Stepmothers and Stepfathers Trivia Quiz

Answer: Adah and Zillah

First of all, I think I should clarify something here. In modern Western culture, a stepmother is typically the wife of someone's biological father after the death or divorce of his other wife, the child's biological mother. In the Bible, certainly the Old Testament, polygamy--one father having multiple wives and children with those mothers--was usually the cause of stepmothers. The Cambridge Dictionary has a basic definition of "stepmother" that polygamy falls under: "the woman who is married to someone's father but who is not their real mother".

Adah and Zillah were Lamech's wives. Eve was Adam's biblical wife, while Lilith is the non-Biblical "first wife (before Eve) of Adam" who appears in medieval Jewish literature. Bilhah and Zilpah were Jacob's concubines or wives. Bath-shua was Judah's wife and Bathsheba was one of David's wives.

Answer: True

This is true. Genesis 25 states that Abraham--most likely after Sarah's death-- married Keturah. Since Isaac was the son of Abraham and Sarah, Keturah became his stepmother when she married his father.

Keturah bore Abraham six sons, including Midian. He was the ancestor of the Midianites.

Hagar, Ishmael's mother, was also a stepmother to Isaac. The Old Testament calls Hagar and Keturah both "concubines" and "wives". It seems that sometimes in the Old Testament, the words "wife" and "concubine" are interchangeable. Other portions of the Old Testament differentiate between wives and concubines. For example, Solomon had 700 wives and 300 lovers called concubines. The truest biblical definition of "concubine", even in Solomon's case, is probably that they were second class wives--wives yes, but not equal to first class wives, and therefore, Sarah was never a concubine.

Answer: Rachel

Leah was their birth mother. Her younger sister, Rachel, is the correct answer. Jacob was also married to Bilhah and Zilpah. For the record, here is a list of Jacob's children with their biological mothers:

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and the girl, Dinah: Leah

Joseph and Benjamin: Rachel

Dan and Naphtali: Bilhah

Gad and Asher: Zilpah

Rebekah was Jacob's mother; therefore their grandmother. Lydia was a Christian in the New Testament.

Answer: False

Bath-shua ("daughter of Shua") was Judah's wife and the mother of Er, Onan, and Shelah. However, the statement is false for a couple of reasons:

Firstly, Tamar had been married to Er and Onan, but they died because they were evil. Judah promised to let Tamar marry his youngest son (at the time), Shelah, but Judah lied to her. He had no intention of marrying her to Shelah because Judah thought Tamar was the problem. He was afraid that if Shelah married Tamar, then Shelah would end up dead, too. So, because Judah broke his promise to childless Tamar, she felt like she had no choice but to force Judah to give her the children that she deserved as a widow under Levirate marriage law. The children that Er couldn't give her, and the children that Onan refused to provide for her, and the children that Shelah wouldn't give her if they never married. Oh, dear!

Genesis 38:24-26, New American Standard Bible:
"Now it was about three months later that Judah was informed, 'Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot, and behold, she is also with child by harlotry.' Then Judah said, 'Bring her out and let her be burned!' It was while she was being brought out that she sent to her father-in-law, saying, 'I am with child by the man to whom these things belong.' And she said, 'Please examine and see, whose signet ring and cords and staff are these?' Judah recognized them, and said, 'She is more righteous than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah.' And he did not have relations with her again."

It's incorrect to say that Tamar became Shelah's stepmother because Judah never married Tamar. They did engage in sexual sins--fornication and incest--but the verses clearly say that they never had intercourse again, so he didn't take her as a wife or even a concubine. By the way, don't you just love Judah's hypocrisy? He wanted her burned for supposedly being a prostitute, but he visited a prostitute.

Answer: Peninnah

See 1 Samuel, chapters 1 and 2. Elkanah had two wives, Hannah and Peinnah, but he only loved Hannah. However, Hannah was originally barren, while Peninnah had multiple children. Peninnah was a bully! She constantly made fun of her for being barren. She made Hannah cry and made Hannah suffer to the point where she didn't even want to eat.

Hannah poured her heart out to God, though, and He gave her Samuel. Not only that, but 1 Samuel 2:5 states,
"Those who were full hire themselves out for bread,
But those who were hungry cease to hunger.
Even the barren gives birth to seven,
But she who has many children languishes" (New American Standard Bible).

Evidently Hannah went on to have six more children after Samuel, but something happened to the wicked Peninnah.

