Biblical Oddities #24 - Have You Met Your Match? Quiz

Answer: Jehu

According to Scripture, Jehu lied about being a worshipper of Baal and invited prophets of the false god to come together. The invitation was issued after Jehu had destroyed the family of King Ahab, a major proponent of Baal.


In 2 Kings 10:18-19 in the NKJV, Jehu is quoted as saying: "Ahab served Baal a little, Jehu will serve him much. Now therefore, call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests. Let no one be missing, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal. Whoever is missing shall not live."

With all the false prophets assembled in one place, Jehu then took swift action to have them all killed.

Scripture goes on to tell of the sacred temple of Baal being turned into a latrine.

Answer: Pashhur

Pashur is the correct answer. In Jeremiah 20:6, he is described as a lying prophet.

Pashur was responsible for putting Jeremiah, a noted prophet of God, in stocks. According to Scripture, Pashur took such action because Jeremiah had prophesied doom because the people had "stiffened their necks" and were no longer following the LORD.

It should be pointed out Pashur had a change of heart shortly after he put Jeremiah in stocks and set him free.

Jeremiah remained rigid in his prophecy of doom against Jerusalem and added Pashur, and all the members of his household, would be taken into captivity in Babylon where they would die.

Answer: Laban

In a nutshell, Laban was a bold face liar. He's the man who told Jacob he could marry his daughter Rachel providing he worked seven years for him, as recounted in Genesis 29:18.

Seven years later, Laban set things up so Jacob would spend his wedding night with Leah, his oldest daughter. This even though Jacob had no interest in Leah and was only interested in Rachel.

Laban explained it was customary for the people of his area to have their oldest daughter marry first and then he proceeded to talk Jacob into working another seven years to win Rachel's hand.

Rachel became Jacob's wife just after he had married Leah, but he was obligated to work another seven years for Laban.


Meanwhile, Leah ended up in a loveless marriage.

On top of Laban's lying, he appears to have been an extremely difficult man to work for. Genesis 31:7 quotes Jacob as saying Laban had changed his wages "ten times".

Answer: Elisha

No less than forty-two youths mocked the prophet Elisha for being bald and they faced hair-raising consequences.

Scripture tells of two female bears going on a rampage and mauling all 42 of them.

The incident took place near Bethel which was seen as a centre of idolatry at the time. In their mocking of Elisha, the youths are quoted as saying "Go up, you baldhead!" Some Bible commentaries suggest the taunt was in regards to Elijah, the predecessor of Elisha, as he had recently been taken up to Heaven in a whirlwind. In other words, the youths didn't want Elisha to be on the scene serving as a prophet.

Details can be found in 2 Kings 2:23-24.

Answer: David

King Saul's daughter Michal had caught David's eye and he wanted to marry her. Saul, however, had complete contempt for David and basically wanted him dead. So, he told David he could marry Michal providing he could kill 100 Philistines and produce their foreskins for proof. It was Saul'as thinking that David would be killed trying to fulfill the request.

However, David amazingly killed twice as many Philistines as requested and produced 200 foreskins to serve as proof.

Saul was trapped in a corner and kept his word, allowing David and Michal to become husband and wife.

For details, see 1 Samuel 18:20-28.

Answer: No name given

The name of the man with six fingers and six toes is not given in Scripture. In 2 Samuel 21:20-22 and 1 Chronicles 20:6-8 in the NKJV, he is described as a man of "great stature" and being from Gath, a city in Philistine. No further details are given.

According to Scripture, the giant was killed in battle by Jonathan, the son of David's brother Shimea.

Answer: Bethany

After His crucifixion and resurrection from the dead, Scripture tells of Jesus ascending to Heaven at Bethany, a village just outside Jerusalem.

The ascension took place at the Mount of Olives, also known as Mount Olivet, which is considered part of Bethany.

Details about the ascension can be found in Luke 24:50-51 and Acts 1:12.

Answer: Nain

Nain is where Jesus performed his first miracle of raising a person from the dead. In this case, He raised the unnamed son of a widow from the dead.

Details can be found in Luke Luke 7:11-17.

Scripture goes on to tell of Christ raising two other people from the dead. They were Jairus' 12-yer-old daughter and Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha.

Interestingly, this is the only time Nain is mentioned in the entire Bible. Nain was about 12.5 kilometres, or about eight miles, from Nazareth.

Today, it is an Arab village known as Nein.

Answer: Chorazin

According to Matthew 11:20-24 and Luke 10:13-16, Jesus pronounced woes on Chorazin and two other communities for their failure to repent despite witnessing His miracles.

The two other communities, also in Galilee, were Bethsaida, and Capernaum.

In Matthew 11:21, Jesus is quoted as saying: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes."

It's interesting to note Tyre and Sidon were Gentile towns at the time.

Answer: Midian

After killing an unnamed Egyptian, Scripture tells of Moses fleeing to the land of Midian, as per Exodus 2:11-15.

There are divided views on the issue, but most scholars believe Midian was in the northwestern Arabian Peninsula.

While in Midian, Moses married Zipporah, a daughter of Jethro, also known as Reuel. Moses and Zipporah had two sons, Gershom and Eliezer.