Bible 20 Questions

Preparation

Download, print and cut up the Bible 20 Questions Cards.
The cards are divided into 5 categories: (1) Old Testament Stories, (2) New Testament Stories, (3) Old Testament Bible Characters, (4) New Testament Bible Characters and (5) Things (great for players less familiar with the Bible).

The Bible stories in these Bible 20 Questions cards are similar to those found in the Emoji Bible Stories Card Game.

Download and print the Bible 20 Questions Board.

How to Play

We recommend playing Bible 20 Questions as a cooperative game, where all players work as a team to achieve a common goal. This is more fun and encouraging especially for young children and it avoids any unnecessary tension that competitive games sometimes create. (To play as a competitive game, see Variation 1 below)

Before you begin, set an achievable goal. For example, the goal can be to correctly guess the story, character or thing on 10 cards within 30 minutes. (You should vary this goal according to the age of your players.) If the group collectively achieves this goal, then everyone wins.

Have everyone sit in a circle.

Place the Bible 20 Questions Board in the middle of the playing area.
Place the Bible 20 Questions Cards on the Board according to the categories indicated.

For each round, 1 player will be the Answerer, and all other players will take turns to ask questions.
The Answerer rolls the dice to determine the category and draws the top card of that pile:

(1) Old Testament Story
(2) New Testament Story
(3) Old Testament Bible Character
(4) New Testament Bible Character
(5) Thing
(6) Answerer gets to choose

Starting with the player on the left of the Answerer and going clockwise, the other players take turns to ask only yes or no questions and must try to guess what is on the card.

Each person can only ask 1 question at a time and the Answerer can only answer “yes” or “no”.
(A guess is considered 1 question.)

The round ends when any player guesses correctly or when the group has asked a total of 20 questions.

Encourage the correct guesser for each round to be the Answerer for the next round. But never force anyone into that role. Some children may not be confident answering questions, or they may just enjoy guessing.

Tips

For Answerers who are less familiar with the Bible, allow them to pick the “Thing” category, and tell everyone to ask non-Bible-based questions about the “Thing”.

Variation 1

For a competitive game, divide into teams of 2-6 players.
Teams take turns to be the Answering Team. The Answering Team sends a representative to pick a Bible 20 Questions Card.

The other teams will take turns to ask yes or no questions.

The round ends when any team guesses correctly or a total of 20 questions have been asked collectively.

Scoring:
Award points according to the number of questions asked prior to arriving at the correct answer.
The fewer questions asked, the higher the score.
For example:
If the team gives the correct answer after asking 5 questions (i.e. while asking the 6th question), award 15 points (20-5=5).
If the team gives the correct answer after asking 19 questions (i.e. while asking the final 20th question allowed), award 1 point (20-19=1).

Play for a pre-determined number of rounds or period of time.

Variation 2

To play this game without using the Bible 20 Questions Cards provided, allow players to think of other Bible Stories, People, Places or Things that they are familiar with.

Alternatively, make your own cards based on Bible stories you are familiar with.

Bible Lesson – What is the Bible

Discuss
1. Did you enjoy this game?
2. Which role did you prefer? Asking questions and guessing or answering questions?

Say
The Bible 20 Questions Cards contained stories, people and things from the Bible.

Discuss
3. Are you familiar with all these stories and people?
4. How often do you read the Bible?
5. Do you know who wrote the Bible?

Read
2 Timothy 3:16-17

Discuss
6. What is another name for the Bible?
7. Who wrote the Bible?

Say
The Bible is sometimes referred to as Scripture.
Different human authors wrote different books of the Bible.
There are altogether more than 40 human authors who took about 1500 years to write all 66 books of the Bible.
However, the entire Bible tells one unified story because God is the real author behind these human authors.
God’s Spirit worked within the human authors to inspire them to write the Bible.

Discuss
8. Why is the Bible important?

Conclusion
The Bible tells us all about God and his relentless love for us.
It tells us how we can have a relationship with God and how we can fulfill God’s plans for our lives.
It teaches us to distinguish between what is right and wrong in God’s eyes, and trains and equips us to do God’s work.