Climb Ev'ry Mountain Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Gilead mountains

Genesis 31:1-3 tells us how Jacob was told by God to go back to the land of his fathers, after Laban's attitude towards him started to become quite negative.

After rounding up Rachel and Leah (his wives) and all his children, Jacob started heading back to Canaan. However, they did this all without telling Laban (his father-in-law), and Rachel also stole all the idols from Laban's house.

Genesis 31:22-54 then tells us how Laban eventually learned of Jacob's treachery, and started to chase after him. After seven days, Laban had caught up. However, the night before Laban did finally catch up to Jacob, God appeared to him in a dream, and told him not to harm his son-in-law. Laban asked for his idols back, and Jacob, not knowing that Rachel had stolen them, told Laban to search the tent. Rachel, however, hid the idols by sitting on them when Laban came to search the tent.

After Laban found nothing, Jacob lashed out, saying that he had worked for Laban for over twenty years, and that he had made him very wealthy, yet Laban still had the nerve to chase after him and ransack his tent. Laban defended himself, saying that everything that Jacob had had originally been his.

They then made a covenant in the Gilead mountains, and basically just agreed to disagree, and made peace with each other. Thereafter, Laban returned home, and Jacob continued on his journey to Canaan.

Answer: It was where Noah's ark eventually safely landed

The Ararat mountain range was where Noah's ark finally came to rest, after God had sent the rains down for forty days and forty nights.

For 150 days after, the earth remained flooded, and Noah, his wife, his three sons, and a whole shipload of animals were still sitting pretty on the ark. Finally, on the 17th day of the 7th month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (Genesis 8:3-4).

Answer: Mount Sinai and Mount Horeb

This is a very interesting topic, as it deals with something that is still considered to be very debatable. So far, we can accept that the Ten Commandments were definitely given atop a Mountain. Exodus claims that the mountain was known as Mount Sinai (it's mentioned a number of times in chapters 19 to 20 of Exodus), whereas Deuteronomy claims that it was called Mount Horeb (Deuteronomy 5:2).

The interesting thing is that Exodus already mentions Mount Horeb as being the place where Moses encountered the burning bush (Exodus 3:1), and was called to lead the Israelites out of Egypt by God.

It would be interesting to know whether Mount Sinai and Mount Horeb are the same place (most historians believe it's one mountain with two different names), and if this is the case, whether the place where the Ten Commandments were received and the place where Moses encountered the burning bush are thus one and the same. Even more interestingly, Exodus and Deuteronomy were both written by Moses, so we have to wonder whether Moses was suffering from a touch of dementia or whether he was being deliberately ambiguous.

If anyone reading this is a little more clued up here than I, I'd love to hear what you have to say!

Answer: Both of these

Unlike a lot of Biblical mountains, no one is precisely sure where Mount Moriah is. It is, however, given as being the location where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac to God, as well as where Solomon built a temple to God.

Genesis 22 tells us the story of how God, wanting to see how much Abraham feared him, told Abraham to take his beloved son, Isaac, up Mount Moriah and sacrifice him. Abraham got up the mountain and tied his son to the altar. Just as he was about to kill Isaac, an angel appeared to him and told him not to kill Isaac; it was a test of his fear of and love for God. Abraham then got to sacrifice a ram to God instead. Because he was prepared to sacrifice his son to God, Abraham was blessed and rewarded by God.

2 Chronicles 2-3 tell us about Solomon, and the construction of a temple to God and a palace for himself. He assigned 70 000 common labourers, 80 000 men to work in the quarries, and 3600 foremen to manage the work force in order for this construction to be successful (that's a LOT of people!) With all these people, he was able to construct a temple that was 90 feet long and 30 feet wide, with a porch that was the width of the building, and also 30 feet high, upon Mount Moriah (to be specific, this is in 2 Chronicles 3:1-4).

Answer: Mount of Olives

The Mount of Olives is quite a popular little mountain! It's mentioned fairly frequently, and is alluded to a fair old amount in both the Old and New Testaments. In 2 Samuel 15:27-30, it's mentioned as being a route that Daniel took, whilst weeping, through the rebellion of Absalom. It's also mentioned in Zechariah 14:4, mentioning it as being the place where the Lord will stand when he comes down to earth, and when the end of the world is near.

