Bible Trivia: Numbers and Dates — 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. How many days and nights did the rain fall in the flood account?

   • Forty — correct
   • Seven
   • Twelve
   • A hundred and fifty

   Answer: Forty

   Genesis 7:12. A hundred and fifty is the neighbouring figure at Genesis 7:24, but that is how long the waters prevailed on the earth, not how long it rained. The flood account carries two sets of numbers running alongside each other, which is one reason its chronology is argued over.

2. How many commandments does the text say were written on the tablets?

   • Seven
   • Twelve
   • Forty
   • Ten — correct

   Answer: Ten

   Exodus 34:28 and Deuteronomy 4:13 both call them the ten words, or ten commandments. This is one of the rare cases where the Bible states the count itself rather than leaving it to be tallied.

3. How long was Jonah in the belly of the fish?

   • One night
   • Three days and three nights — correct
   • Seven days
   • Forty days

   Answer: Three days and three nights

   Jonah 1:17. Forty days is the span Jonah later preaches to Nineveh at Jonah 3:4, which is the figure most often swapped in by mistake. Matthew 12:40 picks up the three days and three nights specifically, which is why that phrasing is the one people remember.

4. On which day does Genesis say God rested from the work of creation?

   • The sixth
   • The seventh — correct
   • The eighth
   • The first

   Answer: The seventh

   Genesis 2:2–3. The sixth is the day the work is finished, which is why it is the natural wrong answer; the rest is placed on the day after, and the day itself is blessed and set apart. Exodus 20:11 later grounds the sabbath command in exactly this verse.

Medium

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

1. How many years does Exodus say the people of Israel lived in Egypt?

   • 400
   • 40
   • 70
   • 430 — correct

   Answer: 430

   Exodus 12:40 states 430 years exactly. Genesis 15:13 gives 400 in the promise to Abraham, and the two figures sit side by side in the tradition, but only one is the number in Exodus.

2. How old was Methuselah when he died?

   • 969 — correct
   • 930
   • 777
   • 895

   Answer: 969

   Genesis 5:27. Adam dies at 930 in Genesis 5:5 and Mahalalel at 895 in 5:17, so the wrong answers are all real ages from the same chapter.

3. How many men did Gideon keep for the attack on the Midianites?

   • 600
   • 3,000
   • 300 — correct
   • 32,000

   Answer: 300

   Judges 7:7. The 32,000 is the number he starts with in Judges 7:3, reduced first to 10,000 and then, at the water, to 300.

4. How many years does 1 Kings say Solomon spent building the temple?

   • Three
   • Thirteen
   • Twenty
   • Seven — correct

   Answer: Seven

   1 Kings 6:38 says he was seven years in building it. Thirteen is the figure in the very next passage, 1 Kings 7:1, but that is for his own house — and the text sets the two numbers side by side without comment, which readers have been drawing conclusions from ever since.

Hard

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

1. How old was Josiah when he became king?

   • Twelve
   • Eight — correct
   • Sixteen
   • Twenty-five

   Answer: Eight

   2 Kings 22:1, which also gives a reign of thirty-one years. Joash begins at seven in 2 Kings 11:21 and Manasseh at twelve in 2 Kings 21:1 — the child kings are easy to confuse with each other.

2. What weight of gold does 1 Kings say came to Solomon in one year?

   • 120 talents
   • 1,000 talents
   • 666 talents — correct
   • 144 talents

   Answer: 666 talents

   1 Kings 10:14. The 120 talents is what the queen of Sheba gives him in 1 Kings 10:10, a separate figure in the same chapter. The coincidence with Revelation 13:18 is just that.

3. How many days was Ezekiel told to lie on his left side?

   • 390 — correct
   • 40
   • 70
   • 430

   Answer: 390

   Ezekiel 4:5, a day for each year of the iniquity of Israel; he is then told to lie forty days on his right side for Judah in 4:6. The 430 is the Egypt figure from Exodus 12:40, not this one.

4. How long had the man at the pool in Jerusalem been an invalid?

   • Twelve years
   • Eighteen years
   • Thirty-eight years — correct
   • Forty years

   Answer: Thirty-eight years

   John 5:5. Twelve years is the woman with the flow of blood in Mark 5:25, and eighteen is the bent woman in Luke 13:11 — the Gospels give several such spans, and this is the one John gives.

What this quiz draws on

Books in play: 1 Kings, 2 Kings, Exodus, Genesis. Each of those leads to what the book contains, who has been proposed as its author, and how it is dated.

Themes: Dating.

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.