When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.”
But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.”
Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building.  They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.

• Ezra 4:1-4

I used Herbert Lockyer’s All the Men of the Bible as a reference for inspiration on this quiz.  Somewhere in the house, we have a companion book for the women, but I still cannot find it.  But I have a bone to pick with Mr. Lockyer.  He only had one “Q”, Quartus, but Quirinius is mentioned in Luke 2.  Also, there is no “X” mentioned in his book, but there is one “X” mentioned 30 times, in three different books of the Bible.

I have been remiss in not completing the alphabet on the men side, going A to J and then K to T.

As for the Scripture above, it is a hint for one of the questions below.

Since there are not that many letters to complete the alphabet starting with “U”, I used the letters as follows:

U-V-X-Z and then T-H-E and E-N-D.

The Questions:

Each answer is a person’s name that begins with the same letter as the lettered question.  “Zurishaddai” might be the answer to the “Z” question, but it’s not.  Zurishaddai, in the tribe of Simeon, was chosen to help Moses count the people of Israel (Numbers 1:6), but again, Zurishaddai (meaning “The almighty is a rock”) is not the “Z” answer.

	Question
U	Which king of Judah was also known as Azariah, son of Amaziah, who became king at sixteen years old?  The name means “strength of the Lord,” and there are four people by this name in the Bible.
V	The first-born son of Samuel, the prophet, has two names.  In one listing, his name is Joel.  What is the other name, used in the KJV and other early translations?  Hint:  If you change the “n” is this “V” name to a “t” you get the name of the queen that was deposed, replaced by Esther.  The name means “God is strong.”
X	Who was the king of Persia after Darius the Great?  He was also called “the Great” and he was mentioned in the next verse of Ezra 4 after the quoted Scripture above.  Another hint, the movie “300” was based on one of his greatest battle victories.  The name means “hero among heroes.”
Z	Who was the father of John the Baptist?  The name means “Jehovah is renowned.”  There are two spellings of this name.  One spelling has one other in the Bible listed.  The other spelling has 27 people listed in the Bible, including one book of the Bible, and it has an alternate meaning of “Jehovah remembers.”
T	Who was the disciple, one of the twelve, who is also known as Judas or Jude, the writer of the book in the Bible?  His name means either “breast, one who praises, or man of heart.”
H	Joshua led the army, but the army was only winning when Moses had his staff raised in the air.  But Moses got tired and lowered the staff.  Undaunted, Aaron and this man raised Moses’ arms so that the battle could be won.  Who was he?  His name means “noble” or “splendor.”  There were six others by this name in the Bible.
E	Who was the Tishbite who became a prophet, dined on food served by ravens, and arose into heaven riding on a whirlwind?  The name means “God is Jehovah or God Himself.”
E	Who followed the prophet mentioned above, whose career as a prophet, although the two prophets varied differently in means and background, was eerily similar?  No wonder when his request was to get a double portion of the Spirit that his predecessor had.  The name means “God is Savior.”
N	Who was the cupbearer for a Persian king?  He asked permission to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem.  His name means “Jehovah has consoled.”  His Persian name was Sheshbazzar.
D	Who was the prophet who survived a den of lions?  His name means “God is my judge,” as surely that one event demonstrates, although far from the only instance. His Babylonian name was Belteshazzar.

The “H” answer brings back fond memories.  When I was commuting to college, I would listen to a sermonette on the radio each day by a famous theologian of that time.  His charity, that funded his radio time, was the A and H Club, or ministry, named for the two men who helped.  If you look online, there are multiple ministries based off this same story.  You do not have to be the person that leads the army.  You do not have to be the person that holds a staff in the air, but you can be that person that props up the one doing the heavy lifting.  And do not feel ill will toward Moses.  Holding a staff in both hands over your head produces the same constriction on breathing as crucifixion.  If Moses could have overcome his exhaustion, he would have eventually passed out.  But Aaron and this fellow found a rock for Moses to sit on and held his hands.

The Bible References:

	Question
U	2 Kings 14:1 uses Azariah, but the other name is found in 2 Chronicles 26:1
V	2 Chronicles 6:28 (KJV) – referred to as Joel in later translations.
X	Esther 1:1 (and 27 other references in Esther) and Ezra 4:6 and Daniel 9:1
Z	Luke 1:5
T	Matthew 10:3, Mark 3:18 but in Luke 6:16 and John 14:22 he is called Judas, and distinguished from Judas Iscariot.
H	Exodus 17:10-12.  And a “son” of someone with this name became the title of a novel by Lew Wallace.
E	1 Kings 17:1-6, 2Kings 2:11
E	2 Kings 2:9
N	For a reference outside the book with his name, Ezra 2:2
D	For a reference outside the book with his name, Matthew 24:15

Okay, on the “V” name, I could have used Vaizatha, one of Haman’s ten sons that the Jews killed at the citadel of Susa (Esther 9:9).  Or Vaniah, son of Bani who married a foreign wife (Ezra 10:36).  Or Vophsi, one of the spies who brought back a report of giants in the land (Numbers 13:14).  I thought the queen that preceded Esther would be the best for a hint, regardless of modern translations using a different name.

    …

    …

    …

The Answers:

	Question
U	Uzziah
V	Vashni
X	Xerxes
Z	Zacharias, or Zechariah
T	Thaddaeus
H	Hur.  For the hint in the Bible References, “son of” is “Ben”.  Thus, Ben Hur, also named in the Bible, 1 Kings 4:8, but probably a different Hur, since several generations after Moses’ helper.
E	Elijah, the Greek name of Elias is used in the New Testament
E	Elisha
N	Nehemiah
D	Daniel

Treat yourself to a bit of a video for doing such a good job.  Since we have completed the alphabet, with a few letters missing, here is a marvelous young man who learned his alphabet in Bible verses.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.