: Jericho
Joshua 6:20 · ESV
Israel circled Jericho once a day for six days and seven times on the seventh, and at the trumpet blast and the shout the wall fell down flat so the army went up into the city. The first city of the conquest fell without a siege, marking the land as God's gift rather than Israel's achievement. Rahab and her household, who had hidden the spies, were the one part of the city spared.
Joshua 6:20 reports the wall falling at the shout.
Why not this one. Ai was taken next, but by ambush and by fire after Israel's first defeat there, not by marching and a collapsing wall.
Hard New Testament — Acts of the Apostles
Sopater, one of the companions who travelled with Paul as he set out from Greece for Jerusalem, came from which city?
- ABereaCorrect
- BThessalonica
- CDerbe
- DEphesus
Answer: Berea
Acts 20:4 · ESV
Luke lists the travelling party by their home cities, a roll call of the churches Paul had planted across Macedonia, Galatia, and Asia, most likely the men carrying the collection for Jerusalem. Sopater the son of Pyrrhus is identified with Berea.
Acts 20:4 names each of the seven men and the city or region each came from, just after the plot against Paul in Greece.
Why not this one. Thessalonica is represented in the very same list, but by Aristarchus and Secundus, which is what makes it the closest miss. Sopater is the Berean, and the Gaius in that list is from Derbe.
Hard New Testament — General Epistles & Revelation
Which of the seven churches is told that it dwells where Satan's throne is, and is rebuked for having some who hold the teaching of Balaam?
- APergamumCorrect
- BThyatira
- CSmyrna
- DPhiladelphia
Answer: Pergamum
Revelation 2:13–14 · ESV
Pergamum is commended for holding fast to Christ's name in a city described as Satan's seat, even when a faithful witness was killed there. The rebuke is that some in the congregation hold a teaching that puts a stumbling block before God's people, and Christ calls the church to repent.
Revelation 2:12–17, recalling Balaam's counsel behind the sin at Peor in Numbers 25 and 31:16.
Why not this one. Thyatira is rebuked for tolerating a false prophetess, but Satan's throne and the teaching of Balaam are both named in the letter to Pergamum.
Hard New Testament — Paul’s Letters
In Romans 15, toward what destination does Paul say he hopes the Roman church will help him on his way?
- ASpainCorrect
- BIllyricum
- CMacedonia
- DCyprus
Answer: Spain
Romans 15:24, 28 · ESV
Romans is in part a letter of introduction to a church Paul had not founded. He wants their partnership for fresh work at the western edge of the empire, once he has finished the errand of delivering the collection to Jerusalem, and he twice names the same destination.
Romans 15:22–29, where Paul explains why he has not yet come to Rome and what he intends when he does.
Why not this one. Illyricum appears a few verses earlier as the limit of the ground Paul had already covered with the gospel. It marks what lay behind him, not the journey he asks the Romans to support.
Easy New Testament — The Gospels
At Jacob's well Jesus asked a woman for a drink, and she was astonished that he would speak to her. To what people did she belong?
- ASamaritansCorrect
- BCanaanites
- CGreeks
- DEgyptians
Answer: Samaritans
John 4:7–9 · ESV
The woman was a Samaritan, and Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. Her surprise sets up the long conversation about living water and true worship that follows. She left her water jar and told the town, and many believed because of her word and then because they heard him for themselves.
John 4:1–26 records the meeting at the well near Sychar and Jesus' disclosure that he is the Christ.
Why not this one. A Canaanite woman does appear in the Gospels — the mother whose daughter Jesus freed near Tyre and Sidon in Matthew 15:22 — but that is a different woman and a different region.
Hard Old Testament — Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther
When Darius ordered a search for the decree of Cyrus, in which citadel was the scroll finally found?
- AEcbatana, in the province of MediaCorrect
- BBabylon, in the house of the archives
- CSusa, in the province of Elam
- DPersepolis, in the province of Persia
Answer: Ecbatana, in the province of Media
Ezra 6:1–2 · ESV
Tattenai's letter asked that a search be made in the royal archives at Babylon. Darius ordered it, and the scroll recording Cyrus's decree turned up instead at Ecbatana, the citadel in the province of Media. On the strength of it Darius funded the work from the royal revenue and pronounced a curse on anyone who altered the edict.
Ezra 5:17 and 6:1–12.
Why not this one. Babylon is where the search began, since that is where the documents and treasures were stored, but the record was not there and the scroll surfaced only in Media.
Hard Old Testament — Genesis & Creation
To what land did Cain go to dwell after God judged him for murdering Abel?
- AThe land of Havilah, beyond the river Pishon
- BThe land of Uz, to the east
- CThe land of Nod, east of EdenCorrect
- DThe land of Shinar, in the plain
Answer: The land of Nod, east of Eden
Genesis 4:16 · ESV
Cain is sentenced to be a fugitive and a wanderer, and when he protests that anyone who finds him will kill him, God puts a mark on him and forbids vengeance sevenfold. Genesis 4:16 then says he went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Nod is built on the Hebrew word for wandering, so the restless man settles in the land named for restlessness.
Genesis 4:11–16
Why not this one. Shinar is a real place in Genesis, but later: it is where Babel is built in Genesis 11:2 and where Nimrod's kingdom begins. Both are accounts of men moving eastward and building cities, which is exactly why the two run together in memory.