Games - Bible Bowl

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	Games - Bible Bowl

Bible Bowl, also known as Bible Quiz, is a competition between teams representing individual churches. Various Protestant denomiations, plus a handful of independent groups, sponsor these competitions. All of them take the form of a quick-recall game, similar to those used in many American schools but instead using the Bible as the subject of study and questions. Organizations which use the name "Bible Bowl" lean toward the format established by television's College Bowl
in the 1950s. All groups feature teams competeing to be the first to "buzz in" using an electronic lockout device, much like those still used in TV game shows like Jeopardy!
today.

Most organizations have seasons which roughly correspond with the U.S. school year (September-June), holding local competitions on a monthly basis, with playoffs beginning in March or April that lead to a national championship tournament. Contestants are usually students in grades six through twelve, with some organizations also offering a separate division for younger children.

Most Bible Bowl/Quiz organizations use the New International Version as their source authority; others use the King James Version. Some groups also feature a "quoting bee" as an additional part of their competition. Similar to a spelling bee, a contestant is given a verse reference, and must quote the verse perfectly within a time limit (8-20 seconds, depending on the level of competition) or be eliminated.

Bible Bowl/Quiz Organizations

National Bible Bowl

National Bible Bowl, originally sponsored by the North American Christian Convention, is now managed by National Bible Bowl, an independent organization since 2001. Most teams still come from churches affiliated with the NACC, but other churches are now allowed as well, even into the National Tournament. The game format is nearly a direct copy of College Bowl, except that the matches are generally longer. Unlike many other quiz programs though, National Bible Bowl games have a time limit of 14 minutes with 15 questions for round robin games or two 10 minute rounds with 20 questions for double elimination games. This tends to create a faster environment and more closely relfects College Bowl in that it is more entertaining for non-participants to watch. The official study text material covers both the Old and New Testament, but there is no set cycle used to determine the books of the Bible studied and new questions are created every year, even if the same material is covered again.

Games are played with two teams of 2 to 6 players each with no more than 4 participating per round. The quizmaster reads "toss-up" questions worth 10 points each no matter the difficulty. Toss-ups start with a statement called a "lead-in," which directs players toward the answer, and then the question is read. Toss-ups can be of various types including "keyword," in which a word used once or twice in the official study text is used in the lead-in, "general," which asks a question pertaining to a specific concept or idea in the text, and "specialty," in which players have to opportunity to give short answers to various specialty types such as rhyming words or alliterations. Each player has a hand held signal block in front of them with a button and a light on it to recognize which player "buzzed in." Players must begin their answers within 3 seconds of buzzing in, a much shorter response time than the Assemblies of God or Nazarene programs which both allow players 30 seconds to complete their answers. This is one of the main factors in the speed of the game. Players do not need to finish the question being read but must quote the answer or the verses where the answer is found. If a question is answered incorrectly, the other team has the opportunity to listen to the rest of the question and then answer. Points are never taken away in National Bible Bowl for any reason nor is a player ever removed from the game for answering too many questions correctly or incorrectly, but substitutions may be made at half-time. Once a toss-up is answered correctly, a bonus question is given to that player's team on which they may confer. Bonus questions consist of 4 to 8 segments and are worth 20, 25, 30, 35, or 40 points.

The schedule coincides with the school year and round robins take place each month in local State competitions. Some States hold more than one round robin due to an abundance of teams in the area. In the summer, competitive teams will meet at some of the several invitational tournaments taking place at Christian Colleges, Universities, Bible Schools, and Seminaries around the country. At each competition a written test is administered ranging from 150 to 500 questions and certain competitions, including the National Tournament, hold "Quoting Bees" wherein a participant is given a verse location and must quote the entire verse from beginning to end verbatim. There are no official district or regional competitions that determine advancement and judges are only used in later rounds of double elimination tournaments. The season ends with a national championship tournament open to all teams, which concludes with a bracket-style playoff; the final games are staged in front of audiences sometimes numbering in the thousands.

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