Moses then said to Aaron and his sons, “Cook the meat at the entrance to the tent of meeting and eat it there with the bread from the basket of ordination offerings, as I was commanded: ‘Aaron and his sons are to eat it.’

• Leviticus 8:31

Eat it as something most holy; every male shall eat it. You must regard it as holy.

• Numbers 18:10

On the fifteenth day of this month there is to be a festival; for seven days eat bread made without yeast.

• Numbers 28:17

If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket.

• Deuteronomy 23:24

The classic pop art of my youth was a huge neon sign in the middle of nowhere.  The sign was shaped in a circle, with an arrow spiraling from the edge and pointing to the café beneath the sign.  The sign said, “Eat at Joe’s.”  While Joe’s Diner in Lee, Massachusetts claims fame for being featured in a Rockman Rockwell painting (not a painting of the sign, but in “The Runaway” with the cop and the little runaway boy dining on barstools, classic Rockwell), “Eat at Joe’s” was ubiquitous for Americana in my youth.

This quiz is about the word “eat.”  I can always do a quiz about the two Joes some other time (1. The son of Jacob and Rachel and 2. Mary’s husband who was the earthly father of Jesus).  I worked on this quiz when preparing for a colonoscopy.  For a week I have been eating well-done, soft foods.  I have avoided a lot of the foods that I like.  The last day of the preparation is eating gelatin (green or yellow only) and drinking broth.  I hope I can report that they found nothing of importance.  They have found polyps in the past, but nothing to worry about at this point, but the polyps mean I am on a five-year cycle.  This is far from my first “rodeo.”

While I am thinking about crunching into something that requires chewing, I will look for verses for this quiz.

My report: They found absolutely nothing. I told the nurse that I’m glad the doctor wasn’t doing a CT scan of the brain. It took her a few seconds and then she cackled. (I had that happen once. I was having equilibrium issues, and the doctor did a CT of my brain and he said that he found nothing. In other words, “no brain.” But then when I did not laugh at his joke, he said there was no tumor or anything that would require surgery. He prescribed something strange – mega doses of caffeine to overload the equilibrium center of the brain to keep it from making me veer to one side and run into walls, and the door frames hurt when you slam into them. It worked! And I no longer need the medicine.) But what I think the doctor meant about the colonoscopy was that there were no polyps or other concerns and my preparation with soft foods and taking the laxative worked extremely, maybe even surprisingly, well.

These questions, like in most of these quizzes, is about verses with one word, for this one the word is “eat.”  I use “eaten” for only one question.  I had over six hundred verses to choose from.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	The first three uses of “eat” in the NIV are in two consecutive verses.  What they are allowed to eat, what they cannot eat, and what happens if they eat it.  Who are they? What can they eat? What can they not eat? And what happens if they eat it?
2	In the first reference to “eat” in Exodus, a priest of Midian, who had seven daughters, asked his daughters to invite an Egyptian to come and eat after the Egyptian had chased away shepherds that did not allow the women access to water.  Who was this “Egyptian?”
3	The Israelites were commanded to eat a roasted lamb, while wearing their sandals, cloak tucked into their belt, holding their staff.  What is the purpose of this?
4	Why was Samson told not to eat anything unclean or drink anything fermented?
5	A vicious cycle happened each time Elkanah went to make a sacrifice at the tabernacle.  He would give his wife Peninnah and her sons their portion of the meat, but he gave his other wife a double portion, for she was barren.  Peninnah would torment her to the point of her being unable to eat.  Who was this tormented soul who gave birth to a judge, priest, and prophet?
6	Ahijah prophesied to Jeroboam that because of his sins, birds will feed on all that belong to him who die in the country and what will eat those who die in the city?
7	God commanded Ezekiel to eat bread that was defiled to be an object lesson to the people of Judah, but Ezekiel refused.  What slight change did God make in what Ezekiel was to do?  For a bonus, what was this object lesson to illustrate?
8	Two people were commanded to eat a scroll, Ezekiel and John.  How did each say the scroll tasted?
9	What was presented before Peter when God told him, ‘Kill and eat”?
10	When Paul talked of working during the day and praying over food given by others, he gave the Thessalonians a rule while working with them.  What was the rule?

There are only two books in the NIV Old Testament that do not refer to the word “eat.”  They are Habakkuk and Malachi.  Only fourteen of the New Testament books, a little over half, refer to the word “eat.”

There was a lot of good health sense in restricting the things that the Israelites ate and did not eat.  Some of the unclean animals had things within their bodies that, if not prepared properly, could make people sick or lead to their death.  The disease, trichinosis that is caused by a parasitic roundworm that could be in the meat, can be the result of eating under cooked pork or bear meat that is not cooked properly.  It has become a trend among health food enthusiasts, of all things, to eat the offal of the pig.  The result has been an increase in cases of hepatitis.  Never fear.  Cooking the pig well-done, maintaining an adequate internal temperature, will make pork good to eat, that is if you do not have a health disorder that is aggravated by eating pork. (My son gets flare-ups of gout mostly from pork.)

