Simon Peter Trivia Quiz

Answer: Fisherman

According to the Bible, Simon (as he was then called), was a fisherman in Galilee. The first disciple, he later came to be called Peter, from the Latin word for "rock".

Answer: Andrew

According to Matthew 4:18-20, Simon and Andrew were fishing and Jesus came up to them saying "Come follow me...and I will make you fishers of men." The brothers' response was to immediately leave their nets and follow Jesus.

Answer: 'To hear/to be heard'

The name 'Simon' had a dip in popularity in the early-mid 20th century but had a resurgence in the 1970s and 1980s and is still in the top 250 most common baby names in the USA.

The African girls' name 'Julisha' means 'To make known'; the Indian boys' name 'Vilok' means 'To see' and the Irish name 'Sheridan' means 'to seek', for your information!

Answer: Malchus

According to John 18:10, the man who was attacked by Peter was called Malchus and was a servant of the High Priest. Interestingly, only the gospel of Luke records that Jesus healed the man's ear after it had been chopped off, although all three other gospel writers record the attack.

John is the only gospel writer to record the name of the man who Peter attacked, and is also the only writer to name Peter specifically as being the actor (the other writers merely say it was one of Jesus's disciples).

Answer: False

Although this has not been conclusively proven, several stories regarding Peter's death emerged fairly soon after he was martyred. The chief source of this story seems to be "The Acts of Peter", an apocryphal text written in the 2nd Century AD, which stated that Peter asked to be crucified upside down as he believed he was "unworthy to die in the same manner as my Lord".

The early church theologian Origen confirmed this attestation, as did the eminent historian Eusebius.

It is much more certain that Peter was actually martyred, and at a similar time to Paul. Several Christian leaders and historians of the time recorded that Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome under the reign of Emperor Nero in around AD64. The earliest mention of this is contained in a letter from Clement, the bishop of Rome between AD88-97 and a contemporary of the two men, to the church in Corinth. In this, he stated that both Peter and Paul had suffered and been martyred in Rome.

Answer: Aeneas

According to Acts 9:32-34, Peter went to visit the members of the church in Lydda and met a paralytic named Aeneas there. Peter said to him "Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat." and the man got up and walked.

Lydda is the Greco-Latin name for the town of Lod, which still survives today in spite of having been burnt down by the Romans. It is situated very close to the administrative centre of Israel, Tel Aviv. Israel's main airport, the Ben Gurion International Airport, is situated in Lod.

Interestingly, tradition states that the patron saint of England, St George, was born in Lod. As a result, 11th and 12th Century crusaders regarded Lod as a place of great significance and King Richard the Lionheart was at great pains to ensure that the town remained under English control.

Answer: Vatican City

The Vatican City is officially a city state in its own right, and is situated in the city of Rome, Italy. It is a mere 0.44km squared and has one of the highest population densities in the world as over 800 people live in the city at any one time. However, it is the smallest independent state in the world both by population and area (not including the micronation 'Sealand'!).

Answer: Peter withdrew from the Gentiles when there were Jews around

According to Galatians 2:11-12, Paul opposed Peter when he arrived in Antioch as he "began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group." This group had come to Antioch from Jerusalem at the behest of James (Jesus's brother who, at the time, was the head of the church in Jerusalem) and still insisted on the necessity of circumcision, which Paul had vehemently spoken out against. Paul wanted to rebuke Peter and re-emphasise the fact that Christians have "died to the law" because of the new covenant established by the death of Jesus Christ.

Barnabas was a close companion of both Paul and Peter, and did in fact go to Cyprus to establish the church there. He is believed to have been martyred there in the city of Salamis in AD 61.

Answer: Cephas

Cephas means 'Rock' in Aramaic, and it is the word used in John's gospel when the author retells the story of Jesus renaming Simon (in John 1:42). Peter is the name as it would be translated into Greek, and as Peter and the other residents of Galilee would have been more likely to speak Aramaic, it is this language that Jesus would most likely have used when renaming Simon.

Interestingly, the word used in Matthew's gospel when referring to the same situation is actually the Greek word Petros (Peter) rather than the Aramaic word Cephas. This has led some commentators to hypothesise that there were in fact two Cephases - Simon Peter and another Cephas whom Jesus appeared to just after his resurrection. However, the prevailing theory appears to be that these were one and the same person - the disciple Simon Peter.

Answer: Cilicia

Cilicia is the region where Paul was from, and is situated in modern-day Turkey. This region was not mentioned by Peter in the opening of 1 Peter, although it is mentioned several times in Acts as being a place where Paul and his fellow apostles spent time preaching as the early church was developing.

In 1 Peter 1, Peter writes "To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia".

Pontus was originally part of Cappadocia, but became its own state in the period just after Alexander the Great's death. It is situated in modern day Northern Turkey, on the shores of the Black Sea. It was also briefly annexed to neighbouring Bithynia, but in Julius Caesar's reign it became re-established as a state in its own right and remained as part of the Roman and Byzantine empires for almost the next 1500 years.

Galatia is situated in modern day central Turkey and was initially the home of the ancient Hittite civilisation. However, it came to be known as Galatia because it was bizarrely occupied by Gallic Celts in the 3rd Century BC. These were peoples from Western Europe who had crossed the Alps searching for better places to live, and made it all the way across to Central Turkey after initially being resisted by Alexander the Great.

