Old Testament Women Trivia

1. What is the name Deborah traditionally said to mean?

From Quiz Deborah: The Woman Who Judged Israel

Answer: Bee

Deborah, from the Hebrew Debbora, means bee. To us moderns, 'bee' may suggest the honeybee or bumblebee, something bright and pretty flitting about a garden. In ancient Canaan, however, while they were of course associated with honey, bees were seen as aggressive and to be feared. It would have seemed altogether fitting to the Israelites that their lady leader be called Bee.

From Quiz Old Testament Top Fifteen Women

Answer: She was the mother of all living things

Eve was Adam's wife and was formed from one of his rib bones. At first, in Genesis 2:23, Adam called her "Woman, because she was taken out of Man." It wasn't until the next chapter, after the Fall of Man story when he named her Eve. Eve had at least three sons: Cain, Abel, and Seth.

From Quiz Women in the Old Testament

Answer: David

Bathsheba was married to Uriah. She was very beautiful and when King David saw her he was determined to have her for himself. He sent for her and she went to him and they became lovers. King David arranged for Uriah to be sent to the front line in battle and he was killed. David and Bathsheba had a son whom they named Solomon, who became the king of Israel renowned for his wisdom. (2 Samuel Chapter 11).

From Quiz Asenath & Zipporah

Answer: Joseph

Joseph (Genesis 37) is mentioned as being 17 in the beginning of his story. I'm assuming that he was also 17 when his father, Jacob, gave him his coat, because it is in the same chapter and no other age is listed. In Genesis 39, Joseph refused to commit adultery/fornication with Potiphar's wife, so she falsely accused him of raping her. Yes, he was put into prison because they thought that he raped her, but really, he ended up in prison because he didn't give her what she wanted. This seems to be a pretty famous story. A little after he was released from prison, Asenath became his wife (Genesis 41:45). Now, is it just me, or does it seem that the miserable, wretched, and nameless Potiphar's wife gets more recognition than *Joseph's wife* does? I will add, however, that "Joseph and Asenath" is a cute story, and the animated movie "Joseph: King of Dreams" (2000) is quite nice as well.

From Quiz Divine Female Power: Women in the Bible

Answer: Eve

Eve's story is told from Genesis 1:1-31 to Genesis 3:8-24. Eve was the first woman, wife of Adam, and mother of Cain and Abel. God told her not to eat the forbidden fruit from a certain tree. Satan took the form of a snake to tempt her into eating the fruit and he succeeded. She ate some of the fruit and offered some to Adam. Therefore God banished them from the Garden of Eden and the first sin was committed. Her name means "woman" or "life-bearer".

From Quiz Bible Women

Answer: Miriam

Both Miriam and Aaron, brother and sister to Moses, were angry with him because of his marriage to a Cushite woman. It must have been an unjust anger because God smote Miriam with leprosy. Numbers 12:10

From Quiz Old Testament Biblical Women

Answer: to be a helper for Adam

She was made from his rib to be beside him, not his head to lead him or his feet to be walked on by him.

From Quiz Deborah: The Woman Who Judged Israel

Answer: Prophetess

Although in pre-monarchic Israel the term 'prophet' was applied to bands of roving dervishes or zealots whose frenzy was thought to bring them into touch with the divine, Deborah appears to have been a prophet(ess) in the usual acceptation of the word, in the mold of Samuel and Hulda for example. That is, she was a holy woman who spoke the word of the Lord to her people, who received divine revelation and was graced with the gifts of poetry and song.

From Quiz Women in the Old Testament

Answer: Holofernes

Judith was a widow who lived in the hilltop town of Bethulia. When her town was threatened by the Assyrians, Judith made herself look her most beautiful and went out into the town where she met the leader of the Assyrians' campaign, Holofernes. He was entranced by her, and Judith took him home where she seduced and then murdered him by cutting off his head. Judith and her maid took the head and fixed it to the outer walls of the city, and when the enemy saw it they ran away. (Judith 13:14).

From Quiz Asenath & Zipporah

Answer: It doesn't say

The Bible doesn't state how old Asenath was when she married Joseph. The apocryphal tale "Joseph and Asenath" says that she was about 18, though. "Joseph and Asenath" was specifically written to talk about Asenath, because the Bible says so little about her and people wanted to know more about her, even if what it ("Joseph and Asenath") told about her was just imagined. The Bible does suggest that Joseph was about 30 when he married Asenath (Genesis 41:44-57). He died when he was 110 (Genesis 50:26) so 30 was young for him. (Don't get me wrong; I think 30 is pretty young for anyone.) Her being about 18 and him being about 30: well I guess that doesn't seem too far-fetched. Apparently, there are people who believe that the New Testament Joseph was 90 when he married a 12 or 14 year old Mary. Now, if that's true, *that* is just creepy! And it certainly isn't anything that we're used to in our cute little Christmas shows.

