Christmas Bible Trivia

B Gabriel. Luke 1:26-38. The scene is called the Annunciation, and churches mark it on March 25, nine months before Christmas.

C Bethlehem. Both Matthew and Luke place the birth in Bethlehem, a few miles south of Jerusalem.

A A feeding trough for animals. Luke 2:7 never actually mentions a stable. The manger is why most people picture one, and an early tradition places the birth in a cave.

C Gold, frankincense and myrrh. Matthew 2:11. Gold suits a king, frankincense was burned in worship, and myrrh was used in burial.

A Herod. Herod the Great (Matthew 2:1). Augustus was the Roman emperor, and Pilate governed Judea decades later, during Jesus's trial.

C Keeping watch over their flock at night. Luke 2:8. The angel appears, the glory of the Lord shines around them, and Luke says they were terrified.

D Egypt. Matthew 2:13-15. They stayed until Herod died.

B "Do not be afraid". Luke 1:13, 1:30 and 2:10. In the King James Version it's "Fear not."

D Joseph. Luke 1:27 says she was pledged to be married to Joseph, a descendant of King David. Joachim is the name tradition gives Mary's father.

B John the Baptist. Luke 1:57-63. He was born a few months before Jesus and later baptized him in the Jordan River.

D By another route, avoiding Herod. Matthew 2:12. Herod had asked them to report back, and they never did.

B Spread the word and went back praising God. Luke 2:17-20. Everyone who heard them was amazed, Luke says.

A Nazareth. Luke 1:26. Nazareth was a small village in Galilee, several days' travel north of Bethlehem.

B Luke. Luke 2:8-20. It's also the Gospel with the census and the manger.

B He was disturbed. Matthew 2:3 says he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

A Mary rode a donkey. Luke 2:4-5 covers the rest. The donkey comes from later tradition and art.

C It doesn't give one. Neither Matthew nor Luke names a day or a season, which is part of why churches ended up with different dates.

C Caesar Augustus. Luke 2:1. Joseph went to Bethlehem because he was of the house and line of David.

D David. Luke 2:4. David grew up in Bethlehem tending sheep, which makes the shepherds in Luke 2 a nice echo.

B None, because no innkeeper is mentioned. Luke 2:7 says only that there was no place for them in the inn. The Greek word, kataluma, can also mean a guest room, which some scholars think fits better.

A It doesn't say. The number three comes from the three gifts. Some early Christian art shows two or four.

B He'd be wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Luke 2:12. A newborn in a feeding trough was unusual enough to be a sign.

B A great company of angels. Luke 2:13-14, which the King James Version credits to "a multitude of the heavenly host." In Latin it's Gloria in excelsis Deo.

C The baby leaped in Elizabeth's womb. Luke 1:41. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, called Mary blessed among women.

A He wrote "His name is John" on a tablet. Luke 1:59-64. The relatives objected because nobody else in the family had that name.

B Isaiah. Isaiah 7:14, quoted in Matthew 1:23. Isaiah is quoted a lot at Christmas, including "For unto us a child is born" from Isaiah 9:6.

B Quietly end the engagement. Matthew 1:19 calls him a righteous man who didn't want to shame her in public. The dream changed his mind.

B He would not die before seeing the Messiah. Luke 2:25-35. When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God.

B Treasured these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19. It's one of the few glimpses the Gospels give of what Mary was thinking.

C Magic. Magi were a priestly class from Persia known for studying the stars, and their name gave English the word magic.

C St. Francis of Assisi. Francis wanted people to see how humbly Jesus came into the world. Nativity scenes spread across Europe after that.

A Jerusalem. Matthew 2:1-2. Asking the reigning king where to find the new king did not go over well with Herod.

A "I am the Lord's servant". Luke 1:38, which the King James Version renders "Behold the handmaid of the Lord." She had first asked how this could happen, since she was a virgin.

A Zechariah. Luke 1:11-19. Gabriel appears to him in the temple in Jerusalem, about six months before visiting Mary.

C So he could go and worship him too. Matthew 2:8. Matthew makes clear he had other plans.

C Both Mary and Joseph. Gabriel tells Mary in Luke 1:31, and an angel tells Joseph in a dream in Matthew 1:21.

A Lamb of God. Lamb of God comes from John the Baptist in John 1:29. Handel set Isaiah's list in Messiah, in the chorus For Unto Us a Child Is Born.

D Daniel. Daniel 8:16 and 9:21. Gabriel and Michael are the only angels named in the Hebrew Bible.

C The Benedictus. It's named for its first Latin word, meaning blessed. Many churches sing it at morning prayer.

B Three months. Luke 1:56. Elizabeth was six months along when Mary arrived, so Mary likely left right around the time John was born.

D Constantine. Constantine commissioned it in the 320s after his mother, Helena, visited the Holy Land. Justinian rebuilt it in the 500s.

C Quirinius. Historians have long debated the dating, since the best-known census under Quirinius was in AD 6, about ten years after Herod's death.

B Later church tradition. Matthew never names them. The names show up centuries later, including in a sixth-century mosaic in Ravenna, Italy.

B In a house. Matthew 2:11 says they came "into the house." It's one reason many scholars think the magi came some time after the birth, not the same night as the shepherds.

D Archelaus. Matthew 2:22-23. Archelaus was Herod's son, so after another dream the family settled in Nazareth in Galilee.

B Two years old. He based the age on when the wise men said the star appeared. Churches remember the victims as the Holy Innocents on December 28.

A The Magnificat. It's the first word in Latin: "My soul magnifies the Lord." Bach and countless others have set it to music.

A Nunc Dimittis. Luke 2:29-32, which begins "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace" in the King James Version. It's sung at evening services in many churches.

C Burning incense. Luke 1:8-10. He was chosen by lot for the job, while the crowd prayed outside.

B Micah. Micah 5:2. In Matthew 2:5-6, Herod's chief priests and teachers quote it when he asks where the Messiah would be born.

C Asher. Luke 2:36-38. She never left the temple, Luke says, and she spoke about the child to everyone waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

B A pair of doves or two young pigeons. Luke 2:24. Leviticus 12:8 allowed birds for families who couldn't afford a lamb, a hint that they weren't well off.

B 14. The 14 points are often linked to Matthew's three sets of 14 generations. The Latin inscription says Jesus Christ was born here of the Virgin Mary.

D Abijah. Luke 1:5. Priests took turns serving in the temple by division, and Elizabeth also came from a priestly family, descended from Aaron.

A Jeremiah. Jeremiah 31:15, quoted in Matthew 2:18. Rachel's tomb was traditionally placed near Bethlehem.