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Bible Trivia: Egypt and the Bible — printable

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Bible Trivia: Egypt and the Bible — printable

Name: ______________________________ Date: ____________ Score: ______

  1. 1. Which pharaoh is named in the book of Exodus? Easy

    1. A Ramesses
    2. B Merneptah
    3. C None is named
    4. D Shishak

  2. 2. Which book opens with Joseph sold into Egypt? Easy

    1. A Genesis
    2. B Exodus
    3. C Numbers
    4. D Leviticus

  3. 3. Where is the earliest surviving mention of Israel outside the Bible? Easy

    1. A A Babylonian chronicle
    2. B An Assyrian annal
    3. C A Moabite monument
    4. D An Egyptian victory stele

  4. 4. Which gospel has the family flee to Egypt? Easy

    1. A John
    2. B Mark
    3. C Matthew
    4. D Luke

  5. 5. What does the Merneptah stele say about Israel? Medium

    1. A That it built cities for Egypt
    2. B That its king was captured
    3. C That it paid tribute
    4. D That it is laid waste and its seed is not

  6. 6. A technical detail in the Merneptah stele carries a great deal of argument. What is it? Medium

    1. A The name of the scribe
    2. B The material of the stone
    3. C A classifying sign marking Israel as a people rather than a place
    4. D The date of the stele

  7. 7. 1 Kings 14 records an Egyptian campaign against Jerusalem. Which pharaoh? Medium

    1. A Necho
    2. B Taharqa
    3. C Hophra
    4. D Shishak

  8. 8. Which Judaean king was killed in battle against an Egyptian army at Megiddo? Medium

    1. A Jehoiakim
    2. B Josiah
    3. C Manasseh
    4. D Hezekiah

  9. 9. Egyptian chronology is anchored by which of the following? Medium

    1. A Biblical genealogies
    2. B Greek historians only
    3. C Carbon dating alone
    4. D King lists, regnal records and astronomical data

  10. 10. Egyptian records never mention the exodus. What follows? Hard

    1. A It certainly did not happen
    2. B Nothing whatever
    3. C It is weak evidence, and cannot carry a conclusion alone
    4. D The records were destroyed by Moses

  11. 11. Why is the Merneptah stele poor evidence for the exodus in either direction? Hard

    1. A It is illegible
    2. B It mentions no departure, wilderness or conquest — only that a group called Israel was in Canaan by 1208
    3. C It postdates the New Testament
    4. D It is a forgery

  12. 12. The Elephantine papyri, from a Judaean community in Egypt, are important chiefly because they show what? Hard

    1. A Ordinary Judaean religious practice outside Jerusalem, including a temple
    2. B That Hebrew was never written
    3. C The text of Isaiah in the fifth century
    4. D The date of the exodus

Answer key — teacher’s sheet

Print pages separately: hand out the worksheet, keep this one.

  1. 1. C — None is named

    None. Exodus never gives the pharaoh a name, which is one reason the episode cannot be tied to a reign from the biblical text alone. Egyptian records, by contrast, are organised entirely around named kings.

  2. 2. A — Genesis

    Genesis, in chapters 37 to 50. Exodus begins after a long interval, with a king who did not know Joseph.

  3. 3. D — An Egyptian victory stele

    The Merneptah stele, from about 1208 BCE, found by Petrie at Thebes and now in Cairo. It lists defeated Canaanite entities and includes Israel among them.

  4. 4. C — Matthew

    Matthew 2. The episode appears in no other gospel, and Matthew reads it as a fulfilment of a line in Hosea that in its own context refers to the exodus.

  5. 5. D — That it is laid waste and its seed is not

    Conventional language of total destruction, of a kind Egyptian royal texts use freely. Israel demonstrably continued, which makes the line a useful demonstration that royal rhetoric and fact sit side by side in these documents.

  6. 6. C — A classifying sign marking Israel as a people rather than a place

    Egyptian writing attaches classifying signs to words, and the sign attached to Israel marks a people while the other Canaanite entries are marked as places. The reading is widely held and not unanimous — and a great deal of argument rests on one sign.

  7. 7. D — Shishak

    Shishak, in the fifth year of Rehoboam, stripping the treasures of temple and palace. A pharaoh usually identified with him left a list of captured places on a temple wall at Karnak.

  8. 8. B — Josiah

    Josiah, in 609 BCE, against Necho. The death is recorded in 2 Kings 23 and 2 Chronicles 35, which differ about the circumstances.

  9. 9. D — King lists, regnal records and astronomical data

    King lists, regnal records and astronomical observations, in a framework owing nothing to the Bible. That independence is what makes an Egyptian date usable as an external fixed point.

  10. 10. C — It is weak evidence, and cannot carry a conclusion alone

    Egyptian royal records do not narrate reverses of any kind, and Delta papyrus rarely survives. But absence of evidence carries some weight where evidence would be expected. The honest position is that the silence points slightly in one direction and cannot bear a conclusion by itself.

  11. 11. B — It mentions no departure, wilderness or conquest — only that a group called Israel was in Canaan by 1208

    A group called Israel being in Canaan in 1208 BCE is compatible with an exodus before that date, with no exodus at all, and with several other reconstructions. The line establishes a name and a place, and that is all.

