What is Bible Quizzing?
While being many things for many people, quizzing is the Bible-oriented sport that teens across the globe compete in to demonstrate their knowledge of God’s Word and to have the opportunity to live it with others, starting with those closest to them.
Quizzing is one of the best opportunities for teens to learn and live the love of God faithfully in fellowship with other teens and Christ-like adults.
There are a few types of Bible quizzing:
- Blue box (or Red box) + Jump Seats: the most popular format for quizzing
- Team Jeopardy + Hand buzzers: quizzing in team Jeopardy format
- Box + Answer Cards: multiple-choice, seen in Nazarene children’s quizzing (K-5th)
Blue box (or Red box) + Jump Seat Quizzing:
- Questions (usually 15 or 20) of different types are asked in succession by a quizmaster each round
- 2 or 3 teams of 2 to 5 quizzers compete during each round by jumping off of seats using jump pads/seats/benches to determine who jumped first
- Jump seats are connected to a box or computer
- Red box is older and less used while Blue box is most used out of all quizzing equipment
- There are also some quizzing software alternatives to both, such as QuizMachine, QuizMaster, and MatchMaker
*From here onward quizzing information will be related to Nazarene-style Teen Bible Quizzing, though many blue-box + jump seat quizzing organizations follow a similar pattern.
Do I have to be in the Nazarene denomination to participate in Nazarene-style quizzing?
No you do not!
If you are a person then you and your church (school, etc) are welcome in Nazarene-style quizzing. The great thing about most Bible quizzing organizations, including Nazarene-style quizzing, is that quizzing is directly related to study of the Word of God. No other source is used for competition, and so quizzing employs no Nazarene-specific nor any other denomination-specific doctrine for competitions.
What exactly do quizzers compete on during the season?
Quizzing programs different on what exactly they study each season. For Nazarene-style quizzing, as well as a number of other quizzing organizations, study & competition is based on an 8-year rotation between certain books of the New Testament, seen below:
GEPCP - Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon (2023-2024, 2031-2032, 2039-2040)
Luke (2024-2025, 2032-2033)
1 & 2 Corinthians (2025-2026, 2033-2034)
John (2026-2027, 2034-2035)
Hebrews, I & 2 Peter (2027-2028, 2035-2036)
Matthew (2028-2029, 2036-2037)
Romans & James (2029-2030, 2037-2038)
Acts (2030-2031, 2038-2039)
Each monthly quiz meet adds a few more chapters to the previous quiz meet’s Scripture to compete on. Weekly quiz practices cover the Scripture little by little over time, usually around 1-2 chapters per week/practice.
Each year a new version of the year’s Scripture portion is made and sold by various publishing companies (for Nazarene-style quizzing the official supplier is The Foundry Publishing (link), previously known as Nazarene Publishing House) that are specifically useful for quizzing. The spiral-bound Scripture portion, which has the most tools for study, contains within itself 2 copies of the season’s Scripture, one in paragraph form and another with line-breaks at the start of each verse.
The “portion” also comes with a concordance, a list of unique words that appear only once in the whole portion, double word list (same thing but appears twice instead of once), triple word list, applicable footnotes, Old Testament references for quotes, proper names of people and places with pronunciation key, in-line notation of the season’s memory verses as well as a list of the memory verses at the back of the book with each having the words that are unique to the memory verse to be able to distinguish one from the other memory verses for purposes of pre-jumping (which is jumping on a question before the quizmaster has finished the question, requiring the quizzer, if they choose to pre-jump, to both finish the question correctly and answer correctly to get the +20 points for their team).
Note: Even if the same content is being studied again 8 years later (or more), the memory verses will most likely have changed from that previous season. To view the current season’s memory verses you can visit either of these locations:
YouthQuiz Web App (can be installed as an app from a mobile web browser)
Barefoot Ministries quizzing website (AKA the “SetMaker” website)
The Scripture portion is the tool that empowers quizzers to focus on this year’s Scripture while also letting them mark up their portion however they see fit for their own purposes. The connection with owning one’s own Scripture portion for quizzing can become a special one for some based on the amount of time spent using it, marking it up and gleaning from it. (It seems to be a special aspect of Bible quizzing that the Word so apparently empowers young people through the value the Bible brings them. The Word of God is a very valuable thing.)
What Bible version is used?
Quizzing organizations differ on this point, with the most-used versions being NIV, ESV, CSB, KJV, BSB, and NKJV.
Nazarene-style quizzing uses the NIV (meaning the 2011 NIV, not the 1984 NIV).
All quizzing competition questions come straight from God’s Word; no other sources are used. In this way, Bible quizzing achieves complete separation from denominational doctrine emphases. The choice of Bible version to use for quizzing by a quizzing organization is the closest thing to any denomination-specific influence on Bible quizzing.
Who does Bible quizzing?
For Nazarene-style quizzing, teens from grades 6 through 12 compete in teen Bible quizzing. And don’t worry about the level of competitiveness: Nearly every Bible quizzing organization has different divisions based on the experience of each quizzer. In Nazarene-style quizzing there are usually 2 or 3 tiers of competitiveness (for example, Novice, JV and Varsity) at each of the 3 levels of competition (district-level, field-level (regional), and national/international-level).
