The Old Testament Menagerie Trivia Quiz

Answer: leopard his spots

This verse is the source of the expression "A leopard cannot change its spots", meaning a person cannot change his or her nature. The concept is a very fatalistic one, and Jeremiah 13:23 suggests that those who are truly evil cannot change what they are.

Many Christians readily accept this idea because of their belief about the nature of sin; generally speaking, most Christians believe that all human beings are sinners and by themselves cannot change what they are.

Answer: the camel

Technically, both the ox and the giraffe could be eaten because they are ruminants, meaning they chew a cud, and they both have cloven hooves. The horse could not be eaten because it neither chews a cud nor does it have cloven hooves. The only answer above that could satisfy the question and is the actual animal used in the example provided in Leviticus 11:4 is the camel.

A camel does chew a cud; however, a camel does not posses cloven hooves. If one looks at a camel foot from the front, the foot does appear to have two toes, but if one looks at the bottom of the camel's foot, the foot is not divided fully into two separate halves. That is enough of a detail to keep the animal from being kosher.

Answer: a lion

After the man fails to do as the unnamed prophet requests--inflict a wound upon him--the prophet speaks these words to him: ". . . Because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as thou art departed from me, a lion shall slay thee". Surely enough, ". . . as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and slew him" (Leviticus 20:36, KJV).

Later the prophet finds a man who IS willing to wound him. Then disguised with bandages he waits on the side of the road for Ahab. When Ahab travels by, the disguised prophet begs Ahab to protect him, for he fears his death. He explains that he was commanded to guard a prisoner but carelessly let the prisoner escape. Ahab rebukes the disguised prophet and tells him he should accept the consequences. Then the prophet reveals himself and tells Ahab he should have done the same when he had Ben-Hadad, his Syrian nemesis, in his presence. He now tells Ahab that God is going to take Ahab's life for the life of Ben-Hadad that was spared.

Answer: a goat

Daniel 8:5 states: "And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes" (KJV). Later, Daniel 8:21 offers an interpretation of Daniel's vision: "And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king" (KJV). The first half of this verse makes clear that the goat represents Greece, and most Biblical scholars argue that the "first king" is a reference to Alexander the Great.

Answer: a bear

The whole of Proverbs 17:12 states: "Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly" (KJV). Dictionary.com defines "whelp" as "the young of the dog, or of the wolf, bear, lion, tiger, seal, etc.". A mother bear can be quite violently protective of her young. Thus, to encounter a fool must be quite dangerous indeed, according to this writer, whom most scholars agree is Solomon.

Answer: the wolf with the lamb

Similarly, a later passage from Isaiah refers to the same two animals living in peace: "The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain" (65:25, KJV).

In the beginning of Isaiah, God condemns the people of Judah because of their moral and spiritual failures. They have neglected God to pursue their own selfish desires and have bowed to other gods. However, God extends grace and invites the people of Judah to repent and to return to Him because this is their only hope of avoiding judgment. Isaiah then speaks of the coming of Immanuel, the Messiah, and a time of peace.

Answer: a roe or a young hart

Isaiah 2:9 states, "My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice".

A "roe" is "a small, agile Old World deer" while a "hart" is "an adult male deer, usually of the red deer species". Interestingly, the hart had particular religious meaning to the Old English, who viewed it as a symbol of one of their gods, which would have been considered pagan, of course, by Christians.

While the Song of Solomon literally is an exchange of dialogue between a man and a woman who are passionately in love with each other, many Christians interpret this Old Testament book to be allegorically representative of the marriage between Christ and the Church.

Answer: the eagle

Throughout Job 39, God creates analogies using a variety of different animals to explain to Job that if he cannot understand God's ways in the natural world, he certainly cannot understand them in the spiritual one. Job, of course, has been struggling to understand why such great tragedy has fallen upon him.

After listening to God, however, Job confesses that he lacks all understanding and that God is sovereign over all.

Answer: a dog

The following three verses thoroughly explain the attitude of Goliath, the Philistine: "And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance. And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field" (1 Samuel 17:42-44).

David, of course, is not afraid. He believes he will be victorious over Goliath because God is on his side. David kills Goliath with a stone hurled from his sling and then decapitates the Philistine's corpse.

Answer: a serpent

Proverbs 23:31-32 states: "Do not look on the wine when it is red, / When it sparkles in the cup, / When it swirls around smoothly; / At the last it bites like a serpent, / And stings like a viper".

The issue of whether people should drink wine remains a controversy among many Christians. While there are many verses that warn against drinking wine and being drunk, there are just as many that refer to others celebrating with it, such as when Jesus turns water into wine at a wedding in Cana after the guests have drunk all the wine that was originally supplied by the hosts.