Women of the Bible - Old or New? Quiz

Answer:

Abishag appears in the First Book of Kings, chapters 1 and 2, and is described as a young woman who was engaged to lie next to the aged King David in bed, to keep him warm (acting as a kind of human hot water bottle).

Bathsheba also lay with King David, but in a rather more active way. The Second Book of Samuel describes how he saw her bathing and desired her for himself. He slept with her, then caused the death of her husband, Uriah, so he could marry her himself. She then became the mother of Solomon, who succeeded David as king.

The story of Samson and Delilah appears in the Book of Judges. She was bribed by Samson's enemies, the Philistines, to discover the secret of his great strength. In the end she used her womanly wiles to persuade him to reveal that his secret lay in his long hair. Waiting until he was asleep, she then cut his hair and gave him up to his enemies. At the story's climax, God restored his strength, and he pulled down the Philistine temple on top of everyone inside.

The story of Eve appears in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. She was the first woman, created by God as the partner of Adam, the first man. She was led astray by Satan (in the form of a serpent), who got her to persuade Adam to join her in eating the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which God had specifically forbidden them to do. This led to their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and subsequent misery for their descendants, the entire human race.

Gomer became the wife of the prophet Hosea, in the Old Testament book named after him. She was a prostitute and was unfaithful to him after their marriage, but this was apparently ordained by God and intended to be a symbol of Israel's unfaithfulness to Him.

Hagar appears in the Book of Genesis, and was a servant of Sarah, Abraham's wife. Because Sarah was believed to be too old to bear children, she allowed Abraham to sleep with Hagar, who gave birth to a boy, Ishmael.

In the First and Second Books of Kings, Jezebel was the wife of Ahab, King of Israel. During their reign, they gave up worshipping the Israelite God and turned to worshipping Baal. Jezebel's punishment for this transgression was to be thrown out of a window and her corpse eaten by dogs.

Miriam was the elder sister of Moses and Aaron and appeared alongside them in the Book of Exodus. When she rebuked Moses for marrying an Ethiopian woman, God punished her by giving her leprosy, although He later cured her when Moses and Aaron asked for her to be forgiven.

Naomi, Orpah and Ruth all appear in the Book of Ruth. Naomi was Ruth's mother-in-law, while Orpah was Naomi's other daughter-in-law. The story tells how Naomi and Ruth travelled to Bethlehem after the death of their husbands (Orpah stayed behind), where Ruth was wooed by and married a local landowner named Boaz. They had a son, Obed, who became the grandfather of David, King of Israel. This places Ruth directly in the genealogy of Christ, as laid out in Matthew's Gospel (Matt 1:5).

Sarah appears in the Book of Genesis and was the wife of Abraham and the mother of Isaac. According to the Biblical story, Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born, and Sarah was of a similar age. She is also mentioned in passing in the New Testament (Romans 4, Galatians 4, Hebrews 11 and I Peter 3), showing her importance in the Christian story.

The story of Tamar appears in the Book of Genesis, in which she is described as a woman who married two of the sons of Judah - first Er and then Onan. Following their deaths, she slept with Judah himself (by means of a ruse) and gave birth to twins, Perez and Zerah. Her name also appears in the genealogy of Christ as given in Matthew's Gospel (Matt 1:3).

Vashti appears in the Book of Esther. She was the wife of the Persian King Ahasuerus but was banished by him for refusing to come to a banquet to show off her beauty. Ahasuerus then chose the Jewish Esther to be his new queen.
Zipporah was the wife of Moses, as recounted in the Book of Exodus. She gave birth to two sons with him, named Eliezer and Gershom.

Of the New Testament women, Dorcas was a woman who was raised from the dead by the apostle Peter, as described in the ninth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Elizabeth was the mother of John the Baptist and sister to Mary the mother of Jesus (see Luke's Gospel). Herodias was the wife of Herod Antipas, whose daughter Salome danced for Herod and who asked for the head of John the Baptist in return (Gospels of Matthew and Mark). Mary Magdalene was a follower of Jesus: Luke's Gospel describes how he exorcised seven demons from her. Martha lived in the town of Bethany and was the sister of Mary and Lazarus (he who was raised from the dead by Jesus in the Gospels of Luke and John). Finally, Priscilla was an early Christian missionary who, with her husband Aquila, was a follower of Paul: as such, she and her husband are mentioned several times throughout the New Testament.