What Ya Got Cookin'? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Abraham

Abraham told Sarah to cook or bake bread because they had three special guests. One of them was even more special than the other two, even though they were special as well. According to Genesis 18, Yahweh (the Lord God) appeared to Abraham in human form! Along with Him were two angels. God was apparently in the form of a human male when He promised Abraham and Sarah that they would have a baby, Isaac.

Many Christian theologians believe that whenever someone saw God in the Old Testament, he or she saw the pre-incarnate Word of God, who later became the man, Jesus of Nazareth. This is because Jesus said Himself that nobody ever saw the Father.

As for the incorrect choices, Simeon is the only one who even appears in Genesis. Simeon was Sarah's great-grandson; a son of her grandson, Jacob, and Leah. Jethro appears in Exodus as Zipporah's father. David was a king of Israel, who appears largely (but not totally) in 1 and 2 Samuel.

Answer: Stew

Isaac and Rebekah (Rebecca) had twins, Jacob and Esau. Esau was slightly older than Jacob, but Jacob ended up getting the firstborn blessing because Esau sold his birthright for stew.

Genesis 25:30 states that the stew was red, which is why Esau was renamed "Edom", which means "red". Verse 34 specifies it as lentil stew.

It's interesting to note that while most Bible translations call it stew, the Expanded Bible (EXB) refers to it as both vegetable soup and stew.

Answer: Isaiah 1:11

Yes, believe it or not, this law was evidently so important that God mentioned it in three different places, which are Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, and Deuteronomy 14:21. Although the Bible doesn't clearly say why God didn't want them to cook a young goat (which has sometimes been interpreted to mean any clean mammal) in its mother's milk, there have been various theories. Some readers suggest that it was a pagan or idolatrous ritual, so God wanted His people to abstain from it. Other readers suggest that it was forbidden because it was unnecessary abuse--why take the mother's milk, the very thing meant to give life to the baby animal, and then use it to kill the animal?

Isaiah 1:11 isn't a law. It states that God takes no pleasure in the blood of bulls, sheep, and goats. I really believe this is true. I believe that the only reason there had to be animal sacrifices is because the innocent animals needed to die for the guilty human beings. But according to Genesis, God originally created everybody to be vegetarians. Why would God take pleasure in the death or blood of the animals He created?

Answer: True

"Gideon hurried home. He cooked a young goat, and with a basket of flour he baked some bread without yeast. Then, carrying the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he brought them out and presented them to the angel, who was under the great tree.
The angel of God said to him, 'Place the meat and the unleavened bread on this rock, and pour the broth over it.' And Gideon did as he was told. Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and bread with the tip of the staff in his hand, and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all he had brought. And the angel of the Lord disappeared.
When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he cried out, 'Oh, Sovereign Lord, I'm doomed! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!'
'It is all right,' the Lord replied. 'Do not be afraid. You will not die.' And Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and named it Yahweh-Shalom (which means 'the Lord is peace'). The altar remains in Ophrah in the land of the clan of Abiezer to this day" (Judges 6:19-23, New Living Translation).

Since, obviously, I couldn't quote all of Judges 6, so I decided to quote the verses most relevant to the question. However, when Gideon first saw the Angel of the Lord, He told Gideon that the Lord was with him. Gideon was afraid of the Midianites, who were mistreating Israel, so he was struggling with faith. He asked the Angel to show him a sign, to prove that the Lord was indeed talking to him. The sign included the goat and bread. Sure enough, Gideon was convinced that he had seen God, which is why he exclaimed that he was going to die. The Hebrews believed that if they ever saw God in His glory, they would die.

It appears that when Old Testament people saw the Angel of the Lord (literally the Messenger of Yahweh) they did see God, but not His whole glory, so they didn't have to die.

Answer: Bread or savory cake

One thing I noticed while creating this quiz is that people in both the Old and New Testaments seemed to eat bread, bread, and more bread. They ate other things too, but bread was very prominent. No wonder Jesus called Himself the Bread of Life in the New Testament.

