Ants! No, Aunts . . . Trivia Quiz

Answer: Enosh

Genesis 4:17 states that Cain had a wife, who gave birth to Enoch. There are no details given about Cain's wife; not even her name, but it is almost certain that she was one of Cain's sisters. Genesis 5 states that Adam and Eve had OTHER sons and DAUGHTERS. This clearly shows that while Cain, Abel, and Seth are the only children of Adam and Eve whose names are recorded, they had many others. I suspect that Seth's wife was also one of his sisters.

Anyway, Seth and Cain certainly were brothers. Seth's son was Enosh (Genesis 4:26), so Enosh's aunt was Cain's wife. Likewise, Seth's wife was Enoch's aunt. Enoch and Enosh were cousins.

Answer: Lot

Abram, also known as Abraham, had at least two brothers, Nahor and Haran. Haran was Lot's father, so Abraham was Lot's uncle. By being Abraham's wife, Sarah was Lot's aunt that way, but according to Genesis 20:12, Sarah apparently was Lot's aunt the other way too--because she was Abraham's and therefore Haran's half-sister.

What's really interesting is that if Sarah was Abraham's half-sister, then she was both Isaac's mother and aunt! I just blew my own mind. I'm glad that God decided to make incest immoral/illegal in Leviticus 18.

Answer: Leah and Rachel

Rebekah was Laban's sister. Laban was the father of Leah and Rachel. Therefore, Rebekah was an aunt of Leah and Rachel. What's more, Rebekah was also the mother-in-law of the two women, because both women were married to Jacob, one of Rebekah's sons. Rebekah was Isaac's wife.

According to Genesis 22:23, the father of Rebekah and Laban was Bethuel, but no details are given about their mother. Bethuel himself was a son of Nahor and Milcah, whom were a brother and sister-in-law of Abraham.

Answer: Eliphaz and Reuel

Jacob and Esau were brothers, the sons of Isaac and Rebekah. Eliphaz and Reuel were two of Esau's sons. Naturally, Leah and Rachel, Jacob's wives, were their aunts.

According to Genesis 36:4, Eliphaz's mother was Adah, a pagan Hittite, and Reuel's mother was Basemath, a daughter of Ishmael and granddaughter of Abraham.

Answer: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, Ithamar

Zipporah was Moses's wife. Moses's brother was Aaron. Aaron's sons were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, so Zipporah was their aunt.

Elisheba, Aaron's wife, was an aunt of Moses's sons, Gershom and Eliezer.

For the record, Miriam was the aunt of both of her brothers' children. You can find information about all of these characters in not only Exodus, but also Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Numbers.

Answer: Mephibosheth

Saul had several sons and two daughters--see 1 Samuel 14:49. Michal was the younger girl. She was Jonathan's sister. Mephibosheth was Jonathan's son, so of course Michal was his aunt.

It's interesting to note that "Mephibosheth" was also the name of one of Saul's sons, and he was evidently much younger than Jonathan was, but the age difference between him and Jonathan's son, Saul's grandson, isn't clear. See 2 Samuel 21:8 for more details on Saul's son.

Answer: Solomon

According to 1 Chronicles 2:16, David had two sisters, Zeruiah and Abigail. 1 Kings 2:12 is just one of many verses that reference Solomon. Obviously, Zeruiah and Abigail would had been the aunts of all of David's children, but I decided to just include Zeruiah and Solomon in the question.

Zeruiah was the mother of Abshai, Joab and Asahel. Interestingly, her husband or their father is never mentioned, unique for genealogies. Abigail was the wife of Jether, an Ishmaelite, and the mother of Amasa.

Answer: Mordecai

Esther 2:7:
"He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle's daughter, for she had no father or mother. Now the young lady was beautiful of form and face, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter" (New American Standard Bible).

Other translations also say that Hadassah was Mordecai's uncle's daughter or Mordecai's cousin. Esther 2:15 states that her father was Abihail, Mordecai's uncle. While her mother's name isn't included, clearly she was his aunt.

Answer: Mary

Well, hopefully I won't get any correction notes about this. I DID say that I based this on The Living Bible. The Living Bible is one of the only Bible translations that I know of to explicitly call Elizabeth Mary's aunt, but it must be pointed out that nobody knows for certain what the relationship between Elizabeth and Mary was. While a few, such as the King James Bible, call them cousins, the vast majority of translations use the vague term "relative," which could be aunt or cousin, or even something else.

Due to the women's age differences (Elizabeth was elderly, while Mary was roughly 12-16 years old) it is very possible that she was her aunt.

Answer: Jesus

John 19:25 states that Jesus Christ's mother, her sister (therefore His aunt), Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene were standing by His cross. The way the verse is worded, it isn't completely clear whether His aunt was Mary, the wife of Clopas or a different woman. This has led to a debate, with some believing that the aunt was the wife of Clopas and others thinking that Salome, the mother of John and James, was the real identity of Christ's aunt.

Although it's a debate, there a few reasons why Salome might be the more "logical" choice:

1) Some people have pointed out that it would be strange for two sisters to share the same name. I can hear this conversation now:
Mother: Mary, get over here! I need to tell you something.
Mary: What?
Mother: No, not you. The other Mary!

2) The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke include "Salome" or "the wife of Zebedee" as a witness of Christ's death, but in John's Gospel, her name suspiciously disappears. It's very possible that John used "His mother's sister" as a polite term for his own mother.

3) According to Matthew 20:21, the mother of James and John asked Jesus to put her sons in His kingdom, and give them important positions, one at His right hand and the other at His left hand. Several scholars believe that her bold request makes more sense if she and her sons were biologically related to Christ.

On the other hand, some people who believe that Mary, the wife of Clopas was Mary's "sister" argue that "sister" in the original language might not mean that they shared the same parents. These ones suggest that she was a cousin or sister-in-law. The latter is based upon a Catholic tradition that Clopas was the brother of Joseph, who was the husband of Christ's mother. Even if the other Mary was only Mary's sister-in-law, she would still be the wife of Christ's uncle and therefore His aunt--well, sort of. She would be His adopted aunt, since Christians don't believe that Joseph was Christ's biological father, and likewise Clopas would be His adopted uncle. But the Bible does NOT say that Clopas was Joseph's brother, anyway.