Q.1
In His Parable of the Talents (as it's usually known), the 'master' gives amounts of money to three of his underlings before he goes away for a while. The ones who were given 10 and 5 coins respectively, put their money to work and doubled its value before the master returned. What did the man do who had only been given 1 coin?
  • He kept it in his purse
  • He gave it to a poor neighbour
  • He gambled it on a sporting event and lost his money
  • He buried it in the ground, so it wouldn't be spent nor stolen
Q.2
Jesus told a set of three parables about items that people had lost, and went to great lengths to search for: the first was about one from among a flock of 100 sheep, the second was about a woman who mislaid a coin and hunted high and low through her house for it. What was the focus of the third, and most developed, version of the Loss story?
  • A man whose son left home
  • A child that lost a precious pet
  • A farmer who lost his harvest to thieves
  • A bridesmaid who lost the spare oil for her lamp
Q.3
Jesus was involved in several incidents where people challenged Him over His attitude to money. He seems to have accepted that money was a necessary part of life, but was critical of people who were selfish and took &/or hoarded money to which they had no moral right ~ though he was fully understanding, for instance, of the problems faced by tax-collectors. On one occasion He remarked that people who clung to their worldly riches would find it hard to enter His heavenly kingdom: indeed, it would be about as easy for such a person to achieve this as for ... (?) ...
  • ... the sea to swallow a mountain
  • ... a loaded camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle
  • ... the fire to ever go out, which burned constantly at the public rubbish dump outside Jerusalem
  • ... a fig-tree to start growing olives
Q.4
Another of Jesus' stories was about two men who built houses: what was the main difference between these?
  • One was built on a rock, the other on sand
  • One had an upstairs storey, the other was single-floor
  • One was made of stone, the other of wood
  • One was built by himself alone, the other with a gang of friends and neighbours
Q.5
Jesus could pluck material from a parable even from the most everyday, and apparently unglamorous, items around him. Which of these pairs did he use to point out how much God cares for each of us?
  • Fish and frogs
  • Raindrops and mud
  • Worms and insects
  • Birds and flowers
Q.6
In His famous 'parable of the Good Samaritan', who are the first two passers-by, who (rather against our expectation) go out of their own way NOT to help the victim of an assault?
  • A soldier and a businessman
  • A carpenter and a fisherman
  • A priest and a lawyer
  • A tent-maker and a doctor
Q.7
In a similar vein to question 6: in the Parable of the Banquet, a wealthy man invites his friends to come and help celebrate his good fortune at an extravagant meal he is hosting. One by one they offer their excuses for not coming. Which one of the following contains two of the original excuses Jesus quotes?
  • 'That's just after my wedding, so I shall be away on honeymoon' / 'We have a new litter of puppies that can't be left unsupervised'
  • 'I shall be busy working in my vineyard, and we can't spare the time or get temporary labourers in' / 'That's the day the builders are due to start on our new roof'
  • 'I need to inspect some land I have just bought' / 'I have an appointment to 'test-drive' my new team of farm oxen'
  • 'My daughter has just gone into labour with our first grandchild' / 'I need to get my tax papers finished before I do anything else'
Q.8
Definitely among the 'top ten' parables should be the one about the Sower ~ a familiar image to Jesus' listeners in rural surroundings 2,000-odd years ago, in which a man scatters seed-corn onto his land in order to start the next crop cycle. Before he hits his stride, he throws seed onto three bad patches of ground: which of the following is NOT one of them, according to the original story?
  • A pathway, where birds would swoop and eat it before it could settle
  • Rocky ground, where there was no soil for roots to gain any grip or nutrition
  • Among stones by the wayside, where any new plants would frequently get hit &/or squashed
  • Among weeds, which, with their head-start and broad leaves, took all the light and soil-goodness ~ so the corn plants never stood any chance of thriving
Q.9
Of course, it wasn't just what Jesus said, but also what He did (setting aside, for present purposes, such huge over-arching matters as His virgin-birth and return from the dead): there were a number of miracles ~ where He appeared to reverse or overturn the established forces of nature, such as weather and disease. One memorable 'nested pair' of miracle accounts tells how Jesus is on his way to heal a sick girl, when He is interrupted by an older woman who has suffered from internal bleeding for the same length of time as the age (in years) of the girl. How long is this?
  • Six years
  • Ten years
  • Twelve years
  • Fifteen years
Q.10
Across the four Gospels there are various stories of miracles done by Jesus on and around the Sea of Galilee. Which of these is NOT one of them?
  • Calming the storm in the middle of the night (in which even seasoned local fishermen feared for their lives)
  • Guiding the fishermen to a bountiful haul of fish off the other side of their boat
  • Healing a man who had chronic sea-sickness
  • Walking on the water
0 h : 0 m : 1 s