The 2 Longest Lists in Acts 10-28 - And Their Problems

This Bible quizzing year, 2026, Bible quizzing once again quizzed on Acts 10-28. Bible quizzing has quizzed on exactly Acts 10-28 only twice in the 21st century, 2008 and 2026, albeit 2008 was in the NIV and 2026 was in the ESV. Acts 10-28 as quizzing material stands out as peculiar. As the quizzing material recounts Paul's missionary trips, the material contains a lot of locations, somewhere between 80 and 90 to be exact (the range is to account for ambiguity and places mentioned in speech only)! So many locations requires quizzers to spend much time staring at maps. Several questions will go unanswered simply because the question asks for from where did a person depart, to where a person arrived, or where an event took place, and that may be too much to memorize. In exchange, Acts 10-28 does not have any large lists. Yes, it does contain smaller lists, like lists of 3 and 4, but those appear in every material, and usually, quizzing is kind enough to let them fall under the 2/3 rule, requiring only naming 2 of 3 or naming 3 of 4 for a correct answer. Even so, these large lists are nowhere near the "Name the 11 apostles who went up to the upper room, where they were staying" in Acts 1 or the "Name the 15 who heard the apostles telling in their own tongues the mighty works of God" in Acts 2 (another benefit of not quizzing on the whole book - imagine trying to memorize those huge lists on top of remembering 80-90 locations!). Still, even with only 2 longer lists, each of these 2 longer lists have problems within them that might deter quizzing from asking questions with these 2 lists. Let's take a look at the 2 longest lists in Acts 10-28, and their problems that might prevent those lists from ever coming out in question form.

Passage: Acts 20:4&5- "Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied [Paul]; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas"
Question: Who are the 8 that went on ahead and were waiting at Troas?
Answer: Sopater, Paul, (Silas,) Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Timothy. Tychicus, Trophimus

There you have it. The longest list in Acts 10-28 is found in Acts 20:4&5 and it's a list of 8. Simple, right? Well, not so much. For starters, notice in the answer that Silas is in parentheses, making it "fluff." The reason for that is, if you are following the story of Acts, Silas is travelling with Paul. Therefore, one naturally assumes that Silas is right alongside Paul, even though the text says in Acts 20:4 "him" referring to Paul, instead of "them" referring to Paul and Silas. Thus, it makes sense to "fluff" Silas, for mentioning his name would not be 1 of the 8, but it's probably not wrong to mention him either. The problem with that, however, is that Timothy should also be travelling with Paul and Silas, and he IS mentioned whereas Silas is not. Still, that's not the bigger issue here. When quizmasters asked this question during the season, without the 8, so it would fall under the 2/3 rule (6/8 in this case), both quizmasters and judges alike noticed quizzers would constantly leave out Paul. After more careful examination, quizmasters and judges came to the realization that this was not a case of forgetful quizzers. Instead, the fault lied within the ambiguity of the text. The text uses the demonstrative pronoun "these." The issue that arises is whether "these" who went ahead and waited at Troas includes Paul or not. The NIV does not help, for it takes the demonstrative pronoun "these" and expands it to a demonstrative phrase "these men." The "us" in verse 5 does not help either. The "us" merely denotes that Luke had his own traveling companions with him, but the verse (or the surrounding verses, for that matter) does not provide enough clues to let the reader know if Paul was one of Luke's traveling companions. Clearly, quizmasters and judges assumed that Paul was part of "these," whereas the quizzers and quiz coaches assumed Paul did not belong with "these." Don't worry, this has quite a simple fix, so now the question and answer looks like this-

Question: Who are the 7 that accompanied Paul, and these went on ahead and were waiting at Troas?
Answer: Sopater,  (Paul, Silas,) Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Timothy. Tychicus, Trophimus

Now the list of 8 becomes a list of 7. Paul becomes "fluff" because it is already mentioned in the question. Mentioning Paul does not hurt, but it also does not contribute to the list of 7. Still, wording the question to ask for a list of 7 is no more or less or an interpretative move than wording the question to ask for a list of 8. On a lesser note, by making this question ask for a list of 7, it might tie it with another list found in Acts 10-28, but the operative word is "might."

Passage: Acts 13:1- "Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul."
Question: Who were the 7 in the church at Antioch?
Answer: prophets, teachers, Barnabas, Simeon Niger,  Lucius, Manaen, Saul/Paul

