"H" Marks the Spot Trivia Quiz

Answer: Havilah

The passage in Genesis 2:10-12 reads this way in the New International Version of the Bible: "A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.)"

Answer: Hittite

Hattusa (also spelled "Hattusha" or "Hattusas") is near the Kizil River, called Halys by the Greeks, in central Anatolia (known in the New Testament as Cappadocia). Archaeologists began to explore the site, near current Bogazkale, Turkey, in 1834, but its significance was not fully understood until 1906, when archaeologists found an inscription recording a treaty between the Hittite king and the historical Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses II. The Battle of Kadesh was fought between these super powers, one south (Egypt) and the other north (Hittite) of Israel.

In Genesis 23, Abraham buys the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron from "Ephron the son of Zohar, the Hittite" to bury his wife Sarah, and his sons Ishmael and Isaac bury Abraham there when he dies (Genesis 25). In 2 Samuel 11, David falls in love with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Scholars disagree about what connection, if any, exists between the Hittites of the Bible and those further north in Turkey, but they no longer doubt the historicity of the Hittites.

Answer: Haran

Also called Paddan Aram, Haran (or Harran) is believed by many to be a site in what is now southern Turkey, just east of the Euphrates River and northwest of Iraq, where their original home Ur would have been located, farther southeast down the Eurphrates River Valley. For Abraham, Haran became a temporary resting place, but his father Terah and brother Nahor remained.

The patriarchs obtained wives from these relatives in Haran, as told in the latter half of the Book of Genesis. A servant found Rebecca for Isaac, while Jacob wound up with sisters Leah and Rachel, along with their maidservants Bilhah and Zilpah, after 14 years of service under his relative Laban.

Answer: Hebron

Hebron, on the West Bank of the Jordan River in the hills of Judea, is considered one of the world's most ancient cities and is mentioned numerous times in the Bible. Modern Hebron is a predominately Arab city of over 300,000, but a Jewish community of around 6,000 people was established in the late 1960s; therefore, the area is the scene of much contention. We see Abraham pitching his tents near Hebron as early as Genesis 13. Abraham insists on buying the small plot of land near Hebron containing a cave rather than accepting it as a gift (Genesis 23), making the Tomb of the Patriarchs site the first land acquired by the family of Abraham in what would later be called Israel.

Answer: They are mountains.

The book of Deuteronomy says that the books of the law were given to Moses on Mount Horeb rather than Mount Sinai, as the mountain is called in Exodus; and opinions differ as to whether a different mountain is meant or they are two names for the same mountain.

In Exodus, Mount Horeb is the place where Moses encounters the burning bush. Mount Hor refers to two different mountains - not surprisingly, since "har" means mountain and early Hebrew was not written with vowels - one in the south near the Dead Sea, another on the northern border of Israel. Mount Hazor forms the boundary between Samaria and Judea, and the "Samaritan Woman at the Well" in John 4:19-20 uses it to throw out a theological challenge: "'Sir,' the woman said, 'I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.'" Beautiful Mount Hermon is the highest and most northern point of Israel, on the border with Syria, and is snow-covered during winter. Mount Hermon is mentioned many times in the Bible, and some believe that some part of it was the Mount of Transfiguration spoken of in Matthew 17:1-13, although the traditional spot is Mount Tabor.

Answer: Heliopolis

The ruins of ancient Heliopolis, which literally does means Sun City, lie within the city of Cairo, Egypt. In Genesis, Heliopolis is called "On" and was the capital of Goshen, the land allotted to the family of Jacob (Israel) after they relocated to Egypt from Canaan (Genesis 45:10).

Heliopolis is mentioned also by the prophets. Jeremiah 43:13, as translated in the New International Reader's Version and some others, reads: "At Heliopolis in Egypt he will smash the sacred pillars to pieces. And he will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt." Others keep the Hebrew "Beth Shemesh" instead of Greek "Heliopolis"; and yet others translate it as "the temple of the sun" - the literal English meaning.

Answer: Hellas

Greece is "Hellas"; Greeks are "Hellenes"; and the word "Hellenistic" applies to the culture of Greece taken to the ends of the known world in the time of Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) and after. The story of the early church includes concerns about "Hellenizers" - those who would turn new converts away from the Biblical roots of the faith in favor of Greek ideas.

The Romans called the Hellenes "Graeci" - another ancient name for at least part of the ethnic group, and the name "Greece" grew from that as Latin speakers passed it on.

Much of the New Testament book of Acts and the Epistles of Paul and others focus on new churches in Greek communities in Hellas itself and in other areas where Greek and Jewish cultures existed side by side within the Empire of Rome.

Answer: Mount Carmel

From Haifa and Mount Carmel one may view the Mediterranean Sea, the Jezreel Valley, and much of Upper Galilee, so while the city of Haifa was not built until the 3rd century after Jesus, the geographical location is filled with history connected to both the Hebrew chronicles and prophets and the Christian gospels. Haifa is just north of Caesarea Maritima, where the Roman centurion Cornelius, the first Gentile convert to Christianity, was stationed (Acts 10:10-16).

A street in Haifa may stand above the very spot where stories of Elijah in 1 Kings took place.

Answer: Herodium

The Herodium contains a palace, a bath house, a synogogue, and what is believed to be the tomb of Herod the Great himself, identified by archaeologists in 2007 and gradually uncovered in the face of much controversy over the next several years.

In the Bible, Herod is a main character in the narrative of the wise men who came looking for the King of the Jews (Matthew 2:1-23). The prophecy is uncovered that the messiah is to be born in Bethlehem, so Herod, according to Matthew's gospel, has all the baby boys in Bethlehem under two years old murdered. Meanwhile, Joseph, who was warned in a dream, has taken Jesus to Egypt and will later go home to Nazareth. Historically, Herod ordered many deaths, including those of his own wife and sons; so while the Biblical account is unconfirmed by historical sources, it is not out of character.

Answer: Har Megiddo

"Har Megiddo" means the "Hill of Megiddo" - called "Armageddon" in the New Testament. The ancient city of Megiddo is actually a "tell" that owes its height as much to human habitation as to geography: archaeologists have found 25 layers of settlement at the site, dating from around 3500 B.C. Because it is strategically located, Megiddo has been a battleground many times and played an important defensive role as recently as World War I.