‘Jeopardy!’ Bosses Defend Controversial Bible Clue That Cost Sam Buttrey
Jeopardy! producer Sarah Foss and senior researcher Michael Harris have addressed the controversy stemming from last Wednesday’s (November 16) edition of the Tournament of Champions, where fan-favorite Sam Buttrey was deemed incorrect after a divisive clue.
The moment came during Final Jeopardy! as Buttrey went up against the tournament’s eventual winner Amy Schneider and fellow contestant Andrew He. The clue under the category “The New Testament” read: “Paul’s letter to them is the New Testament epistle with the most Old Testament quotations.”
Schneider’s answer of “Hebrews” was accepted as correct, while Buttrey’s “Romans” was said to be wrong. However, many fans thought Buttrey should have been deemed correct, as there is still heated debate among Biblical scholars over whether Paul actually wrote the letter to the Hebrews. Had Buttrey’s answer been accepted, he would have won the episode; instead, He finished with the most money.
On Monday’s (November 21) episode of the weekly Inside Jeopardy! podcast, Foss touched on the controversy, saying, “[We] just want to talk a bit about, you know, I understand authorship traditionally is attributed to Paul, although some say uncertain. And in that [traditional] case, there’s only one New Testament epistle with the most Old Testament quotes, and it is Hebrews.”
Foss then turned to researcher Harris who went into more detail. “So, when it comes to Bible categories, because there are various versions of the Bible, we have taken it upon ourselves as a show to use the King James Version of the Bible as our ‘Bible of Bibles,’ so to speak. And we’ve kind of let the world know,” he explained.
“So for the most part, when contestants come, they kind of know that we are referencing the King James Bible,” he continued. “This clue, in particular, we also reached out to a seminarian who had verified that our information, as written in the clue, was correct, and that’s when we went ahead and were like ‘OK, we feel secure in our doing this clue.'”
Harris added that they “go that extra mile” when it comes to Bible clues, noting that they “reached out to someone who has more Bible and theological knowledge than us.”
“So we felt pretty sound in this clue as it stood,” he concluded. “We’re not here to try to fool the contestants in any way.”
Former Jeopardy! champion Buzzy Cohen, who was a guest on the podcast, backed up the producers, stating, “Well also, I mean the King James Bible calls it “Paul’s Letter to the Epistles,” that’s how it’s titled, so I also think, as we discussed, Jeopardy! is not going to phrase a clue to be tricky like that.”
Fans weren’t happy with this explanation, with some calling it “dismissive.” A commenter on the Jeopardy! Reddit forum wrote, “I’m curious to hear what others thought about that explanation. I thought it was a little dismissive. I would have liked to see a less defensive response.”
“How dismissive of the research stating otherwise that it’s actually Romans!” added another fan. “Why do actual in-depth research yourself when you can just play “ask a random seminarian,” eh?”
“It’s a total cop-out to avoid actually addressing it in my mind,” said another, while one viewer wrote, “In my mind, someone in the writers’ room should have said, ‘You know, there might be some ambiguity with this clue as written.’ At that point, the only proper response is, ‘Right, we can’t use it.'”
“To me this is like using one scientific journal article that no one has ever been able to recreate while ignoring the numerous other journals [that] have come to a completely different conclusion,” added another commenter. “And then saying ‘we always default to ‘Journal x.’ We’ve never officially said it, but everyone should know that.’ Total BS answer.”
As for how the show should fix this mess? Some fans think Buttrey should be compensated. “The most fair way to make up for Sam Buttrey’s Final Jeopardy snub in TOC Game 3 is to give him $100,000 in prize money instead of $50,000,” suggested one fan.
Another added, “I’d be satisfied with them admitting their error (instead of doubling down on the Insider podcast) and apologizing to him, and giving him a slot in the next Tournament of Champions.”
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Comments are closed on this story.
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O
Even without the controversy of who wrote which book, Romans has more Old Testament quotes (55) than does Hebrews (40). Who does the research there anyway? This is not hard to look up, and it's not even that controversial -- the Jeopardy staff is wrong, they screwed up, and Sam got shafted. Now they are trying to cover themselves with fig leaves.
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They were wrong amongst most modern scholars they would tell you that the author of Hebrews is unknown. The King James Bible is not the best source for accurate information because of the manuscripts they used and the fact that it's an outdated English. There is much debate about who the actual author of Hebrews is. Some think Apollo's some think Barnabas or perhaps someone else. And the original Greek used in Hebrews is the classical Greek Paul wrote his other Epistles in Koine Greek. And the writing style in Hebrews differs from Paul's other Epistles. So the actual correct answer was Romans. Because with certainty that is attributed to Paul.