Answer: Gentle and quiet

Peter writes about the marriage relationship in 1 Peter 3, and parts of the passage are often quoted at Christian marriage ceremonies (although perhaps not as much as the similar passage from Ephesians 5). He says of wives that "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewellery and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight."

For all those women out there distressed about being forbidden to braid your hair, I should mention that the hairstyles that were worn by women in Peter and Paul's day were quite different to what we might call braids today. They often contained complex metal frames which the hair was woven around and took hours to prepare. Richer women also placed jewels in their hair, and the combination of these extravagant styles would clearly have been a distraction to the 1st century man!

Answer: True

The passage I am referring to is contained in 2 Peter 1:5-8 and states that a Christian should make every effort to "add to your faith goodness; and to goodness self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love." Although the ultimate aim is the final item on the list, love for everyone, including your enemies as well as your Christian brothers, it is generally believed that the list is not intended to be attained consecutively. According to Albert Barnes's "Notes on the New Testament", "The order in which this is to be done is not the point at all."

Rather, as William G Moorehead stated in the "International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia", "it is like a chain; each link holds fast to its fellow and is a part of the whole. It matters little at which end of the chain we begin ... to touch one is to touch all."

Answer: Rhoda

Rhoda was a servant girl living in the house of Mary, mother of John Mark, one of the apostles who travelled extensively with Peter and Paul. According to Acts 12:13-15, when Rhoda saw Peter at the door she rushed back inside to tell Mary and the others in the house that he had arrived, but they did not believe her. It was only when they came to see him themselves that they realised she was telling the truth.

Priscilla was one of the early apostles in Corinth and was the wife of a man from Pontus, one of the provinces in Asia Minor, called Aquila. The pair had been exiled from Italy because Emperor Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome, and were in the same trade as Paul as they were also tentmakers. According to Acts, they also travelled with Paul on some of his missionary journies, including to Ephesus and Syria. In fact, according to Acts 18:26, Priscilla and Aquila were instrumental in the life of Apollos, one of Paul's closest friends and colleagues. When they heard him preaching, they invited him back to their house and "explained to him the way of God more adequately". Many scholars believe that this means although Apollos was probably a passionate speaker and follower of the stories of Jesus, he did not know at that time the full meaning of grace and how salvation came not from works but only through Jesus's sacrifice. This showed their strength as Christian elders in the early church and, according to Romans 16:3-5, they also risked their lives for Paul and ran a church in their house.

Lydia was a businesswoman from Thyatira (in modern day Turkey) who traded in purple cloth according to Acts 16:14. When she heard Paul's message and became a Christian, she was baptized along with all of her household! She also invited Paul and Silas to stay in her house when they were in Philippi.

Martha was the sister of Mary and Lazarus, who were all very close to Jesus during the time of his ministry. She is mentioned both in Luke and John's gospel as being a friend and follower of Jesus, and in John 11 is mentioned as being beloved to Jesus. In fact, when her brother Lazarus died, Jesus showed how close he was to the man as he returned to the place where Lazarus was and wept with grief at his death. When Jesus came back to raise Lazarus from the dead, he asked Martha if she believed that Jesus was the "resurrection and the life", to which she replied "Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

Answer: False

According to Acts 12, Peter's miraculous escape from prison was due to an angel leading him out. His chains fell off, he followed the angel past two sets of guards and then the iron gate separating the prison from the city opened for them by itself and he was free!

As a result, according to Acts 12:19, Herod executed the guards who had let him escape from prison.

The King Herod referred to in this passage was obviously not the same Herod who was the King of Judah at the time of Jesus's birth 35 years or so earlier - he was King Herod Agrippa I, the son of Aristobulus. Herod Agrippa was the grandson of Herod the Great, who ordered the slaughtering of all boys under the age of 2 just after Jesus was born (according to Matthew 2). In fact, the two were probably not close as Herod the Great had Aristobulus, Agrippa's father, executed and exiled Agrippa to Rome at the age of 3. There, Agrippa became friends with two of the future emperors of Rome - Claudius and Caligula. The latter became a very useful ally later in Agrippa's life as he freed him from imprisonment at the hands of Emperor Tiberius and immediately installed him as King of the Jewish territories - a post which he held at the time of the events set out in this question.

Answer: Matthias

According to Acts 1, Peter spoke at a meeting of around 120 believers, reminding them of King David's words in Psalm 109:8 prophesying that another should take the place of leadership, interpreting this by deciding to choose a replacement for Judas Iscariot. There were two believers proposed: Joseph called Barsabbas, also known as Justus, and Matthias. After praying and asking God to show them which of the two should become the new disciple, they drew lots and the lot fell on Matthias.

Had the disciples waited longer before deciding who the replacement for Judas should be, it is likely that they would have proposed Paul, the great missionary to the Gentiles. However, at the time when they made the decision, Paul was not a believer and was actually a persecutor of the early church. In fact, he was an observer at the stoning of Stephen, the first recorded Christian martyr (in Acts 7), watching the cloaks of the witnesses as they stoned him outside the city.

Matthias himself is believed to have been a missionary to regions of Armenia, travelling there with his fellow apostles Thaddaeus, Bartholomew, Simon the Zealot and Andrew. Armenian tradition states that he suffered persecution while spreading the gospel there, including in the great city of Sebastopol, a port on the Black Sea.