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40 Questions About the Book of Genesis with Answers, Chapter by Chapter

Updated November 10, 2026

Quick answer

This free list has 40 medium-level questions on the book of Genesis, each with an answer and a Scripture reference. Half are multiple choice with four options. They walk through all 50 chapters in order, from creation, the fall, Noah and Babel to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph in Egypt, so you can study the book in a group or run a quiz.

Genesis is the book of beginnings: creation, the first sin, the flood and, from chapter 12 on, the story of a family chosen by God, from Abraham to the twelve sons of Jacob. These 40 questions follow the book in order, in four blocks of ten, so they work as a quiz while you read.

Half of the questions have four options (A, B, C and D) and the other half ask for a direct answer. Each one has the exact reference so you can open your Bible and check. You can print the list or show it on a screen in presentation mode.

The questions, with answers and references

Filter by chapter of Genesis

Chapters 1-11: creation, the fall, Noah and Babel

  1. 1. What did God separate after creating light?

    • A) The light from the darkness
    • B) The waters above from the waters below
    • C) The dry land from the seas
    • D) The sun from the moon

    Answer: A) The light from the darkness — Genesis 1:3-5

  2. 2. What did God do on the seventh day?

    Answer: He rested from all his work, and blessed and sanctified that day — Genesis 2:2-3

  3. 3. What did the Lord God form man from?

    • A) The mud of the river
    • B) The dust of the ground
    • C) A rib
    • D) The light of the first day

    Answer: B) The dust of the ground — Genesis 2:7

  4. 4. Which two trees were in the middle of the garden of Eden?

    Answer: The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — Genesis 2:9

  5. 5. What son did Adam and Eve have after Abel died?

    • A) Enosh
    • B) Enoch
    • C) Lamech
    • D) Seth

    Answer: D) Seth — Genesis 4:25

  6. 6. What did the Lord ask Cain after he killed Abel?

    Answer: "Where is Abel thy brother?" — Genesis 4:9

  7. 7. Who walked with God and was no more, because God took him?

    • A) Methuselah
    • B) Noah
    • C) Enoch
    • D) Seth

    Answer: C) Enoch — Genesis 5:24

  8. 8. What were the names of Noah's three sons?

    Answer: Shem, Ham and Japheth — Genesis 6:10

  9. 9. What sign did God give of his promise never again to destroy the earth with a flood?

    • A) A star in the sky
    • B) The bow in the clouds
    • C) A pillar of fire
    • D) The dove with the olive leaf

    Answer: B) The bow in the clouds — Genesis 9:12-13

  10. 10. What did the people want to build in the plain of Shinar?

    Answer: A city and a tower with its top in the heavens, to make a name for themselves — Genesis 11:2-4

Chapters 12-24: Abraham

  1. 11. What did God promise Abram when he called him to leave his land?

    • A) To give him a crown and an army
    • B) To take him back to Ur of the Chaldeans
    • C) To make him a priest of Salem
    • D) To make him a great nation and to bless all the families of the earth through him

    Answer: D) To make him a great nation and to bless all the families of the earth through him — Genesis 12:1-3

  2. 12. Which king of Salem, priest of God Most High, brought out bread and wine and blessed Abram?

    Answer: Melchizedek — Genesis 14:18-19

  3. 13. Who was Sarai's Egyptian servant, the mother of Ishmael?

    • A) Hagar
    • B) Keturah
    • C) Milcah
    • D) Zilpah

    Answer: A) Hagar — Genesis 16:1, 15

  4. 14. What new names did God give Abram and Sarai?

    Answer: Abraham and Sarah — Genesis 17:5, 15

  5. 15. What did Sarah do when she heard she would have a son in her old age?

    • A) She wept
    • B) She sang
    • C) She laughed
    • D) She fainted

    Answer: C) She laughed — Genesis 18:10-12

  6. 16. At the end of Abraham's intercession, for how many righteous people did the Lord say he would not destroy Sodom?

    Answer: For ten — Genesis 18:32

  7. 17. What happened to Lot's wife when she looked back?

    • A) She went blind
    • B) She fell into the fire
    • C) She was lost in the wilderness
    • D) She became a pillar of salt

    Answer: D) She became a pillar of salt — Genesis 19:26

  8. 18. What did Sarah say when Isaac was born?

    Answer: "God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me" — Genesis 21:6

  9. 19. In which land did God tell Abraham to offer Isaac?

    • A) The land of Moriah
    • B) The land of Goshen
    • C) Canaan, by the Jordan
    • D) Haran

    Answer: A) The land of Moriah — Genesis 22:2

  10. 20. What sign did Abraham's servant ask for at the well to recognize Isaac's wife?

    Answer: That the young woman would give him a drink and offer to water his camels too — Genesis 24:12-14

Chapters 25-36: Isaac, Esau and Jacob

  1. 21. Why did Esau sell his birthright to Jacob?

    • A) For a red stew of lentils and bread, because he came in from the field exhausted
    • B) For a coat of many colors
    • C) For half of Isaac's flocks
    • D) For his mother's blessing

    Answer: A) For a red stew of lentils and bread, because he came in from the field exhausted — Genesis 25:29-34

  2. 22. How did Jacob trick his father Isaac to receive the blessing?