From Quiz Divine Female Power: Women in the Bible

Answer: Sarai

Sarah's story can be found from Genesis 11:29 to Genesis 22, 23:1-2. God changed her name to Sarah. The name "Sarai" means "lady" and the name "Sarah" means "princess". Sarah thought that she couldn't have children, so she gave her handmaiden to Abraham (a common practice in those times) whose child by Abraham was called Ishmael. Luckily, in her old age, God blessed her with a son named Isaac.

From Quiz Men and Women of the Bible

Answer: Aaron

"Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron..." - Leviticus 10:1

From Quiz Bible Women

Answer: Deborah

Deborah was a prophetess and a judge in Israel at a time when Israel needed a leader. Barak had been commmanded by God to go to battle against the king of Canaan, but he refused to go without Deborah. After they returned from battle victorious, Deborah sang a song of joy with the words of Judges 5 announcing that she was a 'mother in Israel'. Judges 5:7

From Quiz More Biblical Women

Answer: tambourine

Among the illustrators that depict the scene there are artists such as Gustave Dore, Jakob Holger, Rudolf von Ems, Jean-Paul Laurens a.o. Sometimes the artists show her with other instruments being played: flutes, harps, mandolins. The Codex Germanicus from Augsburg (1457) even shows Jephthah's daughter playing such an un-Biblical instrument as ... the violin.

From Quiz Old Testament Biblical Women

Answer: Mother

Sarah was 90 when she bore Isaac and Abraham was nearly 100.

From Quiz Old Testament Top Fifteen Women

Answer: Hagar

Abraham and Sarah were old and had no children. God said in Genesis 15:4 (KJV), "This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir." But since Sarah was old and barren, she suggested to Abraham in chapter 16 to have a child with Hagar, Sarah's handmaiden. When Hagar becomes pregnant, however, Sarah despises her, and Hagar runs away. The angel of the Lord appears to Hagar and tells her to return to Sarah and Abraham.

From Quiz Women in the Old Testament

Answer: A baby

Hannah had been barren for many years. Her husband's other wife bore many children and taunted Hannah with this. Hannah continued to have faith and pray. One day the priest Eli spoke to her and she told him of her sorrow. Eli said "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him." (1 Samuel 1:17). Soon after she bore a son and, as she had vowed to do so, she gave him back to Eli to train as a priest. After this Hannah had three more sons and two daughters.

From Quiz She's So Beautiful!

Answer: Camels

Genesis 24 states that Abraham didn't want his son, Isaac, to marry a Canaanite woman, so he asked his servant to find a wife for Isaac within Abraham's own family members. Rebekah was the granddaughter of Nahor, Abraham's brother. She offered to give water to the servant's camels.

From Quiz Asenath & Zipporah

Answer: On

Her father, Potiphera, was a priest of On. A few versions of the Bible actually translate it as Heliopolis; the cities (On and Heliopolis) are believed to be synonymous. Canaan was the land where Asenath's husband (Joseph) came from. Ur Kasdim is a place where Abraham may have been born. Moab is the place where Ruth (from the book of Ruth) lived.

From Quiz Divine Female Power: Women in the Bible

Answer: Tamar

Tamar's story can be found from Genesis 38:1-11 to Genesis 38:27-30. Tamar was married to Er, but then he died leaving her a childless widow. The Levirate Law in that time said that if a man died childless, it was his brother's duty to marry his widow so they could have children. Judah, her father-in-law, let her marry his next son, but he too died without children. Judah thought that Tamar was bad luck, so he sent her away without what she wanted: a child. Tamar tricked Judah by dressing up as a prostitute, and soon she had twins by him. Her name means "date palm".

From Quiz Men and Women of the Bible

Answer: Laban

"Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban..." - Genesis 24:29

From Quiz Bible Women

Answer: Zipporah

Moses was about to leave on his journey to lead the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt. However, he had not circumcised his son, and God would have killed him had Zipporah not immediately grabbed the first sharp instrument she could find, and circumcised him herself. She called him a 'bloody husband' because of the difficult deed she had done to save Moses' life. Exodus 4:25

From Quiz Old Testament Biblical Women

Answer: not given in the Word

She is one of the most famous no-names of the Bible.

