The New Testament was written inside a Roman province, and Roman officials wrote about the movement from the outside. Twelve questions across three levels, every answer explained.
Before you start
Two hostile Roman officials describe the early Christians in passing, for purposes of their own. What those notices establish, and what they do not, is a good test of how external attestation works.
Related: the dossier on what Romans wrote about Christians and the overview of Acts.
Open “Bible Trivia: Rome and the New Testament” 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.
Under which Roman governor was Jesus executed?
- Herod Antipas
- Pontius Pilate — correct
- Festus
- Felix
Answer: Pontius Pilate
Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judaea. He is named in all four gospels, by Tacitus, and on an inscription found at Caesarea that gives his title.
Which apostle appealed to Caesar as a Roman citizen?
- Paul — correct
- Peter
- John
- James
Answer: Paul
Paul, in Acts 25. Citizenship carried the right of appeal and protection from certain punishments, which is why it appears repeatedly in the narrative of his trials.
Which emperor is named in Luke 2 in connection with a census?
- Tiberius
- Augustus — correct
- Claudius
- Nero
Answer: Augustus
Augustus. The dating of the census in relation to the governorship of Quirinius is one of the most argued-over chronological problems in the New Testament.
In which city was Paul held before being sent to Rome?
- Caesarea — correct
- Ephesus
- Corinth
- Antioch
Answer: Caesarea
Caesarea Maritima, the Roman administrative capital of the province, before the voyage described in Acts 27.
Medium
These need a detail held in place — a name, a sequence, a number that only means something next to another number.
Tacitus mentions Christians in connection with which event?
- The fall of Jerusalem
- The fire at Rome in 64 CE — correct
- The Jewish revolt of 132
- The eruption of Vesuvius
Answer: The fire at Rome in 64 CE
The fire at Rome, in Annals 15.44, where he describes Nero using the Christians as scapegoats and notes that the founder of the name was executed under Pontius Pilate.
Pliny the Younger wrote to an emperor about how to handle Christians. Which emperor?
- Hadrian
- Domitian
- Trajan — correct
- Nero
Answer: Trajan
Trajan. Pliny was governor of Bithynia and Pontus and wrote asking for instructions, describing what he had found: meetings before dawn, a hymn, an oath to avoid crime. It is an administrative letter, not an argument about religion.
Why are the Roman notices about Christians valuable as external evidence?
- Because they are the oldest Christian texts
- Because the writers were sympathetic
- Because they quote the gospels
- Because both writers were hostile and were explaining something else — correct
Answer: Because both writers were hostile and were explaining something else
Neither is arguing a case, both are occupied with something else, and both regard the movement with distaste. That is close to the ideal condition for an external witness.
What limits the value of Tacitus as a witness to the execution of Jesus?
- He was writing decades later and may be reporting what was current in his own day — correct
- His work is lost
- He wrote in Greek
- He never mentions Pilate
Answer: He was writing decades later and may be reporting what was current in his own day
He records it as background, not as an archival finding, and what was known in his day may itself have come from Christians. A hostile official repeating it without dispute shows the claim was current and uncontested — which is worth something, and is not an independent line back to the event.
An inscription found at Caesarea is important because it does what?
- Lists the apostles
- Gives Pontius Pilate's title — correct
- Names Jesus
- Records the fall of Jerusalem
Answer: Gives Pontius Pilate's title
It names Pilate and gives his official title, which settles a question about the rank of the Judaean governor at that period — a small point, checkable, and typical of what inscriptions actually deliver.
Hard
These turn on what the evidence actually supports, which is not always what the story is remembered as saying.
Which Roman historian records an expulsion of Jews from Rome over disturbances, an event Acts 18 also mentions?
- Tacitus
- Josephus
- Polybius
- Suetonius — correct
Answer: Suetonius
Suetonius, in his life of Claudius. Acts 18:2 mentions the same expulsion in passing, which gives a rare point of contact between the narrative of Acts and a Roman source — though what the disturbance was about is disputed.
Josephus is a Jewish historian writing under Roman patronage. Why is his passage about Jesus handled cautiously?
- It is written in Latin
- The surviving text shows signs of later Christian editing — correct
- It was discovered in 1950
- He never mentions Jesus
Answer: The surviving text shows signs of later Christian editing
The passage as transmitted contains statements a Jewish writer is unlikely to have made, and the scholarly debate is about how much of an original notice survives underneath. A page that quotes it without saying so is quoting a text with a known problem.
What does the phrase 'external attestation' require that a New Testament manuscript cannot supply?
- Independence from the tradition being tested — correct
- An early date
- A Greek text
- A named author
Answer: Independence from the tradition being tested
Independence. A manuscript of a text is evidence about the text's transmission, not about the events it reports. External attestation means a record produced outside the tradition, by people with no stake in it.
What this quiz draws on
Books in play: Acts, John, Luke, Matthew, Romans. 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.