  12. 12. A — Ordinary Judaean religious practice outside Jerusalem, including a temple

    They are administrative and personal documents from a Judaean garrison community at Aswan, including correspondence about their own temple — evidence of practice that the biblical texts, written from Jerusalem's perspective, do not describe.

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. Which pharaoh is named in the book of Exodus?

    • Ramesses
    • Merneptah
    • None is named — correct
    • Shishak

    Answer: None is named

    None. Exodus never gives the pharaoh a name, which is one reason the episode cannot be tied to a reign from the biblical text alone. Egyptian records, by contrast, are organised entirely around named kings.

  2. Which book opens with Joseph sold into Egypt?

    • Genesis — correct
    • Exodus
    • Numbers
    • Leviticus

    Answer: Genesis

    Genesis, in chapters 37 to 50. Exodus begins after a long interval, with a king who did not know Joseph.

  3. Where is the earliest surviving mention of Israel outside the Bible?

    • A Babylonian chronicle
    • An Assyrian annal
    • A Moabite monument
    • An Egyptian victory stele — correct

    Answer: An Egyptian victory stele

    The Merneptah stele, from about 1208 BCE, found by Petrie at Thebes and now in Cairo. It lists defeated Canaanite entities and includes Israel among them.

  4. Which gospel has the family flee to Egypt?

    • John
    • Mark
    • Matthew — correct
    • Luke

    Answer: Matthew

    Matthew 2. The episode appears in no other gospel, and Matthew reads it as a fulfilment of a line in Hosea that in its own context refers to the exodus.

Medium

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

  1. What does the Merneptah stele say about Israel?

    • That it built cities for Egypt
    • That its king was captured
    • That it paid tribute
    • That it is laid waste and its seed is not — correct

    Answer: That it is laid waste and its seed is not

    Conventional language of total destruction, of a kind Egyptian royal texts use freely. Israel demonstrably continued, which makes the line a useful demonstration that royal rhetoric and fact sit side by side in these documents.

  2. A technical detail in the Merneptah stele carries a great deal of argument. What is it?

    • The name of the scribe
    • The material of the stone
    • A classifying sign marking Israel as a people rather than a place — correct
    • The date of the stele

    Answer: A classifying sign marking Israel as a people rather than a place

    Egyptian writing attaches classifying signs to words, and the sign attached to Israel marks a people while the other Canaanite entries are marked as places. The reading is widely held and not unanimous — and a great deal of argument rests on one sign.

  3. 1 Kings 14 records an Egyptian campaign against Jerusalem. Which pharaoh?

    • Necho
    • Taharqa
    • Hophra
    • Shishak — correct

    Answer: Shishak

    Shishak, in the fifth year of Rehoboam, stripping the treasures of temple and palace. A pharaoh usually identified with him left a list of captured places on a temple wall at Karnak.

  4. Which Judaean king was killed in battle against an Egyptian army at Megiddo?

    • Jehoiakim
    • Josiah — correct
    • Manasseh
    • Hezekiah

    Answer: Josiah

    Josiah, in 609 BCE, against Necho. The death is recorded in 2 Kings 23 and 2 Chronicles 35, which differ about the circumstances.

  5. Egyptian chronology is anchored by which of the following?

    • Biblical genealogies
    • Greek historians only
    • Carbon dating alone
    • King lists, regnal records and astronomical data — correct

    Answer: King lists, regnal records and astronomical data

    King lists, regnal records and astronomical observations, in a framework owing nothing to the Bible. That independence is what makes an Egyptian date usable as an external fixed point.

Hard

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

  1. Egyptian records never mention the exodus. What follows?

    • It certainly did not happen
    • Nothing whatever
    • It is weak evidence, and cannot carry a conclusion alone — correct
    • The records were destroyed by Moses

    Answer: It is weak evidence, and cannot carry a conclusion alone

    Egyptian royal records do not narrate reverses of any kind, and Delta papyrus rarely survives. But absence of evidence carries some weight where evidence would be expected. The honest position is that the silence points slightly in one direction and cannot bear a conclusion by itself.

  2. Why is the Merneptah stele poor evidence for the exodus in either direction?

    • It is illegible
    • It mentions no departure, wilderness or conquest — only that a group called Israel was in Canaan by 1208 — correct
    • It postdates the New Testament
    • It is a forgery

    Answer: It mentions no departure, wilderness or conquest — only that a group called Israel was in Canaan by 1208

    A group called Israel being in Canaan in 1208 BCE is compatible with an exodus before that date, with no exodus at all, and with several other reconstructions. The line establishes a name and a place, and that is all.

  3. The Elephantine papyri, from a Judaean community in Egypt, are important chiefly because they show what?

    • Ordinary Judaean religious practice outside Jerusalem, including a temple — correct
    • That Hebrew was never written
    • The text of Isaiah in the fifth century
    • The date of the exodus

    Answer: Ordinary Judaean religious practice outside Jerusalem, including a temple

    They are administrative and personal documents from a Judaean garrison community at Aswan, including correspondence about their own temple — evidence of practice that the biblical texts, written from Jerusalem's perspective, do not describe.

What this quiz draws on

Books in play: 1 Kings, Exodus, Genesis, Jeremiah, Matthew. Each of those leads to what the book contains, who has been proposed as its author, and how it is dated.

Themes: Kings and empires.

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.