Revelation attracts more interpretation per verse than any other book, and most of that interpretation begins before the reader is clear on what the book contains. Twelve questions on the text itself: the letters, the seals, the numbers. No interpretation required.
Open “Bible Trivia: Revelation” on its own page — if the module does not load.
Every question, with the answer and the reason
The interactive module above runs in a sandbox of its own, which means its text is not part of this page. So here is the whole thing in full: all 12 questions, the options as they appear, the answer, and why that answer and not the one beside it. Nothing is held back to make you play first.
Easy
These turn on something stated outright in the text. If you have read the book, you have met the answer.
On which island does the writer say he was when he received the vision?
- Patmos — correct
- Cyprus
- Crete
- Malta
Answer: Patmos
Revelation 1:9. The writer says he was on Patmos, a small Aegean island, 'on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus'. Malta and Crete both belong to Acts and Paul's voyage; Cyprus to Paul's first journey. None of them is named in Revelation.
How many churches receive letters at the start of the book?
- Twelve
- Three
- Seven — correct
- Ten
Answer: Seven
Revelation 2–3 addresses seven churches in the Roman province of Asia: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. Seven then organises everything that follows — seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls — which is one reason the book reads as patterned rather than sequential reporting.
How many seals are opened?
- Seven — correct
- Four
- Twelve
- Ten
Answer: Seven
Revelation 6–8. Seven seals are opened in turn, and the first four release the riders usually called the four horsemen. The seventh seal opens onto the seven trumpets, which open onto the seven bowls, so the three sevens are nested rather than laid end to end.
What is the last book of the New Testament?
- Jude
- 3 John
- Hebrews
- Revelation — correct
Answer: Revelation
Revelation closes the New Testament in every standard ordering, which is part of why it is so often read as a conclusion to the whole Bible rather than as one book among others. Hebrews, Jude and 3 John all sit earlier in the collection, among the letters.
Medium
These need a detail held in place — a name, a sequence, a number that only means something next to another number.
Which of the seven churches is called “neither cold nor hot”?
- Ephesus
- Laodicea — correct
- Smyrna
- Sardis
Answer: Laodicea
Revelation 3:15–16, addressed to Laodicea. Ephesus is charged with abandoning the love it had at first; Sardis with having a name for being alive while being dead; Smyrna receives no rebuke at all. Only two of the seven churches are given no charge against them.
How many elders are seated around the throne?
- Twelve
- Twenty-four — correct
- Seven
- Seventy
Answer: Twenty-four
Revelation 4:4. Twenty-four elders sit around the throne in white, with golden crowns. The number is usually read as twelve tribes plus twelve apostles, but the text itself never explains it — one of many places where the book supplies an image and leaves the arithmetic to the reader.
What number is given for the mark of the beast?
- 777
- 144
- 1260
- 666 — correct
Answer: 666
Revelation 13:18, which calls it the number of a man. The other figures in the options are all in the book as well — 144,000 sealed in chapter 7, 1,260 days in chapter 11 — so a reader half-remembering the numbers has several plausible wrong answers to choose from.
How many are sealed, according to Revelation 7?
- 144,000 — correct
- 12,000
- 7,000
- 1,000
Answer: 144,000
Revelation 7:4 — twelve thousand sealed from each of twelve tribes. The tribal list that follows is not the standard one: Dan is missing and Manasseh appears alongside Joseph, a substitution the text makes without comment and which has been argued over ever since.
Hard
These turn on what the evidence actually supports, which is not always what the story is remembered as saying.
What is the name given to the rider on the pale horse?
- War
- Famine
- Death — correct
- Conquest
Answer: Death
Revelation 6:8. The fourth rider is the only one the text names, and it adds that Hades followed close behind him. The first three are described by what they carry and what they do — a bow, a sword, a pair of scales — but are given no names at all.
Which two witnesses’ deaths are described in Revelation 11?
- Moses and Elijah
- Peter and Paul
- Enoch and Elijah
- Two unnamed witnesses — correct
Answer: Two unnamed witnesses
Revelation 11:3–12. The two witnesses prophesy, are killed, lie unburied for three and a half days, and rise. The text never names them. The identifications with Moses and Elijah, or Enoch and Elijah, are all later readings drawn from the signs they perform — exactly the kind of gap where interpretation grows.
What are the dimensions given for the new Jerusalem?
- A circle
- A cube, equal in length, width and height — correct
- A seven-sided city
- Twice as long as it is wide
Answer: A cube, equal in length, width and height
Revelation 21:16. The city is measured as a cube, equal in length, breadth and height. The shape is not arbitrary: the inner sanctuary of Solomon's temple in 1 Kings 6:20 is also described as a cube, so the whole city is being presented as the holy of holies.
What does the book say about adding to or taking from its words?
- Nothing is said
- It permits later additions
- A warning is attached in the final chapter — correct
- It applies only to the letters
Answer: A warning is attached in the final chapter
Revelation 22:18–19 attaches a warning against adding to or taking from 'the words of the prophecy of this book'. The wording is specific to Revelation and sits at its very end; a similar formula appears in Deuteronomy 4:2 about the law, long before any collected canon existed.
What this quiz draws on
Books in play: Revelation. Each of those leads to what the book contains, who has been proposed as its author, and how it is dated.
Themes: Eschatology.
Answers here are drawn from the biblical text and, where an external record bears on the question, from the artefact or publication that carries it. How this site reads a text and how this site is written set out the rules, so you can check the reasoning rather than take the answer on trust.