Genesis is the book most people think they know and most often misremember, usually because the popular version has been smoothed over. Twelve questions at three levels, each answer pinned to the passage.
Open “Bible Trivia: Genesis” 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.
Who was told to build an ark?
- Abraham
- Enoch
- Methuselah
- Noah — correct
Answer: Noah
Genesis 6:14, where the instruction is to build it of gopher wood, in three decks, and to pitch it inside and out. Methuselah is Noah's grandfather and the longest-lived name in the genealogy, which is why he so often gets attached to the story; Enoch is his father, and Genesis 5:24 says he did not die at all.
What is placed in the sky as the sign of the covenant after the flood?
- A star
- A rainbow — correct
- A cloud
- A dove
Answer: A rainbow
Genesis 9:13 — the bow set in the cloud, given as the sign of a covenant made not only with Noah but with every living creature. The dove belongs to the earlier scene in chapter 8, sent out three times to test whether the waters had gone down; it is a test, not a sign.
Which city’s tower is described in Genesis 11?
- Ur
- Nineveh
- Babel — correct
- Sodom
Answer: Babel
Genesis 11:1–9. The tower is at Babel, and the story explains the name by a play on the Hebrew balal, to confuse. Ur of the Chaldeans is where Abraham's family starts out two verses later; Nineveh belongs to Assyria, more than a thousand years further on.
Who are the first two sons of Adam and Eve named in Genesis?
- Cain and Abel — correct
- Cain and Seth
- Abel and Seth
- Seth and Enosh
Answer: Cain and Abel
Genesis 4:1–2 names Cain first, then Abel. Seth arrives only at 4:25, and the text says outright why: Eve names him as one appointed in place of Abel, whom Cain killed. Enosh is Seth's son, and the line the genealogy of chapter 5 then follows.
Medium
These need a detail held in place — a name, a sequence, a number that only means something next to another number.
What did Esau trade for a meal of stew?
- His father’s blessing
- His flocks
- His birthright — correct
- His name
Answer: His birthright
Genesis 25:29–34. Esau sells the birthright — the elder son's double share — for a bowl of red stew, and the text comments that he despised it. The blessing is a separate transaction two chapters later, taken by deception in Genesis 27. Keeping the two apart is the whole point of the narrative.
Where does Jacob dream of a stairway reaching to heaven?
- Bethel — correct
- Beersheba
- Hebron
- Peniel
Answer: Bethel
Genesis 28. He lies down at a place called Luz, dreams of the stairway with messengers going up and down it, and renames the place Bethel, 'house of God'. Peniel is where he wrestles through the night, four chapters later, and that is a different renaming altogether.
Who is described as “priest of God Most High” when he meets Abraham?
- Aaron
- Jethro
- Abimelech
- Melchizedek — correct
Answer: Melchizedek
Genesis 14:18. Melchizedek, king of Salem, brings out bread and wine and is called priest of God Most High. He occupies two verses, has no genealogy and no exit, and is never explained — which is precisely why Psalm 110 and the letter to the Hebrews return to him.
Which of Jacob’s sons proposed selling Joseph rather than killing him?
- Reuben
- Judah — correct
- Simeon
- Levi
Answer: Judah
Genesis 37:26–27. Judah asks what profit there is in killing their brother and concealing his blood, and proposes selling him to the passing traders instead. Reuben, in verses 21–22, is the one trying to save Joseph outright: he suggests the pit intending to come back for him later.
Hard
These turn on what the evidence actually supports, which is not always what the story is remembered as saying.
What name is Jacob given after wrestling through the night?
- Jeshurun
- Israel — correct
- Peniel
- Edom
Answer: Israel
Genesis 32:28 — 'your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men'. Peniel is the name he gives the place, not himself. Edom is attached to Esau, back in Genesis 25:30, and named for the red stew.
Which field does Abraham buy as a burial place for Sarah?
- Mamre
- Moriah
- Shechem
- Machpelah — correct
Answer: Machpelah
Genesis 23. Abraham buys the field of Machpelah near Mamre from Ephron the Hittite, and the chapter records the negotiation in unusual legal detail — the public setting, the price of four hundred shekels, the boundaries. Mamre is the district it lies in; Moriah belongs to Genesis 22.
Who is named as the father of Abraham?
- Terah — correct
- Nahor
- Haran
- Peleg
Answer: Terah
Genesis 11:27. Terah fathers Abram, Nahor and Haran, and later takes the family out of Ur towards Canaan. Haran is both Abraham's brother and, spelled differently in Hebrew, the city where the family settles and Terah dies — a genuine source of confusion that the English spelling makes worse.
What are the two cities destroyed in Genesis 19?
- Admah and Zeboiim
- Sodom and Zoar
- Sodom and Gomorrah — correct
- Gomorrah and Zoar
Answer: Sodom and Gomorrah
Genesis 19:24 — Sodom and Gomorrah. Zoar is explicitly spared at Lot's request in verses 20–22, which is why he is allowed to flee there instead of to the hills. Admah and Zeboiim belong to the same group of cities in Genesis 14 and Deuteronomy 29, but not to this chapter's destruction.
What this quiz draws on
Books in play: Genesis. Each of those leads to what the book contains, who has been proposed as its author, and how it is dated.
Themes: Creation and origins.
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.