Darkness and Night Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jesus Christ

This specific quote comes from John chapter 9, which states that Jesus healed a blind man. According to verses 1-3, His disciples asked who sinned to cause the man to be blind, but Jesus said that nobody sinned to cause him to be blind. Jesus said that the man was blind simply so that God could work through him--in other words, the man was blind for the sole purpose of Jesus and the Father healing him. This was one of Christ's miracles. Jesus claimed that God the Father sent Him.

This wasn't the only time He called Himself the Light of the world, either. In John 8:12, Jesus said that He was the Light of the world and if people followed Him, they wouldn't walk in darkness, but rather have the Light of life. By calling Himself the Light, Jesus was equating Himself with God. This is one of many examples of Jesus doing this. 2 Samuel 22:29, which is in the Old Testament, which was considered the word of God during Christ's time (although it wasn't called the Old Testament then) calls God a lamp that illuminates, or lights up, the darkness.

Another example of Jesus claiming to be God (not necessarily His own Father, but God nonetheless--consider the triune nature of God) is in John 8:58, in which He claimed to exist before Abraham did. Jesus also called Himself "I am". Some Jews wanted to stone Jesus for blasphemy for saying that. To them, Jesus was a mere man, who wasn't even fifty years old yet (see John 8:57).

Answer: Paul

It has been traditionally believed that Paul, guided by the Holy Spirit, wrote Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Philemon. That's almost half of the New Testament.

Paul was one of the most influential preachers of the gospel. I remember one time I saw a comment on a social media website and the person said that Paul invented Christianity. What the person wrote isn't exactly true, but he, Paul, no doubt was a great leader of the church--after he became a Christian, of course.

Answer: The Shulammite woman

The Song of Solomon has traditionally been interpreted as a love song between Solomon and his bride. While some readers view it as a literal depiction of the love between a husband and wife, others have viewed it as a metaphor for the love between God and Israel (from a Jewish perspective) or between Christ and the church (from a Christian perspective). The female is called the Shulammite, but since that appears to be a title instead of a real name, her exact identity is unknown. According to chapter 3, the bride had a bad dream, in which she couldn't find her beloved at first, but then she found him and held on to him.

Interestingly enough, some readers have noted similarities between the Shulammite in Song of Solomon 3 and Mary Magdalene in John 20. The Shulammite searched the city for her beloved, asked the watchmen if they had seen him, and then finally found him. Mary Magdalene searched inside and outside Christ's tomb for Him, but didn't find Him; not initially. Even when He appeared to her, she thought He was the gardener and she asked the "gardener" if he did anything with Christ's body. When she realized who He was, she tried to cling to Jesus, but He told her, for whatever reasons, that she needed to stop. Maybe, just maybe, she was a little too attached to the man/male Jesus. Maybe she needed to acknowledge that Jesus had to ascend to His Father and therefore couldn't keep living on Earth in the way that He did during His earthly ministry. I've read some articles and commentaries that argue Mary Magdalene was NOT the literal bride of Christ (stories like Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" are unbiblical) but she was *symbolic* of the church, the real bride of Christ. A commentary on EnduringWord.com, for instance, states that the embrace the Shulammite gave her beloved when she found him seems to be the same kind of embrace that Mary gave Jesus when she saw her resurrected Rabbi. Even Roman Catholics apparently read Song of Solomon 3 as part of Mary Magdalene's feast day. Fascinating, right?

Answer: Isaiah

The verse is Isaiah 5:20. In verse 23, Isaiah goes on to state that there are evil judges who justify the wicked for a bribe, but they treat innocent or godly people as if they are the ones guilty of something.

There are some Christians who believe that Isaiah 5 is extremely relevant in today's world, perhaps much more so than it was when the prophet wrote it.

Answer: Jesus

According to Acts 26, Paul was telling King Agrippa about his conversion to Christianity. Although Paul was explaining why he ended up before Agrippa, the words quoted in the question are what Paul claimed Jesus said to him. Paul began by saying that Jesus asked him why he was persecuting Him. Paul was originally named Saul and he hated Christians and even murdered them. But after Jesus, in the form of a very bright LIGHT, appeared and spoke to Saul, Saul miraculously transformed into a devout Christian himself. Saul/Paul was born again!

It's interesting and important to note that Jesus asked Saul why Saul was persecuting Jesus, not why Saul was persecuting His followers, but why he was persecuting Him. Saul never saw, let alone hurt, Jesus during Christ's earthly ministry. Saul persecuted believers of the Nazarene. Therefore, what Jesus asked Saul suggests that an attack on Christians is an attack on Christ Himself. The New Testament calls the church both the bride and the body of Christ.

