Nine Out of Ten: General Bible Trivia -- #17 Quiz

Answer: Voice of one calling in the wilderness

John the Baptist is described as the "voice of one calling in the wilderness" in Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:3, Luke 3:4 and John 1:23. Many Christians regard John as the last of the Old Testament prophets because he told the people to prepare for the arrival of the "Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world," as per John 1:29. John also preached a message of repentance as he baptized scores of people in the Jordan River, according to Scripture.

Answer: Ezra

Ezra is the correct answer. Tradition holds that Ezra not only wrote the Old Testament book that bears his name, but also the books of First and Second Chronicles and Nehemiah. Some modern day theologians, however, dispute this belief.

The book of Ezra tells of the return of two groups of exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem as well as the building of the temple and the dissolution of mixed marriages among the Israelites.

Answer: Naked

According to Scripture, an unnamed young man was seen fleeing naked after Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. There is a school of thought the unnamed man was actually Mark, the writer of the Gospel. Supporters of this belief point out Mark is the only Gospel that provides information about the naked man. Two more questions that supporters of the belief ask: How else would he have known about this incident and why would he even include it in his account from that evening?

Conventional wisdom holds the Last Supper was held in the Upper Room at Mark's house. The thinking is Mark could have easily pulled on a linen cloth and followed Jesus and His disciples that evening. When Jesus was arrested, there could have easily been some pushing and shoving by others at the scene with Mark's robe falling off and in fear, he fled naked.

Answer: Gideon

According to the seventh chapter of Judges, Gideon led a handful of Israelite soldiers to a spectacular military victory over a vastly larger number of Midiante soldiers. Judges 7:1-7 tells of Gideon having 32,000 soldiers and the number being reduced to 10,000 when 22,000 of them were excused for being fearful of fighting the Midianites. Then the LORD told Gideon to lead the 10,000 men to water where they were apparently told to drink.

Then things got downright interesting. The men who drank by lapping the water from their cupped hands like a dog were selected for battle while those who knelt down to drink were rejected. Only three hundred men lapped water like a dog, yet those were the men the LORD told Gideon to lead into battle. Sure enough, Scripture goes on to tell of Gideon's three hundred men scoring a spectacular military victory over their adversaries.

According to Judges 6:12 in the NIV Bible, Gideon means 'Mighty Warrior'.

Answer: Elisha

Elisha is the correct answer. We know Elisha was bald because 2 Kings 2:23-24 tells of a group of youths taunting him because of his baldness. Their taunting had deadly ramifications, however. Scripture tells of Elisha putting a curse on the youths and two female bears mauling forty-two of the taunters.

No other person is described as being bald in both the Old and New Testaments.

Answer: Abner

Abner was commander of King Saul's military, as per 1 Samuel 14:50-51. According to the two verses, Abner and Saul were first cousins. Kish and Ner were brothers while Kish was the father of Saul and Ner was the father of Abner.

Saul was the first king of Israel, as per 1 Samuel 9:2.

After Saul's death, Israel was embroiled in a bloody civil war with one side supporting Saul's son Ishbosheth as king and the other side supporting David. Initially, Abner supported Ishosheth but the two had a falling out and Abner became a supporter of David.

Answer: Nathan

The account of Nathan rebuking David is found in 2 Samuel 12:1-14. He used a parable to make David aware of the seriousness of his sinning when he had an adulterous affair with Bathsheba and then made arrangements to kill her husband, Uriah. Nathan than made the pronouncement that the child that would be born as a result of the adulterous relationship would die and sure enough it came to pass.

Incidentally, it was Nathan who told an elderly and frail David of a plot by Adonijah to become king. The end result is Solomon became king, as per 1 Kings 1:8-45.

Answer: Corinth

The Love Chapter appears in 1 Corinthians 13, a book written by Paul to members of the early church in Corinth. The modern city of Corinth is situated about three kilometres, or two miles, from the ancient city of Corinth. The new city was created after an earthquake destroyed the original city in 1858, according to Wikipedia.

The new city is about 78 kilometres, or 48 miles, southwest of Athens.

Answer: Ephraim

Ephraim was one of two sons of Joseph and Asenath. The other son was Manasseh. According to Genesis 41:52, Ephraim means 'For God Has Cause Me to be Fruitful in My Land of Affliction'. In other words, Joseph was enjoying immense success, this even though he arrived in Egypt as a slave.

Not much is known about Ephraim as he is largely mentioned in passing reference. Chapter 48 of Genesis tells of Ephraim being blessed by his grandfather Jacob.

Answer: Vengeance

Vengeance is a word linked with Simeon and Levi, sons of Jacob and Leah. After their sister Dinah was raped by Shechem, Simeon and Levi went on a ruthless killing spree. They killed not only Shechem but everyone else in his town. Scripture states the two brothers abducted all the women and children and plundered all the houses in the town. Details can be found in Genesis 34.