Articles » Quiz » Quiz: Our Bible – Saturated Language
QUESTIONS
What wicked Old Testament queen’s name now means “an evil and shameless woman”?
What jumbo-sized wine bottle is named for a king of Israel?
What Philistine giant’s name is often applied to any oversized person or thing?
What part of the human body is named for a man in Genesis?
What New Testament book’s name has come to mean “the end of the world’” especially if occurring with great violence and destruction?
What Old Testament prophet (and book) has come to be a common nickname for a Quaker?
What group of people often criticised by Jesus had a name that now means “legalistic hypocrites, especially the religious kind”?
What pagan people mentioned often in the Old Testament had a name that has come to mean “crude, uncultured fold”?
What sinful city in Genesis has given its name to sexual sins in general, and one sexual sin in particular?
Which disciple of Jesus has lent his name to tiny seabirds that flutter just above the surface of the ocean waters?
What horrible hill, notable in Jesus’ life now means “the place or experience of intense suffering”?
What do we call a comforter who is more prone to criticise than to provide real comfort?
What do we call a cab driver, particularly one who provides a wild, furious ride?
What Old Testament city lends its name to a vegetable that is called an artichoke but isn’t?
What Old Testament conqueror’s name now means “hunter” particularly an overbearing one?
ANSWERS
Jezebel (1 and 2 Kings), the pagan wife of Israel’s King Ahab
Jeroboam; no one is sure why the bottle was named for the king
Goliath, the giant slain by the shepherd boy (and later king) David
The Adam’s apple, of course: the bulge in the neck is, according to legend, the piece of the forbidden fruit that stuck forever in the throat of the sinning Adam.
Revelation, which in the original Greek is Apokalypsis (and is Apocalypse in Catholic Bibles); the name is appropriate, since Revelation deals with wars, plagues, and the end of life as we know it.
Obadiah; no one knows exactly why.
The Pharisees, whom Jesus criticised not only for their hypocrisy, but for their obsessive attention to unimportant details.
Philistines; not that they were particularly uncultured, but for some reason the English author Mathew Arnold (writing in the 1800s) used the name Philistine and gave it this new meaning.
Sodom, with sodomy being a word applied to homosexuality, based on the attempted male of Lot’s guests in Genesis.
Peter; the birds are called petrels, since Peter tried to walk on the sea as Jesus did (but, unlike the birds, he sank).
Calvary, the name of the hill on which Jesus was crucified (The hill is also called Golgotha).
A Job’s comforter, named for Job’s three so-called friends who, as Job himself said, were “miserable comforters”
A Jehu, named for the king who exterminated the idol-worshipping royal dynasty of King Ahab; in his plan to overthrow the royal family, Jehu (who had been anointed by God’s prophet Elisha) had to do some fast maneuvering, and he was mentioned in the Bible as one who “driveth furiously” (2 Kings 9:20).
Jerusalem; the Jerusalem artichoke is actually a type of sunflower, but its edible roots are mistakenly called artichokes.
Nimrod, who was “a mighty hunter before the Lord” (Genesis 10:9).
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