How Well Do You Know the Bible?

Wednesday, September 16, 2026
written by Rev. Dr. Mike Hegeman

Last week, I proctored the Bible Content Exam. What this means is that I sat with one candidate for ministry in the PCUSA as she took a national exam on her computer, monitoring that she did everything she was supposed to do procedurally. The purpose of this exam was to assess her biblical knowledge. The 100-question multiple-choice exam is not easy, but one must pass it if he or she wants to be ordained as a Presbyterian minister (PCUSA). I took the exam 32 years ago. Pastors Erik and Leah both had to take it. The test is comprehensive for all of Scripture, and you never know exactly what specific questions will be on it. Which king of Judah was taken into captivity in Babylon in 597 BCE? (It’s Jehoiachin in case you were wondering.) One’s self-esteem as a future minister could be crushed if you didn’t pass this exam the first time!

How well do you feel you know the Bible?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Reformation recently…having participated in a Reformation tour this summer and now teaching a class on key “revolutionary” figures involved in reforming the church. One emphasis of the Reformation was to get the Bible into the hands of everyday people. This meant translating the Bible from medieval Latin to modern, local languages so that the people who actually could read might better understand the content of scripture. The church in Western Europe at this time resisted this new Protestant project, for whatever reason, believing that the church alone was the purveyor of biblical truth and knowledge, but the Reformers thought differently.

Some key things that changed during the time of Luther and Calvin were 1) that the printing press made books more accessible, 2) the Reformers focused on education for more and more people, and 3) there was a real interest in finding things out for oneself (or “going back to the sources.”) When Luther translated the Bible into an accessible German dialect, had printers make hundreds of thousands of copies of the Bible, (A single Wittenberg publisher, Hans Lufft, printed more than 100,000 copies of the Luther Bible between 1534 and 1574.) and saw to it that people could read it, the new Protestant Christianity saw to it that a real fundamental requirement of faith was that one really knew the Bible.

Your Christian faith became increasingly based on biblical knowledge and not necessarily on blind faith in what the church was teaching.

This focus seems to prevail in the world where Protestantism, and especially evangelical expressions of Protestantism, predominate. Old and New Testament courses were required for all students at the Southern Baptist University I attended, and many of the Baptist students I met there told stories of “Bible drills” they endured in children and youth groups at the church in which they were raised. Even though I didn’t grow up with this intensive form of Bible memorization, I still knew the Bible pretty well from my Methodist upbringing in Sunday School, and did well in these college Bible classes, though to get an A, you had to have at least a 96% average from all the quizzes.

With all this emphasis on biblical knowledge for the last 500 years, what do we as ministers in mainline Protestant churches in America really think the everyday church member needs to know…to be considered a functioning Christian? We ministers, know that some of you delight in learning as much as you can about the Bible, especially the New Testament. Others of you know very little about the Bible and yet come to church week after week, listening to sermons (we assume) and singing the hymns (which are shaped by biblical learning). How much does one really need to know about the Bible to have a satisfying and enriching faith experience?

Back in the Middle Ages, in England, let’s say, the content of the Bible was little known to your average English man or woman. The Bible was expensive to produce, and it was in Latin. One preacher and monk, Aelfryc of Ælfric of Eynsham, thought about the core teaching of scripture that he thought everyone should know. He saw this in the Nicene Creed and thought that the people should not just memorize it in Latin but be able to speak with understanding in English. So, in 992, he translated the Creed into the common language of his people:

“Ic gelyfe on ænne God, Fæder Ælmihtigne, Wyrcend heofenan and eorðan…” (I believe in one God, Father Almighty, Worker of heaven and earth…)

The Nicene Creed had been around since the 3rd century, and had been used by the Christian church to teach the core faith to the many and illiterate congregation members. If you were lucky, you maybe understood what the words of the Creed meant when you recited it. Maybe you didn’t. For many, it was sufficient for shaping faith and life.

What is your level of biblical knowledge? How much do you need to know to think of yourself a Christian? How does studying Scripture deepen your faith? One way to find out the answer to these questions is to read Scripture along with a community of seekers and believers. 

Pinnacle offers you multiple ways to do this: the Women’s Bible Study (Tuesdays), Woven (for Women, on Mondays), Pastors’ Bible Study (Thursdays), Sunday morning Adult Faith Formation, and currently, Journey Through the Gospels (https://www.pinnaclepres.org/journey-through-the-gospels), which offers a daily schedule of reading with brief commentary. Knowledge of scripture engenders growth, even as it causes us to raise questions and struggle for understanding. Through scripture, we encounter and are encountered by Jesus Christ, through whom we come into the metaphorical burning bush of encounter with the God who made us, claimed us, loved us, and restored us. Scripture is quite the journey…for a lifetime. How will you deepen your knowing?