    Answer: He put on Esau's clothes and covered his hands and neck with goatskins — Genesis 27:15-16

  3. 23. What did Jacob see in a dream at Bethel?

    • A) Seven fat cows and seven thin ones
    • B) A ladder reaching to heaven, with angels going up and down on it
    • C) A bush that burned without being consumed
    • D) Twelve stars bowing down to him

    Answer: B) A ladder reaching to heaven, with angels going up and down on it — Genesis 28:12, 19

  4. 24. How many years did Jacob serve Laban for Rachel?

    Answer: Fourteen: seven before the wedding, at which Laban gave him Leah, and seven more afterward — Genesis 29:18-30

  5. 25. What new name did Jacob receive after wrestling with a man until daybreak?

    • A) Edom
    • B) Judah
    • C) Israel
    • D) Peniel

    Answer: C) Israel — Genesis 32:24-28

  6. 26. What did Jacob call the place where he wrestled, and why?

    Answer: Peniel, because he said, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved" — Genesis 32:30

  7. 27. Who was Jacob's firstborn son?

    • A) Judah
    • B) Reuben
    • C) Levi
    • D) Joseph

    Answer: B) Reuben — Genesis 29:32

  8. 28. Where did Rachel die while giving birth to her second son?

    Answer: On the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem — Genesis 35:16-19

  9. 29. What name did Rachel give her last son before she died, and what did Jacob call him?

    • A) Ben-ammi, renamed Ammon by Jacob
    • B) Oni, renamed Onan by Jacob
    • C) Moab, renamed Manasseh by Jacob
    • D) Ben-oni, renamed Benjamin by Jacob

    Answer: D) Ben-oni, renamed Benjamin by Jacob — Genesis 35:18

  10. 30. What was Esau's other name?

    Answer: Edom — Genesis 25:30; 36:1

Chapters 37-50: Joseph in Egypt

  1. 31. What did Jacob do for Joseph that made his brothers jealous?

    • A) He gave him his ring
    • B) He gave him the birthright
    • C) He made him a coat of many colors
    • D) He made him chief of the flocks

    Answer: C) He made him a coat of many colors — Genesis 37:3-4

  2. 32. What did Joseph dream about sheaves?

    Answer: That his brothers' sheaves gathered around his and bowed down to it — Genesis 37:7

  3. 33. For how many pieces of silver did the brothers sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites?

    • A) Thirty
    • B) Twenty
    • C) Ten
    • D) Fifty

    Answer: B) Twenty — Genesis 37:28

  4. 34. Whose dreams did Joseph interpret in prison?

    Answer: The chief cupbearer's and the chief baker's of Pharaoh — Genesis 40:1-19

  5. 35. What did the seven fat cows and seven thin cows in Pharaoh's dream mean?

    • A) Seven years of plenty and seven years of famine
    • B) Seven kings and seven kingdoms
    • C) Seven sons of Joseph
    • D) Seven plagues on Egypt

    Answer: A) Seven years of plenty and seven years of famine — Genesis 41:25-30

  6. 36. Whom did Pharaoh give Joseph as a wife?

    Answer: Asenath, daughter of Potipherah, priest of On — Genesis 41:45

  7. 37. What did Joseph have put in Benjamin's sack to hold back his brothers?

    • A) His signet ring
    • B) A gold chain
    • C) The money for the grain
    • D) His silver cup

    Answer: D) His silver cup — Genesis 44:1-2

  8. 38. What did Joseph tell his brothers when he revealed himself, so that they would not be grieved?

    Answer: That God sent him before them to preserve life — Genesis 45:4-5

  9. 39. In which region of Egypt did Jacob's family settle?

    • A) Memphis
    • B) The city of On
    • C) Goshen
    • D) By the Red Sea

    Answer: C) Goshen — Genesis 45:10; 47:6

  10. 40. What did Joseph tell his brothers after Jacob died?

    Answer: "Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good" — Genesis 50:20

How to study the book of Genesis with these questions

  • One block per meeting: read the chapters of the block together, then answer the ten questions at the end with Bibles open.
  • By character: the second block fits a study on Abraham, the third on Jacob and the fourth on Joseph.
  • Review quiz: use only the multiple-choice questions for a quick review where everyone answers at once.
  • Competition: the creation and Joseph blocks work for the whole group; Abraham and Jacob are good for the final round.

Activities to use with these questions

Open the meeting with a Bible activity and close with the questions from this list. Each page has step-by-step instructions, a key verse and a variation for your group.

See all church activities →

Frequently asked questions

What is the book of Genesis about?

Chapters 1 to 11 tell the beginnings: creation, the fall, Cain and Abel, the flood and the tower of Babel. Chapters 12 to 50 follow the family God chose: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, until the sons of Israel settle in Egypt.

Do the questions follow the order of the chapters?

Yes. The 40 questions run from chapter 1 to chapter 50 in order, in four blocks of ten, so you can use just one block for a single Bible study session.

How can I use these questions in Sunday school or a small group?

Read the chapters of a block together, then answer its ten questions with Bibles open. For a quick review, use only the multiple-choice questions so everyone answers at once.

Can I print the list?

Yes. There is a print version that you can also save as a PDF after a free sign-up, and a presentation mode for showing the questions on a screen.

Is there a printable PDF?

Yes. With a free Cinira Master account you can print this list or save it as a PDF.

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