Bible Women With More Than One Man Quiz

Answer: Judah

Judah is the correct answer. Tamar experienced many things in her lifetime, not the least of which were the deaths of her first two husbands, Er and Onan, who were struck down by the LORD, as per Genesis 38:6-10. The two men were sons of Judah.

However, after the two sons died, Judah apparently thought Tamar was a prostitute when he met up with her along the side of a road and as a result of the union, she gave birth to twins Perez and Zerah. (Scripture reports her face was covered during intercourse.) About three months later, when it was reported Tamar was pregnant and proclaimed a prostitute, Judah announced she should be brought out and "burned to death." However, Judah had to do some serious backpedaling when Tamar was able to prove he was actually the man who had impregnated her. (Genesis 38:18 states Judah had given Tamar his "seal and its cord, and the staff in his hand" as a pledge before he slept with her. When she was about to be put to death, she was able to produce Judah's pledge, and her life was spared.)

The births of Perez and Zerah are told in Genesis 38:29-30. They are the second set of twins mentioned in the Old Testament. The first set was Esau and Jacob, the sons of Isaac and Rebekah.

Answer: Salmon

According to Matthew 1:5, Rahab married Salmon and they were parents of Boaz. The account is part of the genealogy of Christ. The verse goes on to state
Boaz married Ruth and they were the parents of Obed. Obed was the father of Jesse who was the father of King David.

In other words, David was the great-great grandson of a prostitute. The story of Rahab can be found in Joshua 2 and Joshua 6.

In Hebrews 11:31, Raqhab is commended for her faith.

Answer: Nabal

Abigail was originally married to Nabal and later she would become David's wife when Nabal died. Scripture has nothing but nice things to say about Abigail, portraying her as beautiful, wise and gracious. It's a different matter for her first husband, however. Nabal is portrayed as being foolhardy and an obstinate man. In fact, his name means 'fool', according to 1 Samuel 25:25.

Answer: Mahlon

Mahlon is the correct answer. He was the son of Elimelech and Naomi, as per Ruth 1:2. A second son, Chilion was married to Orpah. (In the NIV, Chilion's name appears as Kilion.) According to Scripture, Elimelch, Mahlon and Chilion died, leaving their wives as widows. Scripture does not state how they died.

Out of the three women who were widowed, Ruth was the only one to re-marry, going strictly by Scripture. Much of the book of Ruth is an account of the romance between Ruth and her second husband Boaz.

Answer: No name is given

No name is given for Samson's Philistine wife, who ended up being given to his best man, as per Judges 14:20. According to Scripture, Samson became furious with her shortly after their marriage as she betrayed him by telling others the answer to a riddle he was posing. The riddle involved honey found in the carcass of a lion Samson killed with his bare hands.

If anyone successfully answered the riddle, Samson said he would give them thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing. If they were unsuccessful in answering the riddle, they would give Samson thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.

When Samson's wife told others the answer to the riddle, he ended up being the loser and had to pay up. Scripture goes on to tell of Samson having the spirit of the LORD come upon him and he went to Ashkelon where he killed thirty men and took their apparel and "gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained his riddle."

The chapter ends with Samson being extremely angry and giving his new wife to his best man, who is also not named.

See Judges 14:1-20 for further details.

Answer: Hosea

Gomer, a prostitute, became the wife of Hosea, as per Hosea 1:1-3. According to Scripture she bore three children -- two boys and a girl. The boys were called Jezreel and Lo-Ammi while the girl was called Lo-Ruhamah. Scripture states she was the daughter of Diblaim, who appears to have been a prostitute as well. Scripture tells of God commanding Hosea to take "a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry for the land has committed great harlotry." Backing up the belief that Diblaim was a prostitute is the fact that no mention is made of the name of Gomer's father.

Answer: Palti

Michal, the first wife of David, is yet another woman in Scripture who was intimate with more than one man in her life. 1 Samuel 25:44 tells of Michal's father Saul taking her, even though she was David's wife, and giving her to Palti, the son of Laish, who was from Gallim. (Palti is also referred to as Paltiel elsewhere in the NKJV. In the NIV, he is known only as Paltiel.)

2 Samuel 3:13-16 tells of David meeting with Abner and making arrangements to have Michal returned to him. The passage tells of Michal being taken from her new husband Palti with her husband "weeping behind her".

Answer: 1 Corinthians

In 1 Corinthians 5:1, Paul writes about an unnamed man sleeping with his father's wife, who is also not named. The immorality was defiling the church, Paul said.

Paul goes on to state the man should be removed from the church. There is no mention of what should happen to the woman, leading a number of theologians to believe she was not a believer.

Paul was apparently prompted to write 1 Corinthians after he received a report from Chloe's household about "contentions" in the church at Corinth.

Corinth, a city in Greece, is about 78 kilometres (48 miles) west of Athens.

Answer: Philip

Before marrying Herod, Herodias was married to his brother Philip, as per Matthew 14:3. When John the Baptist denounced the union of Herod and Herodias, he ended up being arrested. With John locked up, Herodias would be successful in pulling strings behind the scenes to have him executed. See Matthew 14:1-12 for details.

Answer: 5

The Samaritan woman, who was living with a man at the time she had met Jesus at a well, had been married five times before, according to John 4:21.

It was during the conversation with the woman Jesus made His famous declaration in John 4:13-14 in the the NKJV: "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

John 4:39 states many of the people in the Samaritan woman's city came to believe in Jesus because of her testimony. The woman is quoted as telling others Christ had "told me all that I ever did."

Scripture goes on to state Jesus stayed for two days in the city with the people declaring "we know that this is the Christ, the Saviour of the World."

For more details, see John 4:1-42.