Answer: Pilate's wife

Pilate's wife said the quoted verse. Matthew 27 states that Pilate was asking the crowd who should be delivered over to death, Jesus or Barabbas. The complete verse says, "While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message, saying, 'Have nothing to do with that righteous Man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him.'"

Nonetheless, the people of the crowd, the elders, and the priests were all shouting for Jesus to be killed. It's obvious that Pilate didn't want to condemn Jesus to death, but he felt like they were forcing him to do it.

Matthew 27:24, New American Standard Bible:

"When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, 'I am innocent of this Man's blood; see to that yourselves.'"

I can only imagine the heartbreak Jesus's family and friends, such as Mary, His mother, Joanna, and Mary Magdalene, must have felt when they heard the verdict.

As for the incorrect choices, Chuza's wife was Joanna, a follower of Christ (Luke 8). Herod's wife was Herodias, the one who wanted John the Baptist dead (Matthew 14). To me, Judas Iscariot's wife sounds like a tempting answer, given that Judas betrayed Jesus, except that the Bible doesn't mention his wife. He probably had a wife, though, and I feel sorry for her.

Answer: Peter

Simon Peter (or simply Peter) quoted Joel 2:31 as part of his sermon in Acts 2. According to Peter, Pentecost, the day when believers in Christ were filled with the Holy Spirit, fulfilled Joel's prophecy.

Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, also referenced Psalm 110:1 as a prophecy of Jesus Christ. Psalm 110:1 says, "The Lord says to my Lord. . ." The New Testament claims that this is a clear portrayal of the Father and His Son. Most Christians believe that God is three-in-one: the Father, the Word/Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit.

Answer: John, the son of Zebedee

There are three men named John in the New Testament: John the Baptist, John, the son of Zebedee, and John Mark. It has been traditionally believed that John, the son of Zebedee, while guided by the Holy Spirit, wrote the Gospel of John, Revelation, and three additional books, 1, 2, and 3 John. John Mark probably wrote the Gospel of Mark. John the Baptist could NOT have written any of these, because the books were written after Christ's resurrection, while the Baptist died before Jesus died.

John was one of Christ's original disciples. His father was Zebedee and his mother was Salome. Salome was possibly a sister of Christ's mother, which would make John His cousin.

John, the son of Mary Magdalene isn't a valid Biblical person. I made him up. The Bible doesn't say that she was married to anyone, let alone that she had any children. There apparently was a legend that John, the son of Zebedee, was engaged to Mary Magdalene, but he left her to follow Jesus. Personally, the idea sounds very weird to me. Why would John need to leave her? Peter was married and Jesus didn't care. Marriage isn't a sin. The legend doesn't have any Biblical support, partly because it seems to promote the unbiblical notion that Christians must be celibate. To the contrary of that legend, 1 Corinthians 9:5 states that most of the disciples/apostles had wives! So, John might had been married; we just don't know who she was.

Answer: Moses

In Deuteronomy chapter 9, Moses was talking to the Israelites. He reminded them of the time that he went up to the mountain, Mount Horeb or Sinai, and he remained there for forty days and forty nights. Moses also said he didn't eat or drink the whole time he was there, so he fasted. When he came down from the mountain, he had the commandments.

The phrase "forty days and nights" is repeated several times in Deuteronomy 9, at least in the New American Standard translation. The number has significance elsewhere in the Bible, too. Genesis 7 states that God caused rain to be on the earth for forty days and nights. According to Matthew 4, Jesus, like Moses, fasted for forty days and forty nights. GotQuestions.org states that forty days and nights might imply judgment, trials, or testing.

Answer: Angels

According to Genesis 19, God sent two angels to Sodom. These angels looked like human males. Lot offered to let the angels stay in his house, but they replied "no" and said they would spend the night outside. However, Lot insisted that they at least have a meal with him, so they went in his home. Right after that, the Sodomites surrounded Lot's home. The men of the city demanded that Lot let the men who came with him (again, the angels were in the form of men) come out, so that the Sodomites could have sex with them. When Lot refused to allow the angels to be defiled, the Sodomites became hateful and planned to hurt Lot, but thankfully the angels blinded the depraved men before they could do anything to Lot.

The angels told Lot to get any family members out of the city because they, the angels, were going to destroy it (see Genesis 19:13). This means that God used the angels to help Him destroy it--not that God needs any help, but sometimes He uses angels or people anyway.

Not only did the angels look like human males, but Genesis 18 suggests that the Lord appeared to Abraham in human form! Theologians use the words "theophany" and "Christophany" to label such appearances.