Gentile Wives Trivia Quiz

Answer: No

Genesis 26, verse 34 specifically, states that Esau's marriages to Judith the Hittite and Basemath the Hittite "brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah" (New American Standard Bible). The women's Hittite heritage probably had something to do with it.

The Hittites were descendants of Heth, a son of Canaan. Canaan was one of Ham's sons and Ham was one of Noah's sons. In Genesis 24, Abraham made it very clear that he didn't want his son Isaac to marry a Canaanite. Isaac therefore married Rebekah, who wasn't a Canaanite but a member of Abraham's family. Abraham descended from Shem, another son of Noah. According to the Bible, the Canaanites, including Hittites, were typically idolators and polytheists. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob didn't want His followers to behave like the Canaanites did.

Answer: Asenath

Genesis 41 states that after Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel, was released from prison, the pharaoh gave him Asenath, the daughter of an Egyptian priest, for his wife. As an Egyptian priest, her father obviously worshipped Egyptian gods. She most likely did as well. It's possible that sometime after her marriage to Joseph, she began to worship his LORD, but the Scriptures don't plainly say this.

What's intriguing about Asenath is that God didn't simply allow Joseph's and Asenath's union, but He actually ordained it. In Genesis 45:4-11, Joseph exclaimed that God planned for him to go to Egypt long before his envious brothers ever wanted to send him there. In addition, Asenath bore Joseph Manesseh and Ephraim. Jacob adopted these sons and they became tribes of Israel!

Answer: Canaanite

Yes, Judah actually married a Caananite woman. Genesis 38 states that Judah departed from his brothers (apparently after they had sold their brother Joseph into slavery) and took Shua's daughter for his wife. 1 Chronicles 2:3 calls her Bath-shua, which is the same name that 1 Chronicles 3:5 uses for Bathsheba, David's wife (New American Standard Bible). Judah evidently loved his wife, but after she died, he dabbled in sexual sins. One of these sins included Tamar. Genesis 38 tells of both Judah's wife and Tamar.

I personally find it amazing that Judah, of all people, married a Canaanite. There is no indication that God approved of or blessed this marriage. Two of the three children that Judah had with Bath-shua, Er and Onan, were very evil and thus received God's wrath.

Answer: Zipporah

According to both Jewish and Christian traditions, Moses (inspired by God) wrote Genesis through Dueteronomy, which is called the Torah and the Pentatuech. Exodus states that Moses came from the tribe of Levi. According to Exodus 2, Moses fled to the land of Midian, where he married Zipporah, a daughter of the Midianite priest. Numbers 12:1 states that Moses married a Cushite or Ethiopian woman.

Readers debate whether that Cushite could be Zipporah or if she was an entirely different wife. Some people argue that Cush and Midian are the same place, but others find that unlikely. Yet another argument is that Cush and Midian are different places, but Zipporah and her family originally lived in Cush and then moved to Midian, so she could legitimately be called both. At any rate, Moses had at least one Gentile wife and very possibly more than one.

The Bible doesn't truly condemn interracial marriages. It condemns interfaith marriages. It isn't exactly clear whether Zipporah (or the Cushite woman, for that matter) converted to ancient Judaism, but it's quite possible. Interestingly as well, Dueteronomy 7:3 doesn't forbid the Israelites from marrying Midianites, Cushites, or Egyptians. It only forbids them from marrying Canaanites. The book of Ezra, on the other hand, seems to speak against intermarriage with all Gentiles. But Ezra came many years after Moses!

Answer: It doesn't say

While Ruth 4:21 confirms that Salmon was Boaz's father, it doesn't include Boaz's mother's name. Of course, Christians believe that the New Testament reveals information that the Old Testament left out, but there is also some debate as to whether the Rahab mentioned in the New Testament is even the same Rahab. Like I said, many Christians believe that she was the same.

The Jewish Midrash suggests that Rahab, a Caananite, converted to Judaism and married Joshua. Regardless of whether she married Joshua or Salmon, or both, it would still portray a fascinating marriage of Jew and Gentile anyway.

Answer: False

Judges 14 states that Samson did marry a Philistine, but she wasn't Delilah. The Bible doesn't give her name. Judges 15 claims that after a while, the woman's father gave her to a different husband, because he didn't think that Samson appreciated her. However, this made Samson very angry.

Judges 16 indicates that Samson didn't marry Delilah. She was his infamous lover who cut his hair off. Delilah was most likely a Philistine too. I guess Samson had a thing for Philistine women.

Answer: Ruth

The verse quoted is Ruth 1:16. The book of Ruth provides a beautiful love story, between a young Moabite lady and her Jewish mother-in-law, Naomi. Oh, yeah, and there is also some love between Boaz and Ruth. Ruth married one of Noami's sons when they were living in Moab. When Naomi planned to go back to Israel, after the deaths of Naomi's husband and sons, she told Ruth that she could stay in Moab. But Ruth refused to stay in Moab and vowed to follow Noami, even in her religious practices.

Ruth's second husband was Boaz. Despite having a Gentile background, Ruth became an ancestor of Israel's King David.

Answer: Rehoboam

The Bible states that Solomon was the wisest man ever when he was young, but when he grew older, he took wives from many different nationalities, including Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, and Hittite wives. Influenced by his wives' gods, Solomon didn't follow the Hebrew God in his old age. 1 Kings 11:4 says that Solomon did evil in the eyes of God. The example of Solomon and his wives is exactly why God commanded the Israelites to not marry such women in Dueteronomy.

As for Naamah, she at least was Rehoboam's mother. Rehoboam became the king after Solomon.

Answer: Talmai, the king of Geshur

The Biblical Geshur was an Aramean or Syrian area. According to Joshua 13:13, the tribe of Manesseh inherited Geshur, but the Geshurites were allowed to live among the Israelites.

Maacah was the mother of Absalom and Tamar (the one Amnon raped).

Answer: True

2 Chronicles 8:11 from the New American Standard Bible:
"Then Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the city of David to the house which he had built for her, for he said, 'My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy where the ark of the Lord has entered.'"

Solomon was David's and Bathsheba's son. 1 Kings 3:1 also mentions this pharaoh's daughter. Solomon formed a marriage alliance with the pharaoh. There probably wasn't much romance involved in this relationship. It sounds like it was politically motivated.