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You never read the Bible have you?
There is only one answer. I am a graduating seminarian. The first thing they taught us was how to read the Bible. Authorship Date Audience Location
We solidly know that Hebrews was not written by Paul himself.
The use of the KJV as an excuse ignores decades of scholarly work in archaeology.
We have had access to this information long enough that to use the KJV as an excuse is sad. Nobody in academia uses the KJV at all. Only as an example for how much better our understanding is with the NSRV based directly on the Greek in the NT.
This degrades the trustworthiness and character of the show. The question was poorly worded.
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"there’s only one New Testament epistle with the most Old Testament quotes, and it is Hebrews” may be true, but as Jeopardy itself as told us in the past, a correct response has to meet every element of the clue (as well as the category). Hence, a "right" answer is ruled wrong if it's a 6-letter response in a 5-letter word category.
Once they add "Paul's letter," it changes the question from simply "most quotes."
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At the time of the Reformation it became more important to go back to the sources. In the case of Hebrews, koine Greek rather than Latin. There were certain stylistic things in Hebrews that did not mesh with Pauline writings. An important thing is that Paul always identified himself at the beginning of his letters. Not so in Hebrews. He also talks of his connection to the words of Jesus as direct, not third hand. The KJV of the Bible was exquisite for its day, but with much modern study in the original languages, there are more valid translations today. The KJV should not be the first choice for theological study. The bottom line is that it is not known who wrote the book of Hebrews
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Actually the Greek of Hebrews was more polished than Paul's usual koine Greek
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Jeopardy just ask the wrong question when they did their research. It's not "Do you accept this as the right answer?", it's "Is there any possibility this is not the right answer?". Their writers are slipping more and more. I'm not sure if that's a general trend, if they're bored with their work, or if they've had the same ones for so long they're all older than the president.
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The only thing they could do is have a final game. If Sam had been given credit for his correct answer it would be a 3 way tie 2-2-2. But they would have to admit to a mistake. That is never going to happen.
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Hebrews author is unknown. Romans would be the correct answer.
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You ask a saminarian and came up with this! "Paul’s Letter to the Epistles"... no wonder!!!
Just say you were wrong and move on...
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Buzzy's comment as quoted in this article makes no sense "Paul's Letter to the Epistles". An epistle is a letter. The King James Bible says "The Epistle to the Hebrews".
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I mean my introductory textbooks for the epistles and the NT in general separate the solid Pauline Epistles out from the others. It’s explained very early on in school. It’s foundational education.
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I think Jeopardy screwed up royally and they know it. First, ambiguous clues are not okay. Especially for a Final Jeopardy question. Second, Sam was correct. I grabbed a Bible and clear as could be - 'author unknown'...versus 'Paul's letter to...'
Pity the show will not make this right. They would get much more respect.
To err is human. To own up to said error and fix it, is divine.
At least the contestants were all class acts.
Those responsiblefor this fiasco...should be updating their resumes.
The optics on this are terrible.
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This skirts the issue that it is factually incorrect. Even if we accept Paul as author of Hebrews, the fact remains that Romans has many more OT quotes, no matter how you slice it (I.e., if you only count “as it is written” quotes or the ones that simply use without such attribution).
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Im cool with that.
Need to confirm it since others dispute that.
Mark Powell has a chapter on it. I will go look it up now. In my intro level book.
Sigh. Back to reality. I have a service to prep for and my help never showed up.
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I guess Jeopardy shouldn't have Bible questions then, since it's all made up fantasy and nobody could ever agree on it anyway 🤷♂️ hahaha.
But also: their show, their clues.
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What is most disturbing is the defensive position being taken by a show that is known for double checking answers and correcting scores based on the truth they discover. ONLY the old KJV suggested that Paul wrote Hebrews and hundreds of Bible versions do not confirm that. No denomination teaches that Paul is the author, yet Jeopardy neither looks for a satisfactory Mia culpa or declares the game void. I have lost a lot of respect for the show that Alex built.
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I think they made an error on Tuesday's game. West Side Story was, and has always been about Puerto Ricans. The correct answer was and should be Fiddler on the Roof
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If the Jeopardy are not willing to admit that they were wrong, or at least controversial with this question, then they need to cease being Jeopardy writers as they are either ignorant or arrogant. They choose to be “ dismissive “ as stated in other posts.