From Quiz Deborah: The Woman Who Judged Israel

Answer: Roughly at the dividing line between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in the Near East.

"The first successful method for smelting iron ore was developed somewhere in or near Hittite territory about 1400 B.C., while the Israelites were in Egyptian slavery... At the time of the Israelite conquest of Caanan, the use of iron in restricted quantities had come to the more sophisticated towns. The desert tribes were still innocent of its use. The Israelites, therefore, entered Caanan at the dividing line between the Bronze Age and the Iron..." Asimov's Guide to the Bible", Chapter Seven, page 229 The chronology not only of Judges but of the whole of pre-monarchic Israelite history remains in dispute. Here I use the mainstream scholarly view employed by Isaac Asimov in his comprehensive and very helpful book "Asimov's Guide to the Bible". The accession of Saul to the throne is thought to have occurred in ca. 1028 B.C. If the Exodus took place ca. 1200 B.C. and the death of Joshua ca. 1150 B.C., then the Book of Judges covers some one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty years with Deborah ruling ca. 1107 through ca. 1067 B.C. Rather than each of the twelve named judges ruling all twelve tribes and serving consecutively, in this view, two or more served concurrently, each ruling a single tribe or small group of tribes. Thus, it is thought that Deborah's core constituency was the tribes whose progenetrix was Rachel, namely those of Benjamin, Manassa and Ephraim, along with the neighboring tribes of Zebulon and Naphtali.

From Quiz Old Testament Top Fifteen Women

Answer: Potiphar

Every day, Potiphar's wife tried to get Joseph to sleep with her, and he constantly refused. One day, no one else was around; she grabbed him by his garment, and he ran, but the garment stayed behind as she still had a grip on it. She then tells the men who are usually in the house in verse 14 of chapter 39, "See, he hath brought a Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice." Consequently, Potiphar threw Joseph into jail.

From Quiz Women in the Old Testament

Answer: She won a beauty contest

Esther was a young Jewish woman who lived in Persia during the Babylonian captivity. Both her parents had died and she lived with her cousin Mordecai. One day the king was holding a great banquet and he sent for his wife Vashti to come to the banqueting chamber so that he could show off her beauty. She refused to come and the king, Xerxes I, was so angry that he divorced her. He then held a beauty pageant so that he could chose his next bride. Esther was the winner, but on the advice of Mordecai did not disclose that she was Jewish. The king's highest official was a man called Haman who hated the Jews and planned to exterminate them. Esther found out about this and she invited both the king and Haman to a banquet, where she disclosed the fact that she was Jewish and that Haman was planning to kill her and all the others of her race. The king was very angry and ordered Haman to be hung and that the Jews should be protected. (Esther 5-10)

From Quiz Asenath & Zipporah

Answer: No name is given

The Bible doesn't say anything about Asenath's mother. We are told that her father was an Egyptian priest named Potiphera, so the easiest conclusion would be that Potiphera's wife was her mother. Still, even if that's the case, there is no name given to her or any background information. I decided to include Dinah as an incorrect choice. Dinah was Joseph's sister. Believe it or not, there is a tradition/theory which states that Asenath was actually the daughter of Dinah and her father was Dinah's rapist. The angel Gabriel brought Asenath to Egypt, where she became the adoptive daughter of Potiphera. I don't believe that, because I believe that Potiphera was her biological father. No offense to anybody who believes the theory. Jochebed is the name of Moses' mother and Sarai was the original name of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

From Quiz Divine Female Power: Women in the Bible

Answer: Jacob

Rebecca's story can be found in Genesis 24 to Genesis 27. Rebecca had twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau was in line for the birthright, but Rebecca thought that Jacob would do a better job so she helped him trick his father into giving him the birthright. Rebecca was chosen as Isaac's wife, because Abraham (Isaac's father) sent someone to go look for a wife for his son. When Rebecca and her family were willing to help the man, she was chosen as Isaac's wife because when the man came to a spot to rest with his camels, Rebecca offered to help them, and that was the sign from God that the man needed to choose Isaac's wife. Her name means "a heifer".

From Quiz Men and Women of the Bible

Answer: Melchizedek

Melchizedek blessed Abram saying, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth! And blessed be God Most High who has delivered your enemies into hands!"

From Quiz Bible Women

Answer: Potiphar's wife

Potiphar was an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, and a captain of the guard. His wife's name is not given in the Bible. However, the 39th chapter of Genesis gives an interesting account of how a young man, in order not to betray God, or his master, refused to be tempted by a woman to sin. He went to prison for his loyalty to both Potiphar and the Lord.

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