Bible Quiz

005

It is written

1. The Bible’s first mention of writing calls for the annihilation of what people?

2. Name the two craftsmen who engraved items for the Tabernacle service.

3. In the sole Gospel account of Jesus actually writing, with what and on what did he write?

4. A Phoenician woman, who was queen of Israel, forged letters to obtain something for her husband. What did she want for him?

5. Which two prophets ate honey-flavored scrolls?

6. Who was told to write “Maher-shalal-hash-baz” on a large tablet?

7. What kind of record did Jeremiah write and place in a jar?

8. Mordecai wrote letters to 127 provinces telling the Jews of the king’s permission for them to defend themselves against their enemies. How were these letters delivered?

9. Who sent a threatening letter to King Hezekiah?

10. Who wished his words to be letters of lead set into carved rock?

Prepared by Bill Ickes, an avid BR reader in Berlin, Pennsylvania, whose previous contributions to BR include four quizzes and ideas for the Illuminations in the Winter 1986 and Fall 1987 issues.

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Answers

1. Amalekites. This clan of Edomites, for no apparent reason, attacked the Israelites at Rephidim during the Israelites’ wandering in the Sinai wilderness. After the defeat of the Amalekites in that battle, the Lord told Moses to “write this as a memorial in a book … I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven” (Exodus 17:14).

2. Bezalel and Oholiab. These men, from the tribes of Judah and Dan, were “singled out by name” and filled “with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship … for work in every craft” (Exodus 31:1–6). They incised words upon the precious stones and frontlet worn by the high priest (Exodus 39:6, 14, 30).

3. His finger, on the ground. In the Temple, the scribes and Pharisees asked for Jesus’ judgment of a woman accused of adultery. “Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground” (John 8:6). Then he stood up and told them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7). Several later manuscripts say that what Jesus wrote was “the sins of each of them” (John 8:8 note, RSV).

4. Naboth’s vineyard. When Naboth the Jezreelite refused to sell or trade his vineyard to King Ahab (871–852 B.C.), Ahab’s wife Jezebel told the sullen, pouting king, “be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth…. So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and she sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who dwelt with Naboth in his city” (1 Kings 21:7–8). She ordered them to falsely accuse and execute Naboth, which they did, and then told Ahab, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth …” (1 Kings 21:15).

5. Ezekiel and John. While commissioning Ezekiel as messenger to Israel, the spirit of the Lord gave him a papyrus scroll to eat, so that he would speak only what the Lord had written. Ezekiel says, “I ate it; and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey” (Ezekiel 3:3). Similarly, when the apostle John was being urged to prophesy about many nations, a mighty angel gave him a little scroll to eat. John ate it and found “it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but … my stomach was made bitter” (Revelation 10:10).

6. Isaiah. The Lord told him to write this phrase, which means “pillage hastens, looting speeds,” as a sign that “the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria” (Isaiah 8:4). The large document was witnessed by the priest Uriah. Then, for emphasis, the Lord told Isaiah to name his newborn son “Maher-shalel-hash-baz.”

7. A land deed. While in prison, Jeremiah demonstrated his faith in the future of Judah by buying his cousin Hanamel’s property in Anathoth, three miles north of the then-besieged city of Jerusalem. Agreeing to pay 17 shekels of silver, he “signed the deed, sealed it, got witness, and weighed the money on scales” (Jeremiah 32:10). Then he told Baruch to put the documents, the sealed text and the open one, “into an earthen jar, so that they may last a long time” (Jeremiah 32:14).

8. By Persian “pony express.” King Ahasuerus (Xerxes 1, 485–464 B.C.) permitted Queen Esther and Mordecai to “write as you please … in the name of the king, and seal it with the king’s ring.” The missives were dispatched “by mounted, couriers, riding on swift horses that were used in the king’s service” (Esther 8:8, 10). The Greek historian Herodotus said, “There is nothing in the world that travels faster than these Persian couriers.” A letter could be delivered from the capital at Shushan (Susa) 1,700 miles west to Sardis in a week, by a relay of horsemen.

9. Sennacherib, king of Assryia. After reading the letter, King Hezekiah (727–698 B.C.) “went up to the House of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed … ‘hear the words that Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God!’” (2 Kings 19:14–16). The Lord responded through the prophet Isaiah with a message for the Assyrian monarch: “Fair Maiden Zion despises you … and I will make you go back by the road by which you came” (Isaiah 37:22, 29).

10. Job. His reply is to Bildad, who has reminded him of the fate of the wicked: “All mention of him vanishes from the earth; he has no name abroad” (Job 18:17). Physical suffering and loss of children have made Job aware of his own mortality. Perhaps he senses that words can outlive the body, and so he says, “O that my words were written down; would they were inscribed in a record, incised on a rock forever with iron stylus and lead!” (Job 19:23–24).

It is written

1. The Bible’s first mention of writing calls for the annihilation of what people?
2. Name the two craftsmen who engraved items for the Tabernacle service.
3. In the sole Gospel account of Jesus actually writing, with what and on what did he write?
4. A Phoenician woman, who was queen of Israel, forged letters to obtain something for her husband. What did she want for him?
5. Which two prophets ate honey-flavored scrolls?