More Biblical Women Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jephthah

The daughter remains anonymous in the Bible. Other sources call her Sheila. The King James' Bible does not explicitly say that Jephthah's daughter is killed.

Judges 11:39 "And it came to pass at the end of two months that she returned unto her father who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed; and she knew no man."

The feminists who indignantly protest that in contrast to the Abraham-Isaac case, God sends no angel to prevent the "killing", may have overlooked the little detail that the Biblical text does not explicitly mention any killing.
Judges 11:31 in the King James' Bible phrases Jephthah's vow as follows: "..what-soever cometh forth, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering." This might easily be read as: it will be given to God. This might in the case of a human being be read as dedicated to, in the same way as nuns are dedicated to God.

Answer: tambourine

Among the illustrators that depict the scene there are artists such as Gustave Dore, Jakob Holger, Rudolf von Ems, Jean-Paul Laurens a.o. Sometimes the artists show her with other instruments being played: flutes, harps, mandolins. The Codex Germanicus from Augsburg (1457) even shows Jephthah's daughter playing such an un-Biblical instrument as ... the violin.

Answer: Valley of Sorek

The story is not without links with the Palestinian - Israeli conflict. In a sad ironic way it could be said that Samson's ultimate 'revenge' (he pulls down the pillars of a Philistine temple, killing himself AND all others present) amounts to what is nowadays called a 'suicide attack'.

Answer: False

The Hebrew text has "vat'galach" (SHE shaved). If the servant or the Philistine general had been meant, it should have been "vay'galach" (HE shaved). The King James Bible, however, reads, "and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head." (Judges 16:19)

In artistic representations both versions occur. Rembrandt depicts Delilah looking up when a Philistine soldier enters to cut Samson's hair. Lucas Cranach shows Delilah as doing the job herself. Rubens shows Delilah when she has just finished the haircut, Rembrandt shows Samson being blinded. Anthony van Dyck shows Delilah as a spectatress more than as a participant.

Also other parts of the story have been chosen as a subject: e.g. St. Gereon's Church in Cologne has a mosaic showing how Samson pulls down the pillars of the Philistine temple at Gaza.

Answer: Jezebel

Jael was a woman from a nomadic Kenite tribe. After Sisera, commander of the Canaanite army, had lost his battle against the Israelites he ran away and hid in Jael's tent. While he was asleep she murdered him. Esther was a Jewish girl who became Queen of Persia.

She kept it secret that she was a Jew. She uncovers a plot by the King's chief minister Haman to murder all the Jews, and prevents him from doing so. Judith is the 'apocryphal' Bible character who kills the Assyrian general Holofernes during a 'tricky visit to his tent'.

However treacherous Judith's and Jael's behaviour may have been, it's Jezebel who is the baddie. She is a princess from Sidon who with her charms impressed Ahab, King of Israel. Once she had become Queen of Israel, she tried to force her very 'pagan' Baal worship onto her husband and his subjects. Alas for her, it ends badly and she gets defenestrated at the orders of Ahab's successor Jehu.

The prophet Elijah was her archenemy.

Answer: Deborah

Judges were more like important local landowners than like modern judges, and as some kind of 'freedom-fighters' they often led their people into war. Deborah encouraged General Barak to fight against Sisera, commander of a Canaanite army. The resulting victory ended twenty years of Canaanite oppression. For this military campaign only two tribes gave their support to Barak: Naphtali and Zebulon.

Answer: no name is mentioned

Dalida is a variant of the name Delilah. Suleika is the name given in the Arab world to the Egyptian wife of Potiphar. Joseph is the son of Jacob and Rachel, and he clearly has inherited his mother's beauty. Some stories suggest that Potiphar originally bought him for use as a homosexual slave. Anyway Potiphar's wife is strongly attracted to him and when he refuses to surrender to her seduction attempts, she inverts the situation and denounces him as making passes at her.

She illustrates a corrupt 'Egyptian townswoman's lifestyle' that is completely in conflict with the moral rules of the Hebrew nomads.

In the nomad world, women are just begetters of children. Among townsfolk, however, sexuality had more than just a procreational function.

Answer: Samuel

The Magnificat is an echo of Hannah's prayer of thanks after she has heard she will give birth to a baby.

Answer: Bathsheba

David's first wife was Saul's daughter Mikal. Then he married Achinoam. Then followed Abigail, Maakah, Chaggith, Abital, and Eglah. Monogamy, even serial, was not a tradition yet. Abigail was married already at the times she got interested in David, but God solved the technicalities, by letting her hubby Nabal die in time. Of a heart-attack.

When David sees Bathsheba bathing, he 'falls in love ' with her. As she is married to one of his generals, Uriah, the Hittite, David has a little problem. The Lord does not intervene in his favour, so David sends Uriah to certain death during one of the wars. God punishes him for the way he had solved the little problem: his son Absalom will rebel against him and get killed. David should have known better. God punished him for his misbehaviour with Bathsheba by killing the son he had with her some time after David's "indirect murder of Uriah".

Answer: Moabite

Moab was a son Lot had after the somewhat strange behaviour of his daughters. Moab was the elder daughter's offspring, Bin Ammon the younger daughter's.