Biblical Brothers and Sisters Quiz

Answer: Sarah

If you are reading this and thinking, "Hey, I thought Sarah was Abraham's wife!", you would be correct. However, in Genesis 20:12, Abraham admitted that Sarah was his half-sister who happened to become his wife too. The two shared the same father, Terah, but they had different mothers. Abraham admitted this when Abimelech asked him why he lied to him. Abraham had told Abimelech that Sarah was his sister but NOT his wife, so Abimelech took Sarah as Abimelech's wife.

The LORD God appeared to Abimelech and commanded him to release Sarah back to Abraham, because she was his wife. Abraham stated that he lied because he feared for his life, but he also tried to justify his dishonesty by basically saying, "Well, technically she is my sister". See Genesis chapter 20 for more details.

Deuteronomy 27:22, New American Standard Bible:
"'Cursed is he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or of his mother.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'"

I guess that one law, a part of what is sometimes called the Law of Moses, wasn't in place when Abraham married Sarah! Actually, the Law of Moses was also God's Law, but God hadn't yet condemned incest during Abraham's lifetime.

In their article, "Why Did God Allow Incest in the Bible?", GotQuestions.org states that God allowed incest, such as brother-sister marriages, in the centuries before Moses because the genetic code had not been corrupted yet, and people needed to procreate. Obviously, if Adam and Eve's children were the only people on the planet, as the Bible states, then they needed to marry their siblings or relatives. Interestingly, the article points out that based on Genesis 2:24, which says that a man will leave his father and mother to cleave to his wife, God NEVER allowed sexual relationships between parents and their children.

Answer: Rebekah

Unlike his father Abraham, Isaac didn't marry a sister or half-sister, but he did marry a more distant relative. Rebekah, Isaac's wife, was a daughter of Bethuel. Bethuel was Abraham's nephew, a son of Abraham's brother, Nahor. In other words, Isaac's wife was a granddaughter of Isaac's father's brother (his first cousin once removed).

Isaac and Rebekah became the parents of Esau (Edom) and Jacob (Israel). Rebekah was Laban's sister. Genesis 29 reveals that Laban was Leah's and Rachel's father. Leah and Rachel, of course, became Jacob's wives. Therefore, Laban was both Isaac's brother-in-law and Jacob's father-in-law.

Answer: Dinah

Joseph is well-known for having his envious half-brothers sell him into slavery (see Genesis chapter 37). Still, he had at least one half-sister and her name was Dinah.

Genesis 30:21-22 say it like this:

Genesis 30:21-22, New American Standard Bible:
". . . she [Leah] bore a daughter and named her Dinah.
Then God remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her and opened her womb."

The "then" in these verses makes it sound like Dinah was born shortly before Joseph was, but just how much older she was isn't clear. Whatever the case, Dinah wasn't involved in her brothers' sinful action of selling Joseph.

For the record, here is a list of Jacob's children, whom he had with four different wives/concubines.

Children of Leah: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Dinah
Children of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin
Children of Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali
Children of Zilpah: Gad and Asher

Genesis 46 includes a genealogy that states that Jacob had other "sons" and "daughters", but the context suggests grandsons and granddaughters. Sometimes in the Bible, the term "son" means descendant.

Answer: Miriam

Numbers 26:59 is only one of several verses that mention Miriam as the sister of Moses. Miriam, Aaron, and Moses were all siblings. Miriam was apparently the oldest of the three. Their parents were Amram and Jochebed. Interestingly, Jochebed was a daughter of Levi, which means that Moses, Aaron, and Miriam were Levi's grandchildren and Jacob's great-grandchildren!

When Moses was a baby, after Jochebed put him in a basket to save his life, Miriam watched him from a distance to see what was going to happen to him (see Exodus 2). She saw that the pharaoh's daughter was interested in helping Moses, so Miriam asked the pharaoh's daughter if she wanted a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby. Because of Miriam, Jochebed was able to nurse her own child for a while before she had to give him to the pharaoh's daughter, to become her adoptive son.

Many, many years after her baby brother's birth, Miriam criticized Moses because he married a Cushite, or Ethiopian, woman. God struck her with leprosy as a punishment. Being the good brother that he was, Moses cried out to God to heal his sister's affliction. Read Numbers chapter 12 for more details.

According to Exodus 15:20, Miriam was a prophetess and a musical performer. While the Bible doesn't say who her husband was, Rabbinic tradition suggests that Caleb married her.

Answer: Michal and Merab

Believe it or not, the Bible includes at least fifteen different men named Jonathan. I'll admit, I didn't know that before. The most famous Jonathan is probably Saul's son, the best friend of David; the friend whom David loved like he loved himself (see 1 Samuel 18:1).

According to 1 Samuel 14:49, in the New American Standard translation, Saul's sons included Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malchi-shua. Saul also had two daughters, Merab and Michal.

