BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (BP) — If you ask someone at church to name their favorite story from the Old Testament, they may mention Moses or Noah, but they might also talk about Jesus or Paul. Some may even begin describing a story from outside the Bible.

When asked about their favorite story from the Old Testament, around 4 in 5 U.S. Protestant churchgoers share one from the first section of the Bible, according to a Lifeway Research study. More than 1 in 10 (11%), however, offer a New Testament story or book, 7% say none and 3% don’t know.

“While churchgoers may open a Bible at church, at least 1 in 5 may not be familiar with how it’s organized and what distinguishes the New Testament from the Old Testament,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “Some of these attendees may have spent less time in the Bible while others may not know the Bible for themselves because someone else has always been their GPS for navigating it.”

The most popular stories among churchgoers are Moses or the exodus (13%), Noah (11%), the book of Genesis (10%) and David and Goliath (8%). Others point to Adam and Eve (5%), Job (4%), Ruth (4%), Joseph (3%), Jonah (3%), Daniel (3%), Esther (2%), David (2%), the book of Psalms (2%), Cain and Abel (2%), Abraham (1%), Elijah (1%) and Samson (1%). Several other narratives or books from the Old Testament are the favorite of less than 1% of churchgoers.

Old Testament knowledge

With many U.S. Protestant churchgoers unable to name a story from the first half of the Bible, it may come as no surprise that some are unsure about their recall of specific stories, and others are overconfident in their recollection. Asked about various potential stories from the Bible, churchgoers expressed varying degrees of confidence in their ability to retell a narrative, including one not from the Bible.

Churchgoers are most confident in their memory of Noah and the ark. Around 4 in 5 (82%) say they could tell it from memory, including 39% who say they could tell it all accurately and 43% who say they could tell it but some details might be missing or wrong. Close to 1 in 6 (17%) say they could only give a quick overview. Additionally, 1% say they couldn’t tell any of it, another 1% prefer not to answer, and less than 1% don’t think Noah and the ark is from the Bible.

Three in 4 churchgoers (74%) believe they could retell the story of David and Goliath, including 34% who say they could describe it all accurately. Around 1 in 4 (23%) could only give a brief overview. Few couldn’t tell any of it (3%), prefer not to answer (1%) or don’t think David and Goliath is a biblical story (less than 1%).

Around 2 in 3 Protestant churchgoers in the U.S. have confidence in their ability to convey the stories of Abraham being asked to sacrifice Isaac (64%), Jonah and the big fish (63%) and Daniel in the lion’s den (63%). They’re most confident in accurately retelling all of the stories of Abraham and Isaac (29%) and Jonah (28%) followed by Daniel (24%). Around a quarter say they could give a quick overview for any of the three. Less than 1 in 10 say they don’t think they could tell any of the story — Daniel (9%), Abraham (8%), Jonah (8%). Few churchgoers expressed doubt those stories were in the Bible, including 2% for Jonah, 1% for Daniel and less than 1% for Abraham.

Generally, churchgoers who have evangelical beliefs, those who attend church services more frequently and those who attend larger churches are more likely to express confidence in their ability to accurately retell the five Bible stories. Also, Lutherans were often the most doubtful they could recall the full stories.

“Those churchgoers with evangelical beliefs — which include expressing personal responsibility to share the message of Jesus Christ as Savior with others — are more confident that they can tell several classic Old Testament stories from memory than churchgoers without these beliefs,” said McConnell. “Yet the large number of churchgoers that readily admit they are fuzzy on some of the details of God’s interactions with the patriarchs helps explain the need for regular Bible teaching within churches.”

Additionally, 1 in 10 (9%) believe they could tell the story of Romulus and Remus in the Bible from memory, and another 16% say they could give a quick overview. In reality, that tale is about twin brothers founding the city of Rome from Roman mythology. One-third (33%) say they couldn’t tell any of it, while 3% prefer not to answer. Around 2 in 5 (39%) correctly expressed doubts about the story being in the Bible.

Older churchgoers are more likely to correctly identify Romulus and Remus as coming from outside of Scripture. Those 65 and older (51%) and 50-64 (47%) are more likely than those 35-49 (21%) and 18-34 (19%) to say they don’t think it is a Bible story.

Presbyterian/Reformed (51%) and non-denominational (48%) churchgoers are more likely than their Baptist (34%), Methodist (25%) and Restorationist movement (25%) counterparts to say the tale isn’t biblical. Churchgoers with evangelical beliefs (46%) are also more likely than those without such beliefs (32%) to recognize Romulus and Remus as coming from outside of Scripture.

Those who attend a worship service four or more times a month (45%) are more likely than those who attend one to three times a month (32%) to correctly say they don’t think the story is from the Bible. Additionally, those who attend a larger church may spot the fake story more readily. Churchgoers at congregations with 500 or more in attendance (52%) and 250-499 (50%) are more likely than those who attend churches of 100-249 (40%), 50-99 (29%) and less than 50 (37%) to express doubt about Romulus and Remus being in the Bible.

“While recognizing the names of every person mentioned in the Bible may have little value, the Christian faith does place great value on recognizing biblical teaching from other voices because Jesus said He is the only way,” McConnell said. “Most churchgoers remember and can tell more than just the highlights of major Old Testament events, but the majority also admit they need a refresher on some of the details.”

For more information, view the complete report and visit LifewayResearch.com.

Methodology

The online survey of 1,008 American Protestant churchgoers was conducted Sept. 19-29, 2023, using a national pre-recruited panel. Respondents were screened to include those who identified as Protestant/non-denominational and attend religious services at least once a month. Quotas and slight weights were used to balance gender, age, region, ethnicity, education and religion to more accurately reflect the population. The completed sample is 1,008 surveys. The sample provides 95% confidence that the sampling error from the panel does not exceed plus or minus 3.2%. This margin of error accounts for the effect of weighting. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

Evangelical beliefs are defined using the National Association of Evangelicals/Lifeway Research Evangelical Beliefs Research Definition based on respondent beliefs. Respondents are asked their level of agreement with four separate statements using a four-point, forced-choice scale (strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, strongly disagree). Those who strongly agree with all four statements are categorized as having Evangelical beliefs:

• The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.
• It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior.
• Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin.
• Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Aaron Earls is a writer for LifeWay Christian Resources.)