Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
Judah the father of Perez and Zerah

• Matthew 1:2-3a

In our last Women of the Bible quiz, four of the answers involved women who were mothers of people in the line of Jesus.  A couple were mentioned by name in Matthew’s Gospel, but Matthew’s Gospel starts with Abraham.  It seems Matthew wrote his Gospel to the Jews, as he peppers his writing with references to the Old Testament and speaks of the authority and Lordship of Jesus, the promised Messiah.  Thus, since the Jews claimed to be the children of their father Abraham, why go further back in the genealogy?  I cut off the quoted Scripture before it gave one of the names away.

There are no women mentioned in the Luke 3 genealogy which works the genealogy backwards from Joseph to Adam to God.

This quiz is all my invention.

But is it not odd to talk of an earthly genealogy of Jesus when Jesus is God.  He created the Heavens and the Earth and Adam and Eve and Time and Space itself.  Yet, the Matthew and Luke genealogies show how Jesus’ parents were both descendants of King David.

The Questions:

	Question
1	Name meaning:  Whom God Afflicts.  Who was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, married to Jehoram, king of Judah, and when her son, Ahaziah, was killed by Jehu, king of Israel, she set herself up as queen and killed all members of the royal family, except for Joash, who was hidden from her?  Note: Seven years later, Joash became king at seven years old.
2	Name meaning: Daughter of Oath.  Who had an affair with the king of all Israel, got pregnant, leading to the king setting up her husband to die in battle?
3	Name meaning: traditionally ‘Living’ but also ‘Giver of Life’.  Who was promised to have her offspring crush an animal’s head?
4	Name meaning: Cow.   Who had ‘weak eyes’ and not a lovely figure like her sister, but she gave birth to six sons and a daughter?
5	Name meaning: Wished-for Child, Rebellious, Bitter.  Who said, “I am the Lord’s servant … May your word to me be fulfilled.”?
6	Name meaning: A Vast Space of Land.  Who was a prostitute that hid and protected the spies when they came to Jericho?
7	Name meaning: Captivating, Knotted Cord.  Who offered the servant of another master some water to drink, and then offered to water the servant’s camels, this after the servant had prayed for that to be the “sign”?
8	Name meaning: Friend.  Who faithfully followed her mother-in-law from her homeland and affected the redemption of her mother-in-law to the family?
9	Name meaning: Princess.  Who offered her servant to her husband since she was barren and then once she gave birth, became jealous, driving the servant away?
10	Name meaning: Date (fruit), Date Palm, or Palm Tree.  Who was married to a grandson of Jacob and had to trick her father-in-law in order to produce a son, actually two sons?

Major Hint:  The answers are in alphabetical order, but I am sure you noticed.

I could have made the quiz diabolical by adding Noah’s wife, Emzara, and Shem’s wife, Sedeqetelebab, never mentioned by name in the Bible, but in the Book of Jubilees. I stuck with Biblical names only.  Do not ask me how to pronounce “Sedeqetelebab” and definitely do not ask me to say “Sedeqetelebab” three times really fast.

Bible References:

	Bible Reference
1	2 Kings 11; Connection to the genealogy of Jesus:  She was the mother of Ahaziah, who was the father of Joash, the father of Amaziah, the father of Uzziah.  Note:  the Matthew genealogy lists Jehoram, the husband of this woman, and then Uzziah.  This is acceptable in the style of writing for the Jews at the time.  More on that below.
2	2 Samuel 11; Matthew 1:6 (but not by name); Connection to the genealogy of Jesus:  She was the mother of Solomon.
3	Genesis 2-3; for the question Genesis 3:15; Connection to the genealogy of Jesus:  She was the mother of Seth.
4	Genesis 29; Connection to the genealogy of Jesus:  She was the mother of Judah.
5	Luke 1:26-38; Matthew 1:16; Connection to the genealogy of Jesus:  She was the mother of Jesus.
6	Joshua 2; Matthew 1:5; Connection to the genealogy of Jesus:  She was the mother of Boaz.
7	Genesis 24; Connection to the genealogy of Jesus:  She was the mother of Jacob.
8	An entire book of the Bible named after her; Matthew 1:5; Connection to the genealogy of Jesus: She was the mother of Obed, and great-grandmother of King David.
9	Genesis 21; Connection to the genealogy of Jesus:  She was the mother of Isaac.
10	Genesis 38; Matthew 1:3; Connection to the genealogy of Jesus:  She was the mother of Perez.

The genealogies in Matthew and Luke are different.  Most theologians state that the Luke genealogy is that of Mary, who could also trace her ancestry back to King David.  I have always thought that Luke used the Mary genealogy due to him being a physician.  He may not have understood genetics in his day, he understood the bloodline of the seed and egg.  If anyone argued that God impregnated Mary and that Joseph was simply the adoptive father of Jesus, the Mary genealogy still traces to King David.  Matthew, trying to establish the kingliness of Jesus, traced through Joseph to the kingly line of King David.

Also, there are a few generations missing in the Matthew genealogy, as we mentioned in the Bible reference for question 1.  It was common to list grandfather instead of father, skipping a generation here or there and for various reasons, but there are two schools of thought, maybe more, that point to these generations being removed.  One school of thought is that Matthew loved his generational symmetry so much that he eliminated a couple of generations to make it fourteen generations from Abraham to David, from David to Babylon, and from Babylon to Jesus.  But even then, why those generations?  Question 1 explains it, in a way.  God was so angry with Ahab and Jezebel that their family line was cursed unto the fourth generation, with Jehu reigning with his descendants for those four generations in Israel (2 Kings 10:30).  Question 1 states that the answer is a daughter of Ahab and Jezebel.  Thus, she was the first generation, and just as evil by the looks of it.  The other generations start with Ahaziah (killed by Jehu in the purge of the Ahab family), Joash who barely escaped from his evil grandmother, and Amaziah.  Oddly, Joash and Amaziah were good kings in their youth, being corrupted as they got older.  But, if God did not wish for the Ahab family to reign in Israel for four generations, Matthew chose to eliminate them from the genealogy in his Gospel in the list of Judah’s kings.  And the fifth generation, outside the curse, was Uzziah, a good king.

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The Answers:

1. Athaliah
2. Bathsheba
3. Eve
4. Leah
5. Mary
6. Rahab
7. Rebekah
8. Ruth
9. Sarah
10. Tamar

The following two videos are from interviews with actresses who played the parts of two of the women in this quiz in the television series, The Bible.

Let us skip the video if you did poorly.  All of this is about Jesus, Jesus the Christ, and we are saved through faith in Christ alone…  This version by Celtic Worship.  I love the bagpipes at the beginning and the end.

And for this quiz, how can you end it without asking Mary some questions…

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.