Originally created 05/14/05

Are you Bible literate?

Take our quiz and find out. There might be more than one answer that is correct.

Bible quiz

1) There have been many talking animals in popular culture, including Donkey in the movies Shrek and Shrek 2, Francis the Talking Mule from a series of movies in the 1950s, and television's Mr. Ed. Where would you find a talking donkey in the Old Testament?

A. On Noah's Ark in Genesis
B. Conversing with the prophet Balaam in Numbers
C. Taunting Job

2) Who could read the writing on the wall?

A. Subway riders in New York
B. Daniel
C. Former South Carolina Gamecock football coach Lou Holtz

3) Who was Esther?

A. Mother who kept the family together in television's Good Times
B. The mother of Rehoboam, one of Jesus' ancestors
C. A woman who risked her life to save the Jews

Many adages in common usage are drawn from the Bible, but many folks are confused on whether a well-known saying comes from the Bible or a secular source. Choose the proper attribution for the following:

4) "Neither a borrower nor a lender be."

A. A wise saying from Proverbs
B. Polonius in Shakespeare's Hamlet
C. Ben Franklin in Poor Richard's Almanack

5) "Love sought is good, but given unsought is better."

A. Oprah Winfrey
B. Olivia in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
C. The queen of Sheba to Solomon

6) "Our days on earth are but a shadow."

A. Lady Macbeth to her husband in Shakespeare's Macbeth
B. Arnold Schwarzenegger's cyborg to Edward Furlong's character in Terminator 2: Judgement Day
C Bildad to his friend Job

7) "The apple of my eye."

A. Lyrics from the song You Are the Sunshine of My Life
B. CBS President Frank Stanton's remarks introducing the network's icon
C. Numerous places in Scripture

8) "The Lord bless you and keep you."

A. St. Augustine, The City of God
B. Abraham to his son Isaac before he died
C. The Lord gave these words to Moses for Jewish priests to use as a blessing


9) Who was the Queen of the South?

A. A popular riverboat that cruised the Savannah River in the 1800s
B. An admirer of Solomon
C. Jesus said she would judge his contemporaries

10) The Old Testament book of Genesis spells out Jewish dietary laws pertaining to "flesh and blood."

A. True
B. False


1) B; Then the Lord opened the donkey's mouth, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?" Balaam answered the donkey, "You have made a fool of me! If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now."

The donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?" "No," he said.Then the Lord opened Balaam's eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown. (Numbers 22:28-31)

2) B; "Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way. (Daniel 5:5-6)

3) C; Book of Esther

4) B, C; Benjamin Franklin, Maxims Prefixed to Poor Richard's Almanack, 1757. Originally taken from William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act I, Scene 3, 75.

5) B; Olivia in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 1, 158

6) C; "... for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow." (Job 8:9)

7) A and C; (You are the sunshine of my life/That's why I'll always be around/You are the apple of my eye/Forever you'll stay in my heart www.cool-lyrics-place.com; and Psalms 17:8, Proverbs 7:2; Zechariah 2:8, Deuteronomy 32:10

8) C; The Lord said to Moses, "Tell Aaron and his sons, 'This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:"'The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.'" (Numbers 6: 22-26)

9) B, C; "The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here." (Luke 11:31)

10) B; False. Genesis uses "flesh and blood" to mean kin as in Genesis 29:14, and 37:27.