A great quiz for Biblical scholars

[Dubium]

This (http://ffrf.org/quiz/bquiz.php) is a link to a great bible quiz. I recommend Kathy and Christian Dude take it too - it will increase their bible knowledge substantially.

(Sorry if it's been posted before - I haven't been around that long).

[Ian Osborne]

The person who wrote that quiz doesn't know his bible as well as he thinks.

For example, Question One on the ten commandments doesn't allow for the fact that there were two sets of commandments. The 'correct' answer is from the lesser-known set, whereas an equally-valid response from the 'traditional' decalogue is deemed wrong.

Question Three on God's name is ridiculous as god is referred to by many names in the Bible. Question Twelve claims 'A' is incorrect, yet in the New Testament, grieving the Holy Spirit is described as an unpardonable sin, making this answer perfectly acceptable.

I didn't read much further.

[Dubium]

Ah well. It may contain errors, but it does contain some food for thought for those amongst us whose Sunday School lessons never included such topics as Jesus's views on slavery.

[jjramsey]

An example of this quiz's biblical "scholarship":

30. What Christmas tradition is expressly forbidden in the bible?
Answer: C
c. Christmas trees. --Many other Christmas traditions have their roots in pagan practices, such as the holly wreath, a fertility symbol. Even the date of Christmas, near the winter solstice, is linked to sun worship. Modern Christians have stolen Christmas from the pagans.

"Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. . . . They are altogether brutish and foolish." (Jeremiah 10:2-8)


First, a fuller quote of Jeremiah 10:2-8 from a clearer translation (NRSV) than the KJV:

Thus says the LORD: Do not learn the way of the nations, or be dismayed at the signs of the heavens; for the nations are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are false: a tree from the forest is cut down, and worked with an ax by the hands of an artisan; people deck it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor is it in them to do good. . . . the instruction given by idols is no better than wood!

The point of the passage is pretty clear. It is mocking those who worship as gods the very things made with their hands. Even if we ignored that the passage is about carved wooden idols and not trees used whole, there is this matter of Christmas trees not being worshipped as idols.

This is a sloppy use of Jeremiah 10:2-8, and if the quiz writer had access to a better translation than the KJV, a dishonest use as well.

Some of the quiz questions are on point, but many are distorted. For another example, the question about Jephthah sacrificing his daughter neglects that the book from which that story came, the book of Judges, was supposed about a mixed-up and ugly time in Israel's history. Some of the judges in the book of Judges, like Samson, were clearly meant to be shown as flawed themselves.

As for this quiz being food for thought, I think that a quote from Dennis Ritchie about the Unix Haters' Handbook describes it nicely:

your book [the Unix Haters' Handbook] is a pudding stuffed with apposite observations, many well-conceived. Like excrement, it contains enough undigested nuggets of nutrition to sustain life for some. But it is not a tasty pie: it reeks too much of contempt and of envy.

Criticism of the Bible can and has been done better.