Bible Verses Connecting Isaiah To the Gospels Quiz

Answer: Immanuel

The name Immanuel, in Hebrew, means "God with us". The Isaiah verse is stated in Matthew 1:23 where Joseph is told in a dream that Mary, his betrothed, was pregnant with the son of God. In the same dream, the angel tells Joseph to name his son Jesus as He would save people from their sin. Interestingly, the original Hebrew has Jesus' name as Y'shua being often translated as Joshua.

Answer: Simeon

According to Luke, Simeon had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would one day see the Messiah. So, when the infant Jesus was brought forth, he declared the Lord's promise fulfilled. Caiaphas was the high priest who led the Sanhedrin in condemning Jesus, resulting in His being given over to Pilot to be crucified. Herod was the King of the Jews and a vassal of Rome. We see in Matthew that Herod ordered the execution of the newborns when the wise men told him of the birth of Jesus. Anna was a prophetess who lived in the temple and when she saw Jesus she gave thanks to God.

Answer: Handel

Handel's 'Messiah' (Oratorio 56) was written and composed in about 3 to 4 weeks and was actually written for Easter time, not Christmas. Seems ironic as it is most often heard during Advent, primarily because the first part is focused on the birth of Christ. The actual words of the Messiah are taken from the King James Bible scriptural texts and were provided to Handel by Charles Jennens. Isaiah 40:3 is referenced in all four gospels, and can be found in the following places: Mt 3:3, Mk 1:2, Lk 3:4, and Jn 1:23.

Answer: Jesus going to live in Capernaum

According to Matthew 4, Jesus left His home in Nazareth and moved to Capernaum when He learned that Herod had killed John the Baptist. Capernaum in Galilee was further away from Herod's palace and not yet a place associated with Jesus. Having Jesus live in Galilee gave the region great honor. Isaiah 9:6 states, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." While this verse is not directly stated in the Gospels, Jesus is often considered to be the Prince of Peace.

The first miracle of Jesus was considered to be in Cana at a wedding. Cana is in Galilee, however, this miracle takes place in John's gospel, not Matthew's.

Answer: Healed the sick who came up to Him

Matthew 12 is a powerful refutation of following Jewish laws to the letter as a reason to ignore the needy. Jews were not allowed to do work of any kind on the Sabbath but instead were to focus their attention on God and scripture. By healing a man with a withered hand in the synagogue, of all places, Jesus was considered to be "working" on the Sabbath.

The Pharisees saw this act as being punishable by death. Jesus manages to escape the Pharisees and then is surrounded by the sick and the needy. His kind efforts in healing them prompted the writer of Matthew to use the Isaiah 42:1-4 quote. Lazarus being raised from the dead is in John 11:38-44.

Answer: Parable of the Sower

The "Parable of the Sower" is about the ways that people hear and respond to Christ's message. The parable requires wisdom to understand, and once the apostles were alone with Jesus they wanted to know what it meant. Jesus mentions Isaiah 6:9 as He is frustrated that so few people heed His words by actually changing their ways and following God's desire for their lives. John 12: 39 has the Isaiah quote as part of the passion week discourse as a way of Jesus showing His sadness with the hard-heartedness of the Jewish people in wanting to follow human needs rather than God's way.

Answer: Because He had performed so many signs in their presence.

Jesus had performed countless healings in front of the church leaders, yet they still found fault with Him and tried to entrap Him with arguments. The quote from Isaiah 53:1 by itself does not reveal the true power and prediction of Christ's life as is stated by the entire chapter of Isaiah 53.

The chapter outlines a savior who would not be believed by the people and yet that savior would bear the sins of all and die in the place of many. It is a beautiful chapter and worth a read. Most of the people reading the Gospels in the early days of the church would have known Isaiah 53 very well and believers in Christ would have identified the entire chapter with the life of Jesus, so by stating the first verse the listener would know the rest.

Answer: Nazareth

When Jesus first started His ministry, He began to get some notoriety. This passage was taken when He returns to Nazareth for the first time since gaining some fame. However, Nazareth knew Jesus from childhood, and this familiarity left very few believing in Him as being anything more than the carpenter's son. Very few people at the time of Jesus were literate, so having Jesus read to the synagogue is significant, as it showed Him to be a scholar.

At this time in history, the Jews did have a higher level of literacy than the Gentiles did, but it was still rare for a tradesman to be literate. Scholars estimate that about 3% of the Jewish population would have been literate at the time of Christ.

Answer: What comes out of a person defiles them.

The Pharisees observe the Disciples not performing the ritual cleaning before eating as the law of Moses prescribes. Jewish customs and laws have very detailed ways in which an individual and their cookware must be cleaned. However, what Jesus taught in Mt 15:11 "What goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them." This is another case where Jesus shows that being too focused on the law can cause sin by omitting responsibilities one should do.

He points this out further by referencing the need to honor father and mother, yet many of the Jews would let their parents starve because they believed their money had to be reserved for God.

Answer: A den of robbers

In all three synoptic gospels, Jesus is shown getting angry at the money changers and animal salesmen. Clearly, they were charging an exorbitant amount for services the visiting Jews needed in order to follow God's command to perform sacrifices. Jesus calls them "a den of robbers" and proceeds to turn over all their tables and drive them out of the temple. Chapter 56 of Isaiah is specifically focused on the foreigner whose sacrifice will be welcome on the Lord's altar.

This would ring true in the case of the Gospels, as the foreigner would be the one most cheated by having to convert coins and not having a choice but to pay any price asked for an animal.

This scene also takes place the week before Passover, when there would be a great number of Jews from around the world descending on Jerusalem to make a sacrifice to the Lord.