Bible Quiz

023

Prepared by J. Kenneth Eakins, professor of archaeology and Old Testament, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Mill Valley, California.

Old Testament

1. Who was the only son of Jacob born in the Land of Promise?

2. What physical agent did Moses use to produce boils on the Egyptians and their magicians?

3. What Jewish man was saved from being hanged because of the insomnia of a king?

4. What fruit were nazirites forbidden to eat?

5. Who was the earliest prophet to predict the destruction of Jerusalem?

6. What prophet spoke about a heart “transplant”?

7. What Hebrew king had 15 years added to his life because of his prayer to God?

8. According to Ecclesiates, a living dog is better than what?

9. What is the shortest book in the Old Testament?

10. Where is the only place in the Old Testament where God is said to be like a tree?

024Answers

1. Benjamin. The other 11 sons of Jacob were born while Jacob was serving Laban in northwest Mesopotamia. Benjamin, Jacob’s youngest son, was born on a journey to Hebron. His mother, Rachel, died in childbirth and was buried where Benjamin was born, near Bethlehem (Genesis 35:16–19). According to the Bible, Jacob set up a pillar at Rachel’s grave that can be seen “to this day” (Genesis 35:20). The traditional site of Rachel’s burial is now marked by a cenotaph housed in a building on the road north of Bethlehem.

2. Ash from a kiln. Moses threw the ash up in the air and it became a fine dust over the land, causing boils. This was the sixth of the ten plagues sent against Egypt before Pharaoh allowed the Israelites to leave Egypt, a going forth known to us as the Exodus. The account is told in Exodus 9:8–11:

“Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Each of you take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and let Moses throw it toward the sky in the sight of Pharaoh. It shall become a fine dust all over the land of Egypt, and cause an inflammation breaking out in boils on man and beast throughout the land of Egypt.’ So they took soot of the kiln and appeared before Pharaoh; Moses threw it toward the sky, and it caused an inflammation breaking out in boils on man and beast. The magicians were unable to confront Moses because of the inflammation, for the inflammation afflicted the magicians as well as all the other Egyptians.”

3. Mordecai. When the Persian king Ahasuerus could not sleep, he had a book of memorable chronicles read to him that included an account of two traitors from whom Mordecai had saved the king. When the king learned that Mordecai had not been rewarded for his good deed, he asked Haman, his vizier, who had just entered the room, what the king should do for a man the king wished to honor. Haman, thinking the king was referring to him (Haman), suggested a royal procession in the king’s attire. In fact, Haman hated Mordecai and had intended to hang him. But now, at the king’s command, Haman had to lead the royal procession honoring Mordecai. Haman himself was then hanged.

4. Grapes. A nazirite was a person who had made a particular kind of vow to the Lord. A nazirite was forbidden to drink wine or eat grapes in any form.

“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: If anyone, man or woman, explicitly utters a nazirite’s vow, to set himself apart for the Lord, he shall abstain from wine and any other intoxicant; he shall not drink vinegar of wine or of any other intoxicant, neither shall he drink anything in which grapes have been steeped, nor eat grapes fresh or dried. Throughout his term as nazirite, he may not eat anything that is obtained from the grapevine, even seeds or skin” (Numbers 6:2–4).

Samson was a nazirite.

5. Micah. Micah prophesied during the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah from approximately 715 to 687 B.C. During King Hezekiah’s reign Jerusalem was attacked by Sennacherib the Assyrian, but the siege was unsuccessful although Sennacherib devastated much of Judah. In 586 B.C. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians, led by Nebuchadnezzar.

Here is Micah’s prophecy abou the destruction of Jerusalem:

“Hear this, you rulers of the House of Jacob, You chiefs of the House of Israel, Who detest justice And make crooked all that is straight, Who build Zion with crime, Jerusalem with iniquity! Her rulers judge for gifts, Her priests give rulings for a fee, And her prophets divine for pay; Yet they rely upon the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord is in our midst; No calamity shall overtake us.’ Assuredly, because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field, And Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, And the Temple Mount A shrine in the woods.”

(Micah 3:9–12)

6. Ezekiel. Ezekiel prophesied during the Babylonian Exile (586–536 B.C.). Despite Israel’s past sins, the Lord, through the prophet, promised to bring the Israelites back to their own land and to give them a new heart:

“I will bring you back to your own land … I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit into you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit into you. Thus, I will cause you to follow my love and faithfully to observe my rules. Then you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:24–26).

7. Hezekiah, king of Judah. The story is told in Kings and in Isaiah in almost identical words:

“In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Set your house in order; for you shall die, you shall not recover.” ’

“Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying “Remember now, O Lord I beseech thee, 025how I have walked before thee in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in thy sight.’ And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

“Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: ‘Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the ruler of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. And I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.’

“Isaiah said, ‘Bring a cake of figs. And let them take and lay it on the boil, that he may recover’” (2 Kings 20:1–7).

Hezekiah requested, as a sign he would be healed, that the shadow on the sun dial go back ten steps.

8. A dead lion. Ecclesiastes is skeptical, resigned, melancholy. All will die, he observes: “The same fate is in store for all—for the righteous and for the wicked” (Ecclesiastes 9:2). But life is still better than death: “Even a live dog is better than a dead lion” (Ecclesiastes 9:4).

9. Obadiah. It has only one chapter, with 21 verses. It is a prophecy against the land of Edom. The date of the prophecy is uncertain; the book may have been written in the sixth century B.C.

10. Hosea 14:8. The prophet is offering words of comfort in the name of the Lord:

“I will be to Israel like dew… I am like an evergreen cypress.”

(Hosea 14:6, 8 [9 in Hebrew Bibles])

Some interpreters, however, believe that the tribe of Ephraim, rather than the Lord himself, is like a cypress tree. For example, the New Jewish Publication Society translation renders Hosea 14:9 [8] as follows:

“Ephraim [shall say]:

‘What more have I to do with idols?

When I respond and look to Him,

I become like a verdant cypress.’

Your fruit is provided by Me.”

The same passage (Hosea 14:8) is translated this way in the Revised Standard Version:

“O Ephraim, what have I to do with

idols?

It is I who answer and look after you.

I am like an evergreen cypress,

from me comes your fruit.”

Hosea prophesied in the eighth century B.C.

Prepared by J. Kenneth Eakins, professor of archaeology and Old Testament, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Mill Valley, California.

Old Testament
1. Who was the only son of Jacob born in the Land of Promise?
2. What physical agent did Moses use to produce boils on the Egyptians and their magicians?
3. What Jewish man was saved from being hanged because of the insomnia of a king?