A free Bible word game
Bible Hangman
Guess the Bible word one letter at a time, before the lamp runs out of oil.
Choose your words
Level
Press Enter for the next word
How to play Bible hangman
Bible hangman is the classic letter-guessing game, played with words from the Bible: names like Moses and Zacchaeus, places like Bethlehem and Gethsemane, the 66 books, and things like manna, the ark and the armor of God.
- Choose a category (people, places, books of the Bible or things) and a level: Kids, Adults or Hard.
- The empty boxes show how many letters the word has. Spaces, hyphens and numbers are filled in for you.
- Tap a letter, or type it on your keyboard. If it is in the word, it shows up everywhere it belongs.
- A wrong letter uses up one drop of oil, and the flame burns lower. Kids get 8 drops; Adults and Hard get 6.
- Fill in the whole word before the lamp goes out. Stuck? Tap “Show a clue” (on the Kids level the clue is already showing).
- After every word you get a sentence about it and a Bible verse where it appears, then the next word.
Playing Bible hangman in class or Sunday school
All you need is a whiteboard. The leader picks a word from the lists below, draws one dash for each letter and writes the category (“a place”, “a book of the Bible”). Players take turns calling out letters; right letters go on their dashes, wrong ones go in a corner so nobody calls them twice.
Instead of a gallows, draw a simple oil lamp with six drops of oil beside it and rub out a drop for every wrong letter, the way the lamp in this game burns down. Or draw a wall of twelve stones and take one away each time. Younger children can have the clue read out at the start; older groups can earn a point by guessing the whole word early. When someone solves it, read the verse together and talk about where the word comes from. On a smartboard or TV you can also just play this page together.
Bible hangman words and ideas
Good Bible hangman words, from easy to hard, each with a clue you can read out. All of them are in the game.
Easy Bible hangman words for kids
- Noah built a huge boat for the animals
- Moses led God’s people out of Egypt
- David beat a giant with a sling
- Jonah spent three days inside a great fish
- Daniel was thrown into a den of lions
- Esther was a brave queen
- Ruth said, “Where you go, I will go”
- Mary was the mother of Jesus
- Peter walked on the water
- Lazarus was raised from the dead
- Eden was the first garden
- Bethlehem is where Jesus was born
- Jericho: its walls fell down
- Nile: baby Moses floated on it
- Ark: Noah’s big boat
- Rainbow: God’s promise in the clouds
- Manger: where baby Jesus was laid
- Manna: bread from heaven
- Sling: David’s weapon
- Genesis: the first book of the Bible
- Psalms: the Bible’s songbook
Bible hangman words for adults
- Abraham, father of many nations
- Gideon and his three hundred men
- Deborah, prophetess and judge
- Solomon, the wise king
- Nehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls
- Zacchaeus climbed a sycamore tree
- Nicodemus came to Jesus at night
- John the Baptist baptized Jesus
- Mary Magdalene saw the risen Lord first
- Barnabas, “Son of Encouragement”
- Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed
- Golgotha, the Place of the Skull
- Damascus: Saul’s road
- Emmaus: two disciples walked there with Jesus
- Capernaum, Jesus’ home by the lake
- Tabernacle, the tent of meeting
- Frankincense, a gift of the wise men
- Mustard seed, small faith that moves mountains
- Breastplate of righteousness
- Thirty pieces of silver, Judas’s price
- Leviticus, the book of priests and offerings
- Song of Songs, the love poem
Hard Bible hangman words
- Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon
- Melchizedek, priest-king of Salem
- Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son
- Zerubbabel, who rebuilt the temple
- Maher-shalal-hash-baz, the longest name in the Bible
- Methuselah lived 969 years
- Belshazzar saw the writing on the wall
- Jehoshaphat sent singers ahead of the army
- Epaphroditus brought Paul a gift
- Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria
- Artaxerxes, Nehemiah’s king
- Bartimaeus, the blind beggar of Jericho
- Thessalonica, a city Paul wrote to twice
- Chorazin, a town Jesus warned
- Cappadocia: its people heard the gospel at Pentecost
- Akeldama, the Field of Blood
- Phylacteries, worn by the Pharisees
- Sanhedrin, the high council
- Pomegranates on the priest’s robe
- Chalcedony, a stone of the new Jerusalem
- Leviathan, the sea monster in Job
- Urim and Thummim, in the high priest’s breastpiece
- Habakkuk, Zephaniah and Ecclesiastes, for the spelling champions
Theme ideas for Bible hangman
- Christmas: Bethlehem, manger, shepherds, angel, star, Nazareth, frankincense, myrrh, Simeon, Elizabeth.
- Easter: palm branches, donkey, Gethsemane, thirty pieces of silver, Pontius Pilate, crown of thorns, Golgotha, Mary Magdalene, Emmaus.
- The twelve disciples: Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas Iscariot.
- The armor of God: belt of truth, breastplate, shield of faith, helmet, sword of the Spirit.
- Moses and the Exodus: basket, Nile, Pharaoh, burning bush, sandals, Red Sea, manna, Sinai, tablets.
- Paul’s journeys: Damascus, Tarsus, Antioch, Cyprus, Philippi, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, Malta, Rome.
A lamp, not a gallows
The old pencil-and-paper game draws a gallows. Here a clay oil lamp, the kind people used in Bible times, burns a little lower with each wrong letter. Find the word and it blazes up bright.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
— Psalm 119:105 (BSB)
Questions
Is Bible hangman free? Do I need an account?
It’s free, with no sign-up and nothing to download. It plays in the browser on a phone, tablet, computer or classroom screen. Your level and best streak are kept in this browser only.
Is it good for young children?
Yes. The Kids level uses short, familiar words like Noah, ark and lamb, shows the clue from the start and gives eight drops of oil instead of six. Nothing scary happens when you lose: the lamp just goes out, and you light it again.
How many words are there?
More than 340: people, places, all 66 books of the Bible, and things like objects, animals and food, split into Kids, Adults and Hard. The game avoids repeating a word until you have seen the others at that level.
Which Bible translation do you use?
Every verse is quoted word for word from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), a modern English translation that is free for everyone to use. Every word in the game appears in it.
Can I play with a keyboard?
Yes. Type letters to guess, press ? for a clue, and Enter for the next word.