Episcopal Priest Loses Jeopardy! Tournament After Being Stumped on Bible Question

Staff Writer

An Episcopal priest competing in a Jeopardy Tournament failed to advance to the finals, the result of falling badly behind and also being stumped by a question on the New Testament, according to the Episcopal News Service.

David Sibley is the LGBTQ+ affirming rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Walla Walla, Washington, who recently participated in a Jeopardy Tournament.

He previously competed in 2022, where he won $79,098 through four straight episodes. During that contest, he failed to answer a $1000 question: “It’s the ascension heavenward by true Christians both living and dead at Christ’s second coming.”

Rather than a buzz in “What is the rapture,” he let the answer pass him by, later explaining on Reddit:

“Here’s the thing—I don’t believe in the rapture. In fact, most Christians don’t hold the rapture as a doctrine and haven’t for most of church history—the literal reading of Revelation is a product of the modern era, not the patristic era. As written, I thought the clue’s correct response required “Christians” to mean all Christians (or at least all Christians other than tiny splinter groups). It was too late when I got to what they wanted.”

However, he was never in serious contention during this match, with a competitor taking an early insurmountable lead. During ‘Final Jeopardy’ the category was ‘New Testament,’ and the contestants were asked: “This city now in Turkey is the addressee of one of the New Testament epistles & the setting for ‘The Comedy of Errors.'”

Sibley guessed “Corinth,” whereas the correct answer was “What is Ephesus.”