1 Samuel 31:2 says Abinadab instead of Ishvi, but both names apparently refer to the same person.

Saul also had other sons, including Ish-bosheth (2 Samuel 2:10) and Armoni and Mephiboseth (2 Samuel 21:8). Another name for Ish-bosheth is evidently Eshbaal (1 Chronicles 8:33; 9:39).

Sadly, of Saul's eight total children, Michal was POSSIBLY the ONLY one who lived a long life. Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malchi-shua died in battle. Ish-boseth was murdered. It has been suggested that Merab died when her children were young, so Michal had to raise them for her. Michal was one of David's wives, while David ordered the executions of Merab's five sons, along with the executions of Armoni and Mephiboseth (2 Samuel 21:8).

Answer: Zeruiah and Abigail

1 Chronicles 2:15-16 states that David had two sisters named Zeruiah and Abigail.

There is a real possibility that these were half-sisters. Jesse was David's father. 2 Samuel 17:25 calls Abigail, Zeruiah's sister, not the daughter of Jesse, but the daughter of Nahash. While some readers suggest that Nahash was Jesse's wife, another explanation is that Nahash was the women's father. 1 and 2 Samuel (in fact) mention an Ammonite king named Nahash, so he possibly was the father of David's half-sisters, Abigail and Zeruiah.

1 Chronicles 2 goes on to say that Zeruiah had three sons, Abshai, Joab, and Asahel. Strangely, it doesn't mention her husband's name. Meanwhile, Abigail married Jether and had Amasa.

One of David's wives was named Abigail, too. That Abigail was originally married to Nabal. When Nabal died, she became David's wife, along with Ahinoam, after Michal, his original wife. See 1 Samuel 25 for more details.

Answer: Tamar

2 Samuel chapter 13 states that Absalom and Tamar were brother and sister. Their father was David and their mother was Maacah. See also 2 Samuel chapter 3.

Amnon, the son of David and Ahinoam, was in love with his half-sister, Tamar. However, Tamar had no interest in Amnon. One day, Amnon raped Tamar. Not only did the Law of Moses consider incest sinful by this time, but rape was always sinful (Genesis 34:7; Deuteronomy 22:25-26). Amnon obviously brought shame to David, but the prophet Nathan predicted that things like this would happen due to David's own sin with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12:10-11). Still, 2 Samuel 13:21 implies that David was livid about what Amnon did to his daughter, Tamar, and rightly so.

Out of revenge for his sister, Absalom killed Amnon. Absalom also named his daughter Tamar after his sister (2 Samuel 14:27).

Answer: Jehosheba

2 Kings chapter 11 tells of Ahaziah and his sister, Jehosheba. Their father was Joram (or Jehoram) and their mother was the evil queen, Athaliah. By the way, Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, whom are normally considered the most evil people in the Bible! Poor Ahaziah and Jehosheba were therefore the grandchildren of Ahab and Jezebel.

Athaliah was evil just like her mother, so she planned to murder all of Ahaziah's children, her own grandchildren. Ahaziah was already dead because Jehu killed him (see 2 Kings chapter 10).

The heroine of this story was Jehosheba. She was able to rescue one of her brother's sons, Joash, and she hid him from Athaliah. Jehosheba's husband was the high priest, Jehoida, and the text states that Joash was hidden in the house of the LORD. It appears that Jehosheba didn't inherit the extreme wickedness of her parents and grandparents.

Answer: Sisters' names not mentioned

According to Matthew 13, Jesus returned to His hometown of Nazareth, and performed a few miracles there, but they didn't accept Him. The confused people who knew Jesus from His youth said the following.

Matthew 13:55-56, New American Standard Bible:
"Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?"

I should note that Catholics believe that these brothers and sisters were either cousins or the children of Joseph from a previous marriage. Most Protestants, on the other hand, believe that they were Joseph's and Mary's biological children.

In Matthew 12:50, Jesus said that whoever does the will of His Father in Heaven is His mother, brother, and sister. While we don't know who His physical sisters were, some of His "spiritual sisters" include Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, and the other women who dedicated their lives to serving Him (Luke 8).

Answer: Martha and Mary

According to John 11, Lazarus, Martha, and Mary were siblings and they were also friends of Jesus. They apparently all lived in the same house in Bethany, so I assume they were either celibate or widows and a widower.

Luke 10 states that Martha got upset at Mary for not helping her cook dinner, but Jesus reminded her that spiritual life was more important than earthly life. Mary was busy listening to Jesus teach, which is why she wasn't helping Martha with the domestic chores.

Lazarus later became sick and died, but Jesus rose him from the grave. Ironically, after Lazarus died, it was Martha who portrayed more faith than Mary did because Martha came out to meet Jesus, while Mary stayed in the house, sad and possibly angry at Him (John 11:20).

After Jesus brought Lazarus back to life, however, Mary anointed His feet for His burial (John 12). Of all the disciples, it was Mary of Bethany who seemed to actually comprehend the predictions Jesus made about His own crucifixion and resurrection.