These eight original questions cover the four orientation skills. The passages are used only to train the method, so repeat each skill on the ones your school assigned.
Work through them in order. Write your answer first, then open the answer box.
This set belongs to prescribed-text orientation in the Bible Knowledge subject guide.
Questions
1. Context (2 marks). Your passage is Ruth 2:1-3. Name two people in it and say why Ruth went to the field.
Answer
Any two of Ruth, Naomi and Boaz (verses 1 to 3) earn one mark. The reason is that she and Naomi needed food, so she went to glean behind the harvesters (2:2). One mark for the reason.
2. Context (2 marks). What happened in Ruth chapter 1 that explains why Naomi and Ruth were in Bethlehem?
Answer
Naomi returned from Moab after her husband and sons died (1:3-5), with Ruth going with her. They arrived at the start of the barley harvest (1:22). One mark for the return and one for the reason or the timing.
3. Event or interpretation (2 marks). Label each: (a) “The sailors threw the cargo overboard (Jonah 1:5).” (b) “The cargo thrown overboard shows people letting go of what they depend on.”
Answer
(a) Event, because the verse records what the sailors did. (b) Interpretation, because it is a meaning drawn from the event and the verse does not say it. One mark each.
4. Event then interpretation (4 marks). Explain what Jonah chapter 1 shows about God’s control over nature.
Answer
Event: a great storm came (1:4) and the sea grew calm only after Jonah was thrown in (1:15). Interpretation: this is read as showing God’s control over nature. Two marks for events with verses, two for the stated meaning linked to them.
5. Sequence (3 marks). Put these Daniel 6 events in order.
- (a) Daniel prays at his window.
- (b) The king signs the decree.
- (c) Daniel is found unharmed.
Give the order as three letters.
Answer
The order is b, a, c. The decree is signed (6:9), Daniel prays as usual (6:10), and he is found unharmed at dawn (6:19-23). One mark for each correct place.
6. Recall (3 marks). State who ordered the accusers to be thrown into the lions’ den, and where Darius spent the night after Daniel was put in.
Answer
The king, Darius, gave the order (6:24). He spent the night fasting in his palace and could not sleep (6:18). One mark for who, one for what he did, one for the place.
7. Checking (2 marks). A student writes: “In Mark 4 Jesus held the rudder while the disciples bailed water.” Correct it.
Answer
Jesus was asleep in the stern on a cushion (4:38). The student added the rudder from a picture. One mark for the correction and one for the verse.
8. Checking and labelling (4 marks). Read this: “Jesus calmed the storm (Mark 4:39), which proves that every Christian will be free from trouble.” Mark the claim that is supported, the one that is not, and rewrite the second.
Answer
The first half is supported: Jesus rebuked the wind and there was a great calm (4:39). The second half is a claim that goes beyond the passage, because the text says nothing about every Christian or freedom from trouble. A rewrite: “The disciples respond with awe and ask who he is (4:41).” Two marks for the split, two for the rewrite.
If you got these wrong
- Questions 1 and 2: review placing a passage in its narrative context.
- Questions 3 and 4: review separating an event from its interpretation.
- Questions 5 and 6: review building a people, place and sequence recall table.
- Questions 7 and 8: review checking your answer against the passage.
If you want a teacher to go through a full set of your answers, see online one-to-one Bible Knowledge tuition.