Your Mileage May Vary Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1230 miles

"The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush." (Genesis 2 v. 13)

Although most modern historians place the historical kingdom of Cush in Sudan, there has long been a tradition (and would have been in Jesus' day) associating it with Ethiopia. Indeed, the first-century historian, Josephus, records that the person named Cush (Genesis 10), a grandson of Noah, settled in Ethiopia and gave his name to its people.

Likewise, there is some dispute as to where the Queen of Sheba, whose story appears in 2 Kings 9, might have come from. Various possibilities have included Yemen, Ethiopia, Egypt and Eritrea. An Ethiopian tradition (not backed up by the Bible) suggests that the queen slept with Solomon and gave birth to a son, Menelik. Menelik's significance to Ethiopians lies in his being their first emperor.

The account of Philip's encounter with an Ethiopian is found in Acts 8 v. 26-40. Luke records the man as being a eunuch and a high-ranking official of the Ethiopian queen, Candace.

Answer: 51 miles

"In the third month after the Israelites left Egypt, on the very day, they came to the Desert of Sinai. After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the Desert of Sinai, and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain." (Exodus 19 v. 1-2)

It should have taken just weeks for the Israelites to enter the promised land but, because they were daunted by the initial reports of scouts, it ended up being 40 years!

Answer: 540 miles

The straight line from Jerusalem to Babylon, in present day Iraq, goes straight through the Arabian desert. It is, therefore, highly likely that the Jews would have been taken along the traditional caravan trail. This went northward to the Euphrates river, which it then followed southward to Babylon. The extended journey would have measured approximately 900 miles.

Answer: 69 miles

"In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child." (Luke 2 v. 1-5)

For registration, Jewish males had to attend the ancestral home of their particular family. Joseph was descended from David and, thus, had to travel to Bethlehem, David's birthplace. Luke records one further journey made by Mary and Joseph when Jesus was twelve years old. (Luke 2 v. 41-50). This was the occasion on which he was "lost" in the Jerusalem Temple. By the time that Jesus reaches adulthood, there are no further references to Joseph and it is presumed that he has died.

Answer: 6 miles

"Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."" (Matthew 2 v. 7-8)

Bethlehem is just to the south of Jerusalem. The reading above should also help to dispel the myth that the Magi followed a star for their entire journey. Initially, they saw a star in the sky, but took this, from their study of ancient texts, to indicate that a new king would shortly be born in Israel. That is why they turned up, not unreasonably, in Jerusalem and sought out King Herod. Herod consulted his experts, who suggested looking in Bethlehem. It was on the way to Bethlehem that the star reappeared and guided them to their destination.

Answer: 785 miles

"A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross." (Mark 15 v.21)

There is a fascinating tradition that Simon's family became Christians. This is fuelled by the fact that Mark records the names of Simon's sons, clearly expecting that his readers will have some idea of who they are. It has also been speculated that they are linked with the men of Cyrene who "went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus." (Acts 11 v. 20)

Answer: 7 miles

"Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem." (Luke 24 v. 13)

Luke gives the distance from Emmaus to Jerusalem as 60 stadia. Whilst the Roman measure of a stadion could vary slightly, the distance works out as approximately 7 miles. There is, now, no village called Emmaus in the vicinity of Jerusalem. One tradition links the story with the town of Emmaus Nicopolis which is 160 stadia from Jerusalem. This is, however, very unlikely as it would require a textual error and a distance too great for the two disciples to consider travelling late in the day.

Answer: 1430 miles

Paul's journey began when the Jewish authorities brought charges against him to the Roman governor, Antonius Felix, at Caesarea. Without making any decision, Felix left Paul in prison for two years before being succeeded as governor by Porcius Festus. Festus heard Paul's case within days. He asked if Paul was willing to be tried in Jerusalem (where Luke alleges that assassins were waiting to ambush and kill him), but Paul insisted on his right, as a Roman citizen, to make his defence in Rome.

The final chapter of Acts records that, having reached Rome, Paul spent two years living in a rented house where, "boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 28 v. 31) According to legend, Paul was martyred in Rome under the emperor Nero, at some time during the early sixties AD.

Answer: 5600 miles

"The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long." (Revelation 21 v. 15-16)

Did the new Jerusalem turn out to be larger than you thought? Its area is 50% bigger than the country of India. Not only that but it is described as a perfect cube, as its height is also given as 12,000 stadia! Most scholars, of course, argue that these details should be taken taken figuratively and not literally. The book of Revelation was written to strengthen Christians who were experiencing increasing persecution within the Roman empire. It is full of numerology, symbolism and allusion to Old Testament scripture. Indeed, it is probably not without significance that the distance between Jerusalem and Rome is ... approximately 12000 stadia!

Answer: 3430 miles

I find this story fascinating. The Lemba passed the story of their origins down through the generations. It began with a man called Buba, who led a group of Jews out of Israel and to a town called Senna, in what is now Yemen. This is thought to have happened about 2500 years ago, making it conceivable that it could coincide with the Babylonian sacking of Jerusalem, or even the earlier loss of the ten northern tribes under the Assyrians. At a later date, their descendants had to leave Senna and travelled down the coastline of Africa. Various groups splintered off along the way, with the Lemba making it all the way to Southern Africa.

In recent years, this folklore has been subjected to modern analysis. Firstly, a virtually deserted town, called Sanaw, was identified in Yemen, that closely matches the geographical details handed down in the story. Even more persuasive, however, was a discovery made when the Lemba's DNA was tested. It is very rare for men from outside of the tribe to become Lemba and, thus, any genetic material handed down is more likely to come from common ancestors. Results showed that a significant majority of Lemba men carry the Cohen modal haplotype, a distinguishing characteristic of the Jewish Kohanim or priesthood. This was even more marked in the Lemba's own priestly clan, the Buba. Whilst not 100% proof, it does indicate very strongly that the Lemba do indeed share an ancestry that links back to the ancient Jewish priesthood.