A Bible Quiz Dealing With a Grave Matter -- #2

Answer: Jacob

Jacob, also known as Israel, begged his son Joseph not to bury him in Egypt, as per Genesis 47:29. Scripture states Jacob wanted to be buried with his fathers, Isaac and Abraham. Joseph vowed his father's wishes would be fulfilled.

Genesis 49:30-31 states Jacob, while on his deathbed, also requested his twelve sons bury him in a family cave in Macphelah. According to Verse 31, buried there previously were Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob's first wife Leah.

Answer: Joseph

Going strictly by Scripture, Joseph is the only person in the entire Old Testament who was buried in a coffin. Genesis 50:26 states he died when he was one hundred and ten years old; after they embalmed him, he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Some four hundred years later, Joseph's bones would be buried in Shechem, as per Joshua 24:32. The burial took place after the Israelites made an exodus out of Egypt and settled in Canaan, known as the Promised Land.

Answer: Gideon

Gideon, the son of Joash, is the correct answer. Judges 8:32 in the NKJV states Gideon died at "a good old age" and was buried in the tomb of his father in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. According to Verse 30, Gideon had "many wives" and no less than seventy sons. On top of all this, Verse 31 states Gideon had an unnamed concubine in Shechem who bore him a son called Abimelech.

Gideon is best known, however, for ridding Israel of idolatry and convincing the nation to follow the LORD.

Answer: Uzziah

Uzziah, also known as Azariah, was buried with his fathers in a special field reserved for them, according to 2 Chronicles 26:23. After having an altercation with eighty priests of the LORD, Scripture tells of Uzziah, being afflicted with leprosy. Scripture states the king was banned from the temple of the LORD and Jotham, his son, became king.

For more details, see 2 Chronicles 26:16-23.

Answer: David

2 Samuel 21:12-14 tells of David taking the bones of King Saul and his son Jonathan and burying them in the tomb of Saul's father, Kish. It's a long story so I won't go into all the details, but David buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan after they had died in a fierce battle against the Philistines. Originally, the bodies of the men were fastened to the wall of Beth-shan before soldiers of Jabesh Gilead retrieved the bodies and, after burning them, buried the bones "under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh."

Later, David would collect the bones and bury them in the tomb of Kish "in the country of Benjamin in Zelah".

Answer: Song of Solomon

I suspect this question might have tripped up a number of quiz players. The statement about jealousy being as cruel as the grave is found in Song of Solomon 8:6. I know if I had taken this quiz without doing any research, I would've picked Proverbs.

The statement in Song of Solomon was made by the unnamed Shulamite woman to her beloved, largely believed to be Solomon.

To put the verse in context, here's how Song of Solomon 8:6-7 reads in the NKJV:
"Set me as a seal upon your heart,
As a seal upon your arm;
For love is as strong as death,
Jealousy as cruel as the grave;
Its flames are flames of fire,
A most vehement flame.
Many waters cannot quench love,
Nor can the floods drown it.
If a man would give for love
All the wealth of his house,
It would be utterly despised."

Answer: Pilate

Pilate, acting on a request of the chief priests and the Pharisees, ordered a guard be set up at Christ's tomb, as per Matthew 27:63-65. In the passage, the chief priests and the Pharisees describe Jesus as a deceiver, stating they were afraid His disciples would come and steal His body and people would then claim He had risen from the dead.

Should His body be stolen, "the last deception will be worse than the first," Pilate was told in Verse 64. The following verses tell of Pilate ordering a guard at the tomb with the instructions to make "it as secure as you know how."

Their efforts of the Pharisees and Pilate would be in vain, however, with the four Gospels telling of Christ triumphantly rising from the dead and appearing to a large number of people.

Answer: Lazarus

The report of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead at Bethany is perhaps Christ's most famous miracle. Scripture states Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, had been dead for four days.

Scripture states Jesus commanded Lazarus to "come forth". And to the amazement of everyone, Lazarus did just that!

According to Verse 44, Lazarus came out of the tomb "bound hand and foot with grave clothes and his face was wrapped with a cloth."

Answer: Son of a widow at Nain

One of my favorite stories in the Bible involves Jesus raising the son of a widow from the dead at Nain. According to Luke 7:11-15, the dead man was the only son of the widow, meaning in Biblical times she was destined to live a life of grinding poverty.

Things dramatically changed, however, when Jesus saw the funeral procession carrying the dead man out of the gate of the city. Scripture states Christ touched the open coffin and said, "Young man, I say to you, arise". Miraculously, the dead man sat up and began to speak.

I strongly suspect the joy and ecstasy experienced by the widow was priceless to see.

Answer: An angel

The stone was rolled away from Christ's tomb by an unnamed angel, as per Matthew 28:2. According to the verse, "a great earthquake" coincided with the arrival of the angel who rolled the stone from the mouth of the tomb that had been provided by Joseph of Arimathea.

Verses 3 and 4 in the NKJV state the angel's "countenance was like lightning and his clothing as white as snow" while the guards at the tomb were terrified, becoming "like dead men."

In Verse 6, female visitors to the tomb must have been astounded when they heard the angel make the famous declaration: "He is not here; for He is risen, as He said."