for 20 Points. Give a Complete Answer. How does Galatians 2:8 describe God?
A lot of quizzers have mental blocks completing these questions. The correct interruption point is fairly obvious–hit on the reference. The trick is to make sure you know how to complete it. The question above is a perfect example of one that could trap a quizzer. The verse says: For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. Some quizzers would look at this verse and say it describes Peter, Peter’s ministry, Paul, Paul’s ministry, or even apostles. So why is the correct completion always “God?”
Simply put, the correct way to complete this question is to go with the first thing in the verse. In this case, God is first in the verse, so that makes this the correct completion. This is the standard completion nearly every time.
What are the exceptions? If there is absolutely no reasonable completion from the beginning of the verse (and you really have to broaden your definition of “reasonable”), then you look at the rest of the verse. If there isn’t anything there, go to the verse before. This is especially true when the reference from the question starts in the middle of a sentence.
Now, often these question won’t make a lot of sense. In Bible Quiz, question writers have generally been allowed to expand the use of “describe” to include both actual descriptions and actions. Hence, you could have a verse that talks about Jesus going somewhere and healing someone, containing not a single adjective or descriptive phrase, and it could still be used in a “describe” question.
You can certainly try to contest validity on this point, and I applaud the effort, but don’t count on getting too many of them. Most of the time, officials will allow these questions to stand.
However, now that you know how to coach your quizzers to hit them, you shouldn’t need to contest them as often. Just get them right, instead.