The Bible As Literature Trivia Quiz

Answer: None of these is alone sufficient

None of these are adequate on their own to describe the Bible from a literary standpoint. The Bible contains law (Leviticus, Exodus, Deuteronomy), poetry (Psalms and parts of other books), and short stories (Ruth, Esther, the stories in Genesis, etc.).

Answer: Parallelism

English poetry (at least until the last century) has relied primarily on meter and/or rhyme, but Hebrew poetry does not employ these devices. It uses parallelism, which is a kind of repetition. There are several kinds of parallelism: synonymous (in which the second line repeats the first line in different words), antithetic (in which the second line states the opposite of the first line), synthetic (in which the second line repeats and expands the fist line), and emblematic (in which the second line elevates the first line, often through simile).

Here is an example from the Psalms of synthetic parallelism: "Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength."

Answer: Parable

A parable is a short tale with a moral. The most famous Biblical parable is "The Prodigal Son."

Answer: types

In typology, which is a theological way of looking at scripture, a type is a person or event that symbolically points to something else that will occur in the future course of a literary work. For example, Moses's act of holding up the serpent in the wilderness, so that those who look up to it will be healed, can be seen as a "type" of Christ being raised up on the cross, so that those who look to Him will be saved.

Answer: Genesis 1

The creation story is written as a Hebrew poem. It employs parallelism, for example: "And the earth was without form, and void." It also uses other poetic and rhetorical devices such as repetition of initial lines and the use of certain set words.

Answer: The Book of Ruth

The Book of Ruth tells a complete story from beginning to end in four short chapters. It is a beautiful love story, and I encourage you to read it if you have not done so. Chronicles is a history, and a collection of stories; Romans is an epistle, and Revelation belongs to the category of apocalyptic literature.

Answer: Hebrews

An epistle is another term for a letter, and it is a genre of literature employed frequently in the New Testament. Paul's epistles are the earliest collective writings of the New Testament. (The Gospels were written later.)

Answer: Genesis

Job and Jonah each constitute a single story. Leviticus is a collection of laws. Genesis contains a wide variety of short stories, about the creation, fall, the patriarchs, etc.

Answer: Job

A closet drama is a play intended to be read rather than performed. Of the choices provided, Job best fits this description. The work, though not written as a modern play would be, contains a cast of characters who each have set spoken parts.

Answer: Chronicles

Chronicles, along with books such as I and II Kings, are called histories. Job is grouped with other Wisdom Literature such as Proverbs; Leviticus is a law book, and Jeremiah is included with the prophets.

Answer: The best animal for a family pet

All of these are central themes of the Bible which are explored throughout its various books, in both the Old and New Testaments. Suffering is dealt with most explicitly in Job and Isaiah. The nature of man is revealed in (among other places) the various stories of Genesis, Judges, Kings, and Chronicles, as well as in the betrayals of Judas and Peter and the doubt of Thomas. God's nature is explored everywhere in the Bible, but perhaps most thoroughly in the Gospels.

Answer: A dominant setting

The Bible was written by numerous authors, and it has at least three central themes (refer to number 11), so neither of these can be true. It does, however, have a central setting, which serves as a unifier. The majority of the events of the Bible (in both the Old and New Testament) take place in a single setting, a small area now known as Israel, though there are occasional events occurring outside of this sphere (the wilderness and Egypt, for instance). Other factors serving to unify the Bible include types, motifs, symbols, and references within books to other books.

Answer: The Church

Paul uses the body to symbolize the church, emphasizing that just as all parts of the body are necessary for it to function adequately, so too are many diverse people necessary for the successful operation of the church.

Answer: Hosea and Ezekiel

In both of these, God is depicted as the husband of Israel, who is in turn portrayed as an adulteress wife. Hosea is asked to marry and remain faithful to a prostitute as a symbolic display of God's faithfulness toward Israel, despite the nation's backsliding.

In the New Testament, Christ is portrayed as the Bridegroom of the Church, and the Church is routinely referred to as the "Bride of Christ."

Answer: Acrostic

There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and each is employed in a section of this Psalm.

Answer: Proverb

This is a proverb, or a pithy saying meant to communicate a moral truth. There are many proverbs in the Bible, and the largest number are contained, not surprisingly, in the Book of Proverbs, from which this quote comes.

Answer: Point of view

The Gospels each have the same basic plot (Christ's life, death, and resurrection), though John's is more spiritualized and contains more unique material than the three listed in this question. All four have more or less the same cast of characters--Christ, Mary, the disciples, the Pharisees, Pilate, etc. But all four are told from very different points of view, and therefore focus on different aspects of Christ. Luke emphasizes Christ the man, Mark Christ the servant, Matthew Christ the King of the Jews, and John Christ the Son of God.

Answer: It includes all of these

Genesis has stories with all of these experiences, and also includes numerous other life experiences: marriage, war, famine, childbirth, infertility, problems with in-laws, and so on.

Answer: Irony

Esther contains a great deal of irony, or what might be termed "poetic justice." The most obvious example is that Hamaan ends up being hung on the gallows he has built for Mordecai. Another is when the king asks Hamaan how he should reward a man who pleases him. Hamaan, thinking the king is referring to him, says such a man should be dressed in royal apparel and paraded on a horse. The king then makes Hamaan do this for Mordecai!

Answer: The King James Bible

The KJV gets this credit. Even though the meaning of many of the words has evolved over time, and even though the language can sometimes be difficult, many readers still prefer the KJV because of its poetic quality. The Vulgate was a Latin, not an English, translation.

Concluding Note: The information used in this quiz, which is written in my own words, is based on the personal class notes I took in "The Bible As Literature," a course offered at the University of Texas at Brownsville and taught by Dr. Mimosa Stephenson.