As far as the New Testament goes, the Mount of Olives is mentioned again a couple of times in Matthew, as it is the place where Jesus sometimes talked to and taught his disciples (specifically from about Matthew 23 and onwards). According to Luke 21:37, it was also a place where Jesus found comfort, as he returned there each night to rest.

Luke 19:28-40 tells us how Jesus was approaching Jerusalem, and his disciples where singing his praises. The Pharisees were not pleased with this, and asked him to make them quiet. Luke 19:41-44 then tells us how Jesus went atop the Mount of Olives, and wept over Jerusalem, for he could see its destruction, all because the people had not recognised and welcomed "God's personal visit."

Answer: Aaron

Numbers 20:23-28 tells us how, when Moses and Aaron reached the border of Edom, God told them that it was Aaron's time to die, and that he would not enter the Promised Land because, like Moses, he had rebelled against God. So Moses, Aaron, and Aaron's son Eleazar climbed Mount Hor. Once there, Moses removed Aaron's priestly garments, and put them on Eleazar. Aaron stayed atop the mountain and died there, and Moses and Eleazar went back down to tell the congregation about Aaron's death.

They thereafter went into a thirty-day mourning period for him.

Answer: Mount Carmel

Elijah said that Ahab had rejected God's ways, and had instead chosen to follow false gods (Baal).

To settle it, Elijah told Ahab to assemble all the people of Israel at Mount Carmel, and to make specially sure that the 450 prophets of Baal were there as well. He then challenged the people, saying:

"I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God."

The people agreed that this was a good plan, and assembled themselves at Mount Carmel, where two oxen were slaughtered and cut into piece, and laid upon two different wooden altars. Elijah then challenged the priests of Baal to light their altar. They tried very hard, praying from the morning until the evening, even adding their own blood to the sacrifice. However, they yielded no results, and their altar remained unlit.

Elijah then asked for his altar to be drenched with twelve barrels of water, just to make lighting a fire that much harder. He then prayed to God, asking him to accept the sacrifice. At that moment, fire fell from the sky, and ignited the altar, thus proving to the Israeli people and to the prophets of Baal that God was the real entity, not Baal.

All this can be found in 1 Kings 18:17-39.

Answer: He purposefully fell on his sword

Before the Battle of Gilboa (a huge battle with Saul's armies versus the Philistines), Saul decided to visit the witch of Endor (even though he had made withcraft and magic a punishable crime). She conjured up the spirit of Samuel, who then told Saul that he would not succeed in the battle, and that he and his armies would fall. The story of Saul and the witch of Endor can be found in 1 Samuel 28:5-20.

After a long description of David's antics and the battle (see 1 Samuel 29 and 30), Saul decided that he'd rather die than face losing and being captured. He first asked his armour bearer if he would kill him, but the frightened armour-bearer refused to do so. Saul then took matters into his own hands, and propped his sword up, and fell on top of it. The armour-bearer then also fell on his sword, after seeing that Saul was dead. All in all, it was not a good day, as Saul, his three sons, and his armour-bearer all died. This can be found in 1 Samuel 31:1-6.

Answer: Mount Nebo

The Bible passage surrounding this goes as follows:

"Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land-from Gilead to Dan, all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. Then the Lord said to him, "This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it." And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone."
Deuteronomy 34:1-7

There is a bit of confusion and ambiguity surrounding this very matter. In Hebrew, "pisgah" means "high place," which, in the case of a mountain, is fairly obvious. Therefore, a literal meaning of this passage might mean "Moses climbed Mount Nebo to its peak."

Because of this, people are not entirely sure whether the mountain's correct name is "Mount Nebo," or in fact "Mount Pisgah."

However, in both Jewish and Christian tradition, Mount Nebo is the place where Moses finally saw his Promised Land, and where he ultimately died, and was buried by God.

Answer: the Sermon on the Mount

Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount can be found in the Book of Matthew, chapters 5 through to 7. Jesus started off with the Beatitudes, and went on to express his views on things such as the law, love for enemies, prayer and many other things. While it's never directly stated in any of the Gospels, many view it as an "update" on God's original Ten Commandments.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, the identity of the mountain on which this special sermon took place has not been recorded.

Interestingly, just as Moses' presentation of the Ten Commandments took place on Mount Sinai, this sermon also took place on a mountain: hence the belief that it's a new and revised version of the Ten Commandments.

Thanks for playing. Have a super day!