In the Bible, cake is basically a synonym for bread. It doesn't refer to the concept of a sweet cake with frosting. However, parts of the Old Testament do speak of fig and raisin cakes, in addition to honey-flavored manna.

Amnon was a son of King David and Ahinoam. Tamar was a daughter of David and Maacah. Amnon asked Tamar to cook for him, but he wasn't exactly interested in food. When she refused to sleep with him, he forced her to. When David heard about what his son did to his daughter, he was very angry, and rightly so.

Answer: Roasted

God commanded that the Passover lamb be roasted. The Israelites were supposed to drain the lamb's blood from him (God commanded the lamb to be a male) and then put the blood on their doors, so that the plague of death would pass over the homes with blood on them. But the Israelites were also supposed to eat the flesh of the roasted lamb.

Even though the term "lamb" is used, Exodus 12 also says that he could be a young sheep or goat.

Answer: A widow, to Elijah

According to 1 Kings 17, God told Elijah that He planned for a widow to take care of Elijah. Elijah saw a widow gathering sticks and he asked her for a drink of water. She agreed, but then he asked her for a piece of bread. She then answered with the quote. Elijah told her not to worry, because the Lord would provide enough oil and flour for her. Elijah asked her to bake a little bread for him first, and then cook a meal for herself and her son. She miraculously had oil and flour in her cabinet for months, just like Elijah prophesied, until the drought ended and the Lord sent rain to the land.

Elijah stayed in the widow's home for a while. One day, her son fell ill and died, but the prophet, through God's help, raised the boy back to life.

I have sometimes wondered if Elijah eventually married the widow. That might just be romantic, wishful thinking on my part, though. There is nothing in the Bible that suggests Elijah was ever married to anyone. On the other hand, celibacy was uncommon for Hebrews.

Answer: No

This is a big no. Jeremiah says that God was livid over the Israelites cooking for and sacrificing to the "Queen of Heaven". This is a reference to the pagan goddess, Ishtar. This goddess was believed to be the wife of the Babylonian god Baal/Molech, so they called her the Queen of Heaven.

Jeremiah 7:18, New Living Translation:
"No wonder I am so angry! Watch how the children gather wood and the fathers build sacrificial fires. See how the women knead dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. And they pour out liquid offerings to their other idol gods!"

In the Old Testament, Yahweh's only "wife" was the nation of Israel, who was actually committing spiritual adultery against her "husband" because she worshipped other gods, including the "Queen of Heaven". In the New Testament, Christ's "bride" will be the church, but this, like God's marriage to Israel, is only figurative.

According to traditional Christianity, as the first and second members of the Trinity, God the Father and God the Son always had a father-son relationship.

Answer: It doesn't say

What ya got cooking, Martha? Unfortunately, the Bible doesn't tell us. What it does tell us is that Martha was very upset over her household chores, including the large dinner that she was preparing. She wanted her sister, Mary of Bethany, to help her, but Mary was listening to Jesus teach. Jesus told Martha that Mary chose the better option, because in the end, spiritual matters are more important than physical matters are. Jesus didn't really rebuke Martha, but He implied that she didn't need to be so anxious over cooking.

In John 12, we see the sisters once again in similar roles. Martha was cooking and serving food, while Mary came over to the table, broke open perfume, anointed and washed Jesus's feet, and dried them with her hair.

Answer: Jesus

Yes, it was Jesus Christ! I think it's beautiful that Jesus, of all people, who had been beaten, abused, and killed not too long before the event of John 21, was the one who cooked for the disciples. Keep in mind that these were the same male disciples who had deserted Him after His arrest. This just shows the mercy, love, and humility of the Lord. It's like in John 13, when Jesus washed the disciples' feet.

In Matthew 20:28, Jesus said about Himself, "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many" (NLT).