Each month churches in a district meetup at a designated church where a quiz meet is held. If you want to promote quizzing at your church (school or other), you could ask your district’s quiz director if your church (school or other) could host a quiz meet one month! Throughout each month each church meets with their quizzers weekly on a designated day and time of the week to review the next section of Scripture material to become familiar with it, and then spend some time practicing quizzing on the new material and perhaps some or all of the past Scripture material also.
How much memorization is there in Bible quizzing?
The amount of memorization you do is entirely up to you as the quizzer. This is a very healthy aspect of quizzing, that it is self-motivated. The culture of quizzing is one that encourages you to memorize but it really is a choice at the end of the day; there is no sensed pressure or disappointment associated with not memorizing anything. You do not need to memorize anything to do well in quizzing. Because there are different types of questions, there are plenty of opportunities for a quizzer to jump on and answer correctly. Memorization does serve some advantage, and if you’d like to try it - you should!
It’s is worth mentioning the different question types in Nazarene-style Bible quizzing, since 3 of them are specific to memorization (20 questions total per round):
11 x General questions (G)
4 x According-to questions (A)
3 x Memory verse questions
Types: 1 x Finish this Verse (V), 1 x Finish this Verse & give the Reference (R), and 1 x Quote the Verse by the given Reference (Q)
1 x In what book and chapter (I) OR 1 x Situation question (S) (depending on the season/year)
1 x Context question (X)
What if the Quizmaster or the question authors are wrong?
Everybody has the capacity to be wrong - even when trying their hardest not to be wrong. This includes Quizmasters and question authors. It’s okay to be wrong sometimes, but we also want quizzing to be fair so that it is an enjoyable experience and to protect the healthy competitive elements of Bible quizzing.
(Note: The following would normally be learned during quiz practice and generally would apply more to experienced quizzers who have a solid grasp of the basics of quizzing. These become easier and easier to recognize over time. Challenging a ruling is one of the more difficult aspects of Bible quizzing.)
When a Quizmaster makes a mistake in reading the question, if they read too much of the question to give anyone a clear advantage the quizmaster will usually throw out the question. If they make a mistake when reading the question but have not given any information away yet, they may start the question over.
However, if a quizmaster reads the questions successfully, the quizzer jumps, answers and the quizmaster gives a ruling that is not consistent with what is found in the Scripture text that the question references, then the team captain can challenge the ruling and provide a 60-second argumentative case for why the ruling should be changed. Then the captain of the opposite team gets a 60-second opportunity to offer a rebuttal to the other team captain’s argument (in defense of the quizmaster’s ruling). Then the quizmaster, in seeking to be fair and objective, either accepts or overrules the challenge. However, if the captain challenging the ruling provides any incorrect information, the challenge is thrown out and not considered. Based on the final rulings the points are awarded as they normally would if the challenge had not happened at all. You cannot challenge once the quizmaster has started the next question. Only team captains can challenge a quizmaster’s ruling. Generally only one challenge will be recognized per question per team captain.
If a question is not acceptable to quiz on, either the quizmaster can throw the question out or, if they do not throw it out initially, a team captain can make an appeal to throw the question out. They make their case to the quizmaster as to why it should be thrown out (and replaced with another of the same question type). The quizmaster then decides to accept or overrule the appeal. If accepted, any points that had been award would be reversed and the question would be started all over again as if the thrown-out question had never been read. Appeals cannot be made once the quizmaster has started the next question. Only team captains can make appeals.
For the purpose of accurate ruling on questions, quizmasters will often have a content judge to consult with before giving a ruling.
How does the points system work?
(*for Nazarene-style quizzing)
Points awarded:
+20 points for a correct answer to a toss-up question (individual and team scores)
+10 points for a correct answer to a bonus question (team score)
+10 points for correct answers to 4 toss-up questions without error by an individual, aka a “quiz out without error” (individual and team scores)
+10 additional points for a correct answer to a toss-up question by a 3rd team member (team score)
+10 additional points for a correct answer to a toss-up question by a 4th team member (team score)
+10 additional points for a correct answer to a toss-up question by a 5th team member (team score)
Penalty points:
–10 points for a late line-up (team score; not usually enforced at the district-level)
–10 points for every error beginning with the 16th question (team score)
–10 points for every team error beginning with the 5th error (team score)
–10 points for the 3rd individual error, aka an “error out” (individual and team score)
–10 points for all fouls committed by a team or any member of that team beginning with the 2nd foul (team score)
–10 points for every overruled challenge beginning with the 2nd (team score)
–10 points for every challenge containing erroneous information (team score)
–10 points for every rebuttal containing erroneous information (team score)
No more than 10 points may be deducted for any error. However, additional points may be deducted for fouls, erroneous information, etc., on the same question.
No individual or team scores are tallied for a tie-breaker question.
Don’t let the details of how the points work discourage you; learning these rules is part of what quiz practice is for.
You may notice here that the terms “quiz out” and “error out” are used. In Nazarene-style quizzing, in order to limit the number of questions/points any one quizzer can get wrong or right during a round (allowing other quizzers a chance to jump on questions and earn points), quizzers are limited to 4 correct answers (“quiz out”) or 3 incorrect answers (“error out”) before no longer being able to quiz for the remainder of the round. (Most other quizzing organizations employ the same kind of opportunity-balancing mechanism.)
How to get started
Starting a teen Bible quizzing program at your church, school or elsewhere takes a single adult and a few interested teens who are willing to give quizzing a try. If you feel moved to be that influential adult, please take a look at the next page by clicking this button. It gives you all the details of what lies ahead.