The problem here lies within the separation markers. A plain and simple "and" separates the first two: "prophets and teachers." An "and" proceeded by an oxford comma separates "Saul" at the end from the rest of the list. The rest are separated by commas. The "and" at the beginning of the list has led some to believe that Acts 13:1 does not contain 1 large list of 7, but rather, Acts 13:1 consists of 2 lists: 1 small list of 2 and 1 medium-sized list of 5. The reason the 2 lists belong together in 1 sentence is because the small list of 2 names the medium list of 5, i.e. the prophets and teachers are Barnabas, Simeon Niger, Lucius, Manaen, and Saul/Paul. In order to interpret the verse that way, however, it would have to be read as if there is a colon in there, and it would read as, "Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul." A couple problems arise, however, when considering this interpretation. To begin win, there is an "and" that separates Saul from the rest of the list, yet Paul does not get singled out as his own entity from the rest of the list(s), and no, the oxford comma does not provide an explanation/excuse. Furthermore, to say these 5 men are the prophets and teachers begs the question which name gets assigned which role. Who are the prophets? Who are the teachers? Are all 5 men both prophets and teachers? An alternative translation, however, may alleviate such problems. An alternative interpretation would say that these 5 men exist within in the church in a separate role, most likely a leadership role. Therefore, such an interpretation would read the verse as saying, "Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers [and their leaders, who were] Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul." Reading the verse this way makes Acts 13:1 a list of 7, and if applying the 2/3 rule, would require naming at least 5 to make the answer correct. This interpretation, however, requires a dynamic equivalency translation of the text, for it adds words not found in the original text. Scholarly commentaries are split on the matter, almost down to an exact 50/50. Only quizzing on the ESV in 2026 causes this problem. When quizzing on the NIV in 2008, the problem does not exist, for the NIV put a colon after teachers, siding with the former interpretation, as most English Bibles do. This reduces our 2nd longest list down to a list of 5, which still makes it the 2nd longest list in an Acts 10-28 quizzing material. Still, quizzing didn't seem too confident in the Acts 13:1 list, however, as evident by the fact only 2 different questions with the lists were asked, and each question was asked only once.

Situation Question: Who said this and to whom? "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Answer: The Holy Spirit TO the prophets and teachers (at the church) of Antioch OR Barnabas, Simeon Niger, Lucius, Maneon, Saul/Paul [4/5]

The one time the list appears during the season is in the form of a situation question, in which the quote for the situation question comes in the next verse, Acts 13:2. Not to state the obvious, but quizzing clearly took the former interpretation, for a correct answer allows for either "prophets and teachers" (as long as the quizzer clarifies that the "prophets and teachers" are from Antioch) OR listing 5 of the 7 names for the "to whom" part of the answer. Again, not to overstate the obvious, since the list belongs as part of a situation question, the answer can never demand a quizzer to name all 5. Then again, 4/5 is just 1 short. Then again, the quizzer can cop out of the list with a simple "prophets and teachers." Quizzing itself seemed dissatisfied with this question, as the question is only asked once in its respective season week, never in review in future season quizmatches, and never in the local tournament. Quizzing would not even attempt the list again until the Invitational Tournament, with the following question.

Question: Which five people were in the church at Antioch, prophets and teachers?
Answer: (Prophets and teachers) Barnabas, Simeon Niger, Lucius, Maneon, Saul/Paul

This question occurred during the Invtiational Tournament, in the first round, and it was never heard again after that. This question is just a mess. The phrase "prophets and teachers" seems haphazardly tacked onto the end, and even so, the answer "prophets and teachers" would still be acceptable. To some extent, quizzing itself must have realized this, for quizzing even made prophets and teachers as fluff, or an incomplete answer by itself. If quizzing really wanted the keep the current answer intact as is, the best way to word that question would be, "Which 5 prophets and teachers were in the church at Antioch?" Once again, quizzing must have felt not satisfied with this question, for quizmasters never again asked it past the first round. Usually, big list questions will get asked multiple times throughout the tournament, but not this one, reflecting how uncomfortable quizzing was with this question. It's a shame because, even as a list of 5, it would be still be the 2nd longest list of an Acts 10-28 material.

There you have it. The 2 longest lists of an Acts 10-28 ESV quizzing material come from Acts 20:4&5 and Acts 13:1. At best, they are a list of 8 and 7 respectively, and at worst, they are a list of 7 and 5. This issue of how to count the lists may even prevent the list questions from ever seeing the light of day in the first place! Even going with the worst-case scenario, 7 and 5 are still the 2 longest lists, for the rests of the possible lists are only 3s and 4s. Altogether, these 2 lists, whether 8 and 7 or 7 and 5, aren't bad for a quizzing material, especially when Acts has a list of 11 in its first chapter and a list of 15 in its second chapter. In exchange, though, quizzing on Acts 10-28 requires memorizing a lot of locations, so quizzers must find some good maps and have a good, long stare at them!

EXCURSUS:
Acts hasn't been quizzed on in its entirety since 2001. Back then, obviously, the 2 longest lists would be without a doubt "Name the 11 apostles who went up to the upper room, where they were staying" in Acts 1 and "Name the 15 who heard the apostles telling in their own tongues the mighty works of God" in Acts 2. In 2015, quizzing decided to supplement the short Gospel of Mark with the first 5 chapters of Acts. As a result, in the following year of 2016, quizzing decided to quiz on Acts 6-28. When quizzing on Acts 6-28, there is indubitably a list of 7 in Acts 6:5. If including Paul in the Acts 20:4&5 list, the list of 7 in Acts 6:5 becomes the 2nd longest list of Acts 6-28. If excluding Paul in the Acts 20:4&5 list, and including the prophets and teachers in the list of Acts 13:1, then the list of 7 in Acts 6:5 is in a 3-way tie as the longest list of Acts 6-28. As mentioned above, however, the problems that arise out the lists in Acts 13:1 and 20:4&5 may make the list of 7 in Acts 6:5 the only long list question of Acts 6-28.