Answer: Rizpah

A concubine was a second rate or second class wife, but still a wife, so we can say that Rizpah was Ish-boseth's stepmother. Ish-boseth accussed Abner, Saul's own uncle, of having a relationship with Rizpah. However, I must note that Abner greatly denied Ish-boseth's claims and stated that he had been nothing but loyal to Saul. Bible scholars disagree over whether Abner actually sinned with Rizpah or not.

Because of his dispute with Ish-boseth, Abner joined David's side. Ish-boseth and David were at war because David was the king of Judah and Ish-boseth was the king of Israel.

Ish-boseth's biological mother was Ahinoam. His sisters were Michal and Merab.

Answer: Haggith

Haggith was Adonijah's mother and one of Solomon's stepmothers. We know almost nothing about Haggith except for the facts that she was one of David's multiple wives and Adonijah's mother. According to 1 Kings, Adonijah "exalted himself, saying 'I will be king'" (chapter 1, verse 5, New American Standard Bible). Interestingly, David's nephew Joab (the son of his sister Zeruiah) and Abiathar the priest were on Adonijah's side. The problem was that God already told David that Solomon was going to be the king after David's death.

Solomon did become the king, but Adonijah asked Bathsheba to ask Solomon if Adonijah could marry Abishag the Shunammite. Solomon interpreted that as another way of asking for the throne, so he ordered his brother's execution. Some scholars believe that Solomon eventually married Abishag.

Answer: Herod Antipas, the tetrarch

Although the title "Herod Antipas" doesn't appear in the Bible except in a couple of translations, history tells us that he was the one whom the Bible calls "Herod the tetrarch". He divorced his first wife to marry Herodias, the woman who had originally been married to his half-brother, Herod II. Some scholars believe that Herod II was also known as Herod Philip, because the Bible calls him Philip.

According to Matthew 14, politically incorrect John the Baptist publicly condemned Antipas's marriage to Herodias. John said that it wasn't lawful for him to have Herodias. Leviticus 18:16 says to not sleep with your brother's wife--while the brother was still living--so yeah, it was unlawful. What's more, both Antipas and Herodias divorced their spouses to marry each other, so according to Jesus, the union was based upon adultery. I'm referring to Christ's comments about divorce and adultery in general.

The Gospels don't report Herodias's daughter's name, but again, history shows that her name was Salome.

Once again, the Bible doesn't include the phrase "Herod the Great", but he was the father of Herod Archelaus, Philip, and Antipas. He was the one who wanted to murder the baby Jesus (Matthew 2). Matthew 2 also mentions Archelaus.

Answer: Corinthian

The specific verse is 1 Corinthians 5:1. In the Bible, having a relationship with your father's wife, regardless of if she was your mother or stepmother, is considered a horrible sin. For one thing, it is a slap-in-the-face to your father.

The fact that she was called "father's wife" instead of "mother" probably means that she was the man's stepmother. In fact, Leviticus 18:8 distinguishes "father's wife" from the biological mother in Leviticus 18:7, but sleeping with either is condemned.

The fact that Paul mentions this as a disgusting offense shows that the New Testament's covenant still condemns sexual sins, including incest.

Answer: Joseph

Luke 1:30-35 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
"The angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father [ancestor] David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.'
Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be, since I am a virgin?'
The angel answered and said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.'"

Joseph married Mary after the angel, Gabriel, told him that her pregnancy was supernatural. Not only was Joseph His stepfather and legal adoptive father, but many people in Christ's hometown of Nazareth apparently believed that Joseph was His biological father (see John 6:42).

I believe that God used one of Mary's eggs and His own power to supernaturally, NOT sexually, create the human baby inside her, but I believe that the Word of God, the second member of the Trinity, always existed. John 1 states that the Word was always God, but He BECAME flesh. Many, not all, Christians believe that the Word of God was always spiritually the Son of the Father. The Trinity is normally referred to as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This begs the question, if Jesus is the Son of the Father (which makes sense) then why on earth did the Holy Spirit, instead of the Father, "father" Jesus in His mother's womb?

After much thought, study, and research into other peoples' commentaries and beliefs, it seems like the best answer is that the Father conceived the human Jesus by using the Holy Spirit. Luke says, "the Holy Spirit" AND "the power of the Most High"--it's possible that the latter refers to the Father, or the Father and the Holy Spirit, or even all three (including the Word Himself). After all, they are one God. It's also possible that Luke 1:35 is similar to Genesis 1:2, which states that the Holy Spirit was hovering over the waters. Clearly, the Spirit wasn't the only one involved in the universe's creation, but Scripture emphasized Him because He breathes life into creation. According to John 14:26, the Father sends the Holy Spirit, so yeah, it is totally possible that the Father either directly or indirectly "conceived" His Son.