Jesus: Predictions of His Own Death Quiz

Answer: "The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep."

This line is from the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verses 11-18. In that passage, Jesus says many times that He lays down His life for His flock. He now alludes to His death, likening Himself to the good shepherd and saying that His life was on the line.

In this quote He does not state clearly that He will die, but He makes it clear that death is an option. "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep." (John 10:15)

Answer: Peter's denial of Jesus

In the New International Version of John's Chapter 13, we have many predictions by Jesus, including Judas' betrayal, Peter's denial, and his own death. In fact, Christian tradition has it that eleven of the apostles did follow Jesus to a death by violence. "You will follow later" may not indicate just death, but death by execution.

In fact, Peter's death by crucifixion seems to be foretold by Jesus in John 21:19.

Answer: Herod

In the preceding chapter of Luke's Gospel, we read that Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, where He would die. The Pharisees warned Jesus that Herod was out to arrest Him. Matthew's gospel, chapter 14 (NASB) tells the tale of how Herod Antipas had John the Baptist killed, so the threats from that source were serious! This passage seems to have Jesus giving to the Pharisees a definite timeline of His death. I find this all interesting, as the Pharisees and Sadducees were not friends of Jesus.

He warned followers to beware of both in Matthew 16:5-12. Why would they warn Jesus of danger? Although the passage says "Some Pharisees", and they may not be representative of the Sanhedrin group, it also may be that the Pharisees were trying to keep Jesus out of Jerusalem and away from the seat of their power. Christianity.about.com says the Sanhedrin, which consisted of Pharisees and Sadducees, ruled over Judea only at the time of Jesus. Jerusalem was a major city of Judea.

A map at bible-history.com/maps shows Jerusalem as the center of the roads of the time.

Answer: That her sons be granted a favored seat in the kingdom.

Matthew 20:21 (NKJV) reads, "Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom." My goodness! Jesus has just said He was going to die and soon! What a question! We know that the sons of Zebedee, James and John, were truly devout apostles, from tales of the Gospels and the Acts told later. We have to appreciate that their mother wanted them to be in Paradise. (Parallel accounts of the death prediction are in Mark 10:32 and Luke 18:31, with Mark's account saying the sons asked for the favor, and Luke not having the request at all.)

Answer: He said, "Get thee behind Me, Satan."

Jesus said that Peter was talking with man's reasoning (Matthew 16:22 NKJV) and not with God's thinking. I have always wondered if the "Get thee behind Me, Satan" quote meant that Peter's suggestion was a temptation to Jesus and this must be put aside, or if He was truly calling Peter "Satan".

The Bible is cool like that - the more I think about passages, the more I can see different ways of viewing it. I think both are true. Whichever, these days, "Get thee behind me, Satan" is used by a person when presented with a temptation to do wrong.

Answer: He was killed.

The parable parallels the events of Old Testament prophets, many of whom were attacked, and the events of Jesus being sent to Jerusalem only to also be killed. In Mark 12:12, in fact, the gospel says "Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest Him because they knew He had spoken the parable against them." The fact that the parable ended with the death of the son seems to be another prediction of Jesus' own death.

Answer: Poured oil on Jesus

A parallel passage (NKJV) is found in John 12, where the woman is identified as Lazarus' sister Mary. In this passage it is only Judas Iscariot who protests, and in the text of Matthew, the apostles in general are said to gripe. The bottom line is that Jesus said that the oil is in preparation for His burial, where bodies are anointed with oil for the tomb. "In both ancient and modern Jewish practice, the body is ritually washed (in a process called tohorah) after death before being wrapped in a shroud.

The practice of anointing varies over time and location, but in ancient tradition, the body was also anointed with oils and sometimes wrapped with aromatic herbs such as olive, laurel, palm and cypress to help fight the effects of the rapid decomposition that occurred in the Mediterranean heat." ("Jewish Burial Customs and Anointing Oils", by HD Livingston) Since this is done immediately before entering the tomb, Jesus seems to be saying that his death is to be immediate. Since John's gospel says this was six days before Passover, then Jesus would be dead within a week. Different versions of the Bible have the anointing performed with perfume, ointment, or oil, always from a costly alabaster container.

Answer: take up his cross

In this time of history, a cross is used for crucifixion. In 2014, Kirk Janowiak wrote in an article about crucifixion, "Rome (and other nations and kings as far back as the 6th century B.C. [B.C.E.] used crucifixion as a 'showy' way to punish people; usually those accused of sedition or other political resistance to those currently in power." To use this phrase in the first century BC not only predicted death, but the method of death.

It could be argued that sometimes in earlier times, having a prisoner carry the cross but not be executed happened, so this quote is not an absolute certainty of Jesus predicting his death. So this quote only becomes a prediction when combined with the remainder of the quotes in all four gospels.

Answer: Which of the disciples was the greatest

I have often puzzled about how your leader could say He was going to die, and then you would start talking about who was the greatest among your group. Were they starting to decide who would take over after Jesus was gone? Or were they saying "I am not going to ask! YOU are better than me! YOU ask!" Either way, the accounts which include the conversation about greatness conclude with Jesus saying they had to become childlike in order to be great.

Answer: Those who came to arrest Jesus all fell down.

This is a very cool passage and only found in John's Gospel. The arresting party all fell down after Jesus spoke. In the arrest story in this Gospel, there was no kiss by Judas Iscariot. The identification to the authorities by an embrace was not necessary, as Jesus twice identified himself to them. The tone in this arrest account is one where the arrestee is clearly in control of everything.

Now, one can argue that the John 16 quote is not a death prediction, and that "going back to the Father" may just mean disappearing from them. But the fact that the "going back" line was immediately followed by an arrest and death, rather than "disappearing", seems to say death was the focus of this last prediction.