Bible Trivia: Acts and the Early Church — printable

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.

1. What appeared over the disciples at Pentecost?

   • A pillar of cloud
   • Divided tongues as of fire — correct
   • A dove
   • A star

   Answer: Divided tongues as of fire

   Acts 2:3, accompanied by a sound like a rushing wind. The dove belongs to the baptism of Jesus in the Gospels, which is a different scene often merged with this one.

2. Who is stoned to death after a long speech before the council?

   • Philip
   • Stephen — correct
   • Barnabas
   • James the brother of John

   Answer: Stephen

   Acts 7:54–60, with Saul standing by and the witnesses laying their coats at his feet — the first time Paul appears in the book. James the brother of John is killed later, at Acts 12:2, but by the sword on Herod's order rather than by stoning.

3. On the road to which city was Saul struck down by a light from heaven?

   • Jerusalem
   • Antioch
   • Tarsus
   • Damascus — correct

   Answer: Damascus

   Acts 9:3, on the road to Damascus, where he was heading with letters authorising arrests. Tarsus is his home city, named at Acts 21:39, and Antioch is where he is later based and sent out from — neither is the road in question.

4. To whom is the book of Acts addressed in its opening verse?

   • Theophilus — correct
   • Timothy
   • Titus
   • Luke

   Answer: Theophilus

   Acts 1:1, which also refers back to a “first book” — the Gospel of Luke, addressed to the same man in Luke 1:3. Timothy and Titus receive letters from Paul, not this narrative.

Medium

These need a detail held in place — a name, a sequence, a number that only means something next to another number.

1. In which city were the disciples first called Christians?

   • Jerusalem
   • Rome
   • Antioch — correct
   • Ephesus

   Answer: Antioch

   Acts 11:26, at the end of a year Barnabas and Saul spent teaching there. Jerusalem is where the movement begins, but the text is explicit that the name was first used in Antioch.

2. Who was chosen by lot to replace Judas among the twelve?

   • Barsabbas
   • Stephen
   • Barnabas
   • Matthias — correct

   Answer: Matthias

   Acts 1:23–26. Joseph called Barsabbas was the other candidate put forward, and the lot fell to Matthias — so the near-miss answer is one the text itself supplies. It is also the last time in Acts that a decision is made by casting lots.

3. Which Roman centurion at Caesarea is baptised after Peter’s vision?

   • Julius
   • Cornelius — correct
   • Claudius Lysias
   • The centurion at Capernaum

   Answer: Cornelius

   Acts 10:1–48. Julius is the centurion who guards Paul on the voyage in Acts 27:1, and Claudius Lysias is the tribune in Jerusalem in Acts 23 — both real figures in Acts, neither this one.

4. On which island is Paul shipwrecked on the way to Rome?

   • Cyprus
   • Crete
   • Malta — correct
   • Patmos

   Answer: Malta

   Acts 28:1, where he is bitten by a viper and unharmed. The ship had sailed along Crete beforehand, in Acts 27:7–13, which is why Crete is the usual wrong answer.

Hard

These turn on what the evidence actually supports, which is not always what the story is remembered as saying.

1. Who fell from a third-storey window while Paul was preaching at Troas?

   • Eutychus — correct
   • Trophimus
   • Tychicus
   • Sopater

   Answer: Eutychus

   Acts 20:9–12, during a talk that lasted until midnight. Trophimus, Tychicus and Sopater are all genuine travelling companions listed in Acts 20:4, which makes the guess a live one.

2. Which tradesman stirred up the riot against Paul at Ephesus?

   • Alexander the coppersmith
   • Simon the tanner
   • Demetrius the silversmith — correct
   • Aquila the tentmaker

   Answer: Demetrius the silversmith

   Acts 19:24, over the loss of trade in silver shrines of Artemis. Simon the tanner hosts Peter at Joppa in Acts 10:6, and Aquila is Paul’s fellow tentmaker in Acts 18:3 — neither is an opponent.

3. What inscription does Paul quote to the council at Athens?

   • To an unknown god — correct
   • To the god of gods
   • To Zeus, first among the gods
   • To the god of the Hebrews

   Answer: To an unknown god

   Acts 17:23, spoken at the Areopagus after he had seen the city full of idols. The speech then quotes Greek poets rather than scripture, which is what makes this address unlike his others in Acts.

4. Over whom did Paul and Barnabas part company at the start of the second journey?

   • Silas
   • Timothy
   • Titus
   • John Mark — correct

   Answer: John Mark

   Acts 15:37–40. Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus; Paul chose Silas, so Silas is the companion of the split rather than its cause. Timothy is recruited afterwards, in Acts 16:1–3.

What this quiz draws on

Books in play: Acts. Each of those leads to what the book contains, who has been proposed as its author, and how it is dated.

Themes: The early church.

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.