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Jeopardy has always presented itself as more then a Game Show. Unlike other popular shows, no one has to spin a wheel or sink a 5 foot putt to win anything. Jeopardy is a battle of the minds of very smart people. It's a difficult game to excell at. It would seem to me that someone dropped the ball here. Any uncertainty of a question should have been avoided.
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There was no question going forward from the introductions Amy was going to win it.
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It is actually erring on the side of Political Correctness.
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Jeopardy! is a scam ever since Michael Davies was hired, and I can prove it.
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I can believe it. There were way too many easy questions that no one answered.
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The category should have been Fairytales.
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It was in the bag for the eventual winner. The show wanted her to win.
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I think most of you are a bunch of Sam marks who are looking for any reason to justify why he lost. Bottom line is that Jeopardy has always used the KJV, they did their due dilligence and the response was deemed wrong. Unfortunate, but not unfair. Get over yourselves.
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I mean....regardless it seems like dude was wrong anyways. Unless someone would be kind enough to point me to the letter Paul did write to the Romans?
I get that maybe Paul wrote said letter, maybe it was someone else. That is inconsequential as far as the question is concerned - as it is commonly recognized as such, so whether or not Paul actually wrote said letter doesn't matter here when referencing the letter, as "generally" you would either know what they're asking, or you won't - as with all questions. The specifics of who wrote the letter don't matter and don't need to be argued as the letter in question is generally recognized as such, that's how you reference it.
Now, if Paul in fact did write a letter to the Romans that also fits this description: "the New Testament epistle with the most Old Testament quotations" - then yes, the question would be flawed. I do not think that is the case though, I'm no biblical scholar so I cannot say for sure, but I don't think he did.
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In fact, I think I'm wrong ha. Paul did write Romans, and so if it does in fact have more OT quotes in it, I don't know there, but yeah if it does, then I am simply wrong above, and so is Jeopardy lol
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I am a Biblical scholar, and I can tell you depending on the way one reads the various NT books, there are many scholars who believe that Romans does have more OT quotations than Hebrews. That's the problem with the way the writers handled this. Why they did not check with actual Biblical scholars is beyond me. All the writers went on was a title that was given to the General Epistle to the Hebrews when the King James Version of the Bible was originally published; the actual manuscript does not contain Paul's name. No matter how they want to color it, Jeopardy blew it on this one.
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The difference is that you checked and corrected yourself - as they SHOULD have done.
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this article explains the question and answer very well..anyone complaing just wants to read more into it than necessary..the romans sounds to generalized while the Hebrews sounds more of a biblical answer duh!
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You do know that Romans is a book in the New Testament of the Bible, right?
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you are right I did not consider the *Book* of Roman's in my comment
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You present your defense of Jeopardy in a totally incorrect manner. "Sounds like ... duh" is no defense. HOWEVER ...
Everybody's gotten to be a needless self-proclaimed Jeopardy expert and boss since Trebek has passed. Just shut up to all who are whining. Watch it or don't watch it, but it's not our/your money to determine how to dole out, SO THERE!
Granted, it proves beyond a reasobable doubt that Trebek was a master. This type of needless fussing never seemed to surface w/ him around.
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Well, truthfully I'm a long time viewer of Jeopardy from way back, and in the Trebek era there have been a number of times I have had problems with answers and questions because of the show's insistence on using the King James Version of the Bible. Had I ever had the opportunity to be on Jeopardy, I would have not wanted Bible related questions to be in categories because, like many modern Bible scholars, I just don't use the KJV when researching the Biblical texts. (And for what it's worth I took the Jeopardy test 3 times, passed it all three, but was never called to be a contestant)
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Snoopy is a way better role model than Jesus. Followers of Snoopy never spouted hate and judgement like so-called Christians do. Eff Jesus up the azz!
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"mean the King James Bible calls it 'Paul’s Letter to the Epistles,' that’s how it’s titled" ... there are so many things wrong and contradictory in the bible that to take anything it says as "fact" is deeply problematic. It would be like having a clue that reads "This bird mentioned in the bible is the only one to give birth to live young." Answer: "What is the bat."
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Wow! I can’t get over how many people are now Biblical scholars. I wonder how many have really read it and yet are so dismissive of King James and it’s old English and Middle English and it has been around so long. But everybody knows that Jeopardy uses the KJ so then that is what the contestants should use in their responses period. Now get over yourselves and over inflated ego and smugness !
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