Something Old Again Trivia Quiz

Answer: Aleph

The names of the stanzas go all the way from aleph to tau (the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet). The stanza named for aleph describes the glories of obeying the Commandments: "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord ..." (Psalm 119:1).

Answer: Yes. Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles include additional text where God is mentioned.

While the book of Esther never explicitly mentions God in either Jewish or Protestant Christian versions of the Bible, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles include some extra chapters (commonly known as part of the Deuterocanon or Apocrypha) which DO mention God - quite extensively. These chapters are drawn from the Greek; the corresponding manuscripts in the original Hebrew, if they ever existed, were lost by 100 BC.

Here's the very first such mention, in verses 8-10 of the prologue to the book in the New American Bible, Revised Edition. Mordecai, Esther's cousin, has a dream in which dragons appeared and the nations of the world prepared for battle against the chosen people. "The whole nation of the just was shaken with fear at the evils to come upon them, and they expected to perish. Then they cried out to God, and from their crying there arose, as though from a tiny spring, a mighty river, a flood of water. The light of the sun broke forth; the lowly were exalted and they devoured the boastful." By the end of the book, Mordecai has realized the prophetic meaning of the dream: he himself was one of the dragons, set against the wicked Haman, and Esther was the river who flooded the battlefield and rescued her people.

Answer: Elisha

Elisha was on the way to Mount Carmel after purifying the waters of Jericho, soon after his mentor Elijah was brought up to heaven in a chariot of fire. When Elisha passed through Beth-el, the children appeared by the road and called him "thou bald head." Angered all out of proportion, Elisha called down the wrath of the Lord; the story is told in 2 Kings 2:23-25.

Answer: He was forced to wander the earth

Abel (the younger son) was a shepherd and Cain a farmer. They each left an offering for God, who accepted only Abel's sacrifice. Cain, angry, murdered his brother in a field. When God asked Cain where Abel had gone, Cain retorted: "Am I my brother's keeper?" For his crime and his lack of remorse, Cain was condemned to wander the earth, unable to till the soil.

The story is told in Genesis 4:2-16.

Answer: gopher wood

Noah was told to "make thee an ark of gopher wood .... the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits" (Genesis 6:14-15). All of this was, of course, in preparation for the Great Flood - in which God intended to kill all the creatures of the Earth, except for Noah (a righteous man) and his family, and a pair of every kind of animal, to be brought aboard the ark by Noah.

Answer: Ruth

Naomi, Ruth's Jewish mother-in-law, had two widowed daughters-in-law: Ruth herself, and another Moabite named Orpah. After the deaths of her sons, Naomi tried to persuade Ruth and Orpah to leave her, remarry, and live their lives. Orpah protested but eventually returned to her people; Ruth, however, insisted on remaining with Naomi.

The book of Ruth is four chapters long and falls between Judges and 1 Samuel.

Answer: Death of the firstborn

The ten plagues (Exodus 7-12) began with the turning of water to blood, followed by an infestation of frogs; then of ticks; then of swarms of flying insects. After the locusts had gone, all Egyptian cattle fell ill and died, while Hebrew cattle were untouched.

The people and livestock of Egypt were next afflicted by boils, after which they suffered a great hailstorm, a plague of locusts, and a three-day-long "thick darkness" (Exodus 10:22). The worst plague, however, was the last: the slaying in the night of the firstborn children, of Egyptians rich and poor, powerful and helpless, as well as the firstborn offspring of Egyptian animals.

The Jews, warned by Moses, sacrificed lambs in place of their children. It was after this final plague that Pharaoh finally allowed Moses to lead his people out of Egypt.

Answer: Deborah

Deborah's judgeship is described in Judges 4 and 5. A prophetess already by the time she rose to power, she judged Israel from beneath a palm tree in Mount Ephraim, led her armies into battle, and sang songs for the glory of God. Under her leadership, Israel had peace for forty years.

Answer: Hosea

Hosea is thought to have prophesied in the eighth century B.C., during the reign of Jeroboam II. He was told by the Lord that "the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord" (1:2). While terrible punishment is threatened - "The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water" (5:10) - Hosea also recounts God's promise to forgive and redeem Israel with the passage of time: "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him" (14:4).

Answer: Belshazzar

Belshazzar, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, had "praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone" (Daniel 5:23) at this feast, as well as serving wine from the sacred vessels his father had looted from the temple of Jerusalem. During the course of this feast, a disembodied hand wrote "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN" (5:25) on the wall, and none of the king's astrologers could interpret it. Finally he sent for the Hebrew prophet Daniel, who interpreted the writing for him: "MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians" (5:26-28). Belshazzar died that very night, and sure enough, his kingdom was taken by Darius, a Median.