But after what happened in question 9 of this quiz, the concept of eating restrictions seemed to be much less of an issue for the New Testament, until people kept asking the apostles about whether it was okay to eat meat sacrificed to idols.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	The first three uses of “eat” in the NIV are in two consecutive verses.  What they are allowed to eat, what they cannot eat, and what happens if they eat it.  Who are they? What can they eat? What can they not eat? And what happens if they eat it?	Genesis 2:16-17
2	In the first reference to “eat” in Exodus, a priest of Midian, who had seven daughters, asked his daughters to invite an Egyptian to come and eat after the Egyptian had chased away shepherds that did not allow the women access to water.  Who was this “Egyptian?”	Exodus 2:20-21
3	The Israelites were commanded to eat a roasted lamb, while wearing their sandals, cloak tucked into their belt, holding their staff.  What is the purpose of this?	Exodus 12:7-11
4	Why was Samson told not to eat anything unclean or drink anything fermented?	Judges 13:4-5
5	A vicious cycle happened each time Elkanah went to make a sacrifice at the tabernacle.  He would give his wife Peninnah and her sons their portion of the meat, but he gave his other wife a double portion, for she was barren.  Peninnah would torment her to the point of her being unable to eat.  Who was this tormented soul who gave birth to a judge, priest, and prophet?	1 Samuel 1:3-7
6	Ahijah prophesied to Jeroboam that because of his sins, birds will feed on all that belong to him who die in the country and what will eat those who die in the city?	1 Kings 14:11
7	God commanded Ezekiel to eat bread that was defiled to be an object lesson to the people of Judah, but Ezekiel refused.  What slight change did God make in what Ezekiel was to do?  For a bonus, what was this object lesson to illustrate?	Ezekiel 4:14
8	Two people were commanded to eat a scroll, Ezekiel and John.  How did each say the scroll tasted?	Ezekiel 3:1-3; Revelation 10:9-10
9	What was presented before Peter when God told him, ‘Kill and eat”?	Acts 10:10-15
10	When Paul talked of working during the day and praying over food given by others, he gave the Thessalonians a rule while working with them.  What was the rule?	2 Thessalonians 3:10

I was thinking of making a bonus question:  What book in the Bible has the most references to “eat”, more than twice as many references than any other book, other than Deuteronomy?

The answer is Leviticus with 80 mentions of “eat” (NIV).  Deuteronomy has 53.  Exodus is next with 36, then Ezekiel with 35, and Genesis with 34.  The most in the New Testament is Luke with 33.

Why so many in Leviticus? In Leviticus, chapters 6 and 7, and a little in 8, talk about the portions of sacrifices that become the food for the priests and their families, and what portions of these sacrifices should not be eaten.  The definitions for clean and unclean animals are in Leviticus 11.  In Leviticus 17, there is the discussion on not eating the blood of the animal. And with Deuteronomy being a lot of repetition of the Law, restating and / or expanding, Deuteronomy is second.

But maybe the most important reference to the word “eat” is when Jesus broke the bread and gave it to His disciples and said, “Take and eat.  This is my body.” (Matthew 26:26)

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The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	The first three uses of “eat” in the NIV are in two consecutive verses.  What they are allowed to eat, what they cannot eat, and what happens if they eat it.  Who are they? What can they eat? What can they not eat? And what happens if they eat it?	Genesis 2:16-17	Adam and Eve can eat of anything in the garden except from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  If they ate from that tree, they would surely die.
2	In the first reference to “eat” in Exodus, a priest of Midian, who had seven daughters, asked his daughters to invite an Egyptian to come and eat after the Egyptian had chased away shepherds that did not allow the women access to water.  Who was this “Egyptian?”	Exodus 2:20-21	Moses
3	The Israelites were commanded to eat a roasted lamb, while wearing their sandals, cloak tucked into their belt, holding their staff.  What is the purpose of this?	Exodus 12:7-11	They were to eat in haste.  It was the Lord’s Passover, and they would be ready to follow God in the Exodus.
4	Why was Samson told not to eat anything unclean or drink anything fermented?	Judges 13:4-5	He was being set apart as a Nazarite.  Of course, there was the rule of never having his head be touched by a razor.
5	A vicious cycle happened each time Elkanah went to make a sacrifice at the tabernacle.  He would give his wife Peninnah and her sons their portion of the meat, but he gave his other wife a double portion, for she was barren.  Peninnah would torment her to the point of her being unable to eat.  Who was this tormented soul who gave birth to a judge, priest, and prophet?	1 Samuel 1:3-7	Hannah who prayed and gave birth to Samuel
6	Ahijah prophesied to Jeroboam that because of his sins, birds will feed on all that belong to him who die in the country and what will eat those who die in the city?	1 Kings 14:11	dogs
7	God commanded Ezekiel to eat bread that was defiled to be an object lesson to the people of Judah, but Ezekiel refused.  What slight change did God make in what Ezekiel was to do?  For a bonus, what was this object lesson to illustrate?	Ezekiel 4:14	God allowed Ezekiel to cook the bread over cow dung instead of human excrement.  The point of the object lesson was that those still in Jerusalem would ration food and water, and starve due to their sin.
8	Two people were commanded to eat a scroll, Ezekiel and John.  How did each say the scroll tasted?	Ezekiel 3:1-3; Revelation 10:9-10	Sweet like honey
9	What was presented before Peter when God told him, ‘Kill and eat”?	Acts 10:10-15	A large sheet with hooved animals, reptiles, and birds (unclean animals).
10	When Paul talked of working during the day and praying over food given by others, he gave the Thessalonians a rule while working with them.  What was the rule?	2 Thessalonians 3:10	The one who is not willing to work shall not eat.

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, … Here is J. D. Sumner and the Stamps singing Let Us Break Bread Together.

And here is St. Paul Inspirit Ensemble singing In Remembrance.

And here is Stuart Townend singing Behold the Lamb.

And here is Take This Bread.  It is sung by Barry McGuire.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.