50 Fun Facts About Mother's Day Bible

What did King Solomon order done to a baby claimed by two women, to reveal the real mother?

Cut it in two, he said, and the real mother at once begged him to hand the boy to her rival instead. Solomon gave her the baby: only a mother would rather lose her son than see him die.

Which son, whose name recalls laughter, did Sarah bear to Abraham when she was ninety years old?

Isaac means he laughs, because both parents laughed at the idea of a baby so late in life. Sarah said that everyone who heard the news would laugh along with her.

To which mother bird sheltering her young did Jesus compare himself while lamenting over Jerusalem?

A hen was his picture of protective love, spoken in a lament over a city that had turned away its prophets. Matthew and Luke both record the saying.

In the Book of Exodus, who found the infant Moses in a basket among the reeds and adopted him?

Pharaoh's daughter even chose the name Moses, because she drew him out of the water. Without knowing it, she also paid the boy's own birth mother wages to nurse him.

Which reward do the Ten Commandments promise to those who honour their father and mother?

A long life in the land is the reward, which is why Paul later called this the first commandment with a promise attached.

Which elderly relative of Mary felt her unborn baby leap for joy when the pregnant Mary visited?

Elizabeth had been childless into old age, and the words she cried out to her young visitor became part of the Hail Mary prayer.

Which mother of twins covered her son Jacob's hands in goatskin so his blind father would bless him?

Rebekah also cooked the goat stew herself, so that Jacob could pass for his hairy twin Esau and carry off the blessing meant for the firstborn.

Which disciple, by long tradition, did Jesus ask from the cross to take his mother Mary home?

John is the name usually given to the unnamed beloved disciple who stood by the cross. The fourth Gospel says he took Mary into his own home from that hour.

What title does Genesis give Eve to explain why Adam chose that name for his wife?

Mother of all living is the meaning Genesis draws from her Hebrew name, which sounds like the word for life. Adam only names her after the forbidden fruit, just before the couple leave Eden.

Which widow from Moab married Boaz of Bethlehem and became the great-grandmother of King David?

Ruth is one of only five women mentioned in Matthew's family tree of Jesus. She had arrived in Bethlehem as a penniless foreigner, gathering leftover grain behind the reapers.

Which angel told Mary that she would bear a son named Jesus, in the scene known as the Annunciation?

Gabriel had already brought an old priest named Zechariah news of another unlikely birth, and left him unable to speak for doubting it.

Which servant of Sarah fled into the desert, where an angel told her to name her son Ishmael?

Hagar answered by giving God a name of her own, El Roi, the God who sees. She then went back and bore Abraham his first son.

Which wife of Jacob died giving birth to Benjamin and was buried beside the road to Bethlehem?

Rachel used her last breath to name the baby Ben-Oni, son of my mourning, though his father renamed him. She alone of the four matriarchs lies outside the family tomb at Machpelah.

By what name does the Bible know the mother of Moses, who hid him for three months after his birth?

Jochebed soon had her son back in her arms, hired as his wet nurse, and was paid wages to raise her own child.

Which sister of Moses is traditionally the girl who watched his basket and offered to find a nurse?

Miriam's quick thinking put the baby straight back into his own mother's arms. She grew up to be called a prophetess and led the Israelite women in song and dance after the sea crossing.

What was the occupation of Shiphrah and Puah, who defied a royal order to kill Hebrew baby boys?

Midwives Shiphrah and Puah told the king that Hebrew women gave birth too quickly for anyone to arrive in time. Exodus says God rewarded the pair with families of their own.

Which future judge was promised to the childless wife of Manoah by an angel who forbade her wine?

Samson was to be a Nazirite from the womb, so the vow's rules began with his mother's own diet, and no razor was ever to touch his head.

Which childless woman prayed so fervently at Shiloh that the priest Eli accused her of being drunk?

Hannah was moving her lips without making a sound. She promised that any son she was given would be handed back to God, and that boy became the prophet Samuel.

Who was Solomon's mother, who reminded the aged King David of his oath that her son would reign?

Bathsheba was later honoured as queen mother: her son rose, bowed to her and had a throne brought for her beside his own.

Which widow asked to be called Mara, meaning bitter, after losing her husband and both sons in Moab?

Naomi said she had gone out full and come home empty. Yet her story ends with a grandson on her lap, and the neighbours saying a son had been born to her.

Which prophet lodged with a widow at Zarephath in a drought and brought her dead son back to life?

Elijah stretched himself over the boy three times and prayed until he revived. Jesus later held up this foreign widow as an example to the people of his own home town.

What did a widow pour into borrowed jars, on Elisha's advice, to save her two sons from slavery?

Oil kept flowing from her one small pot until every borrowed jar was full. She sold it, paid off the creditor who had come for her boys, and lived on what was left.

In what did Mary lay the newborn Jesus in Bethlehem because the inn had no room?

A manger is an animals' feeding trough, and Luke makes it the sign by which the shepherds would know they had found the right baby.

Where in Jerusalem did Mary and Joseph find the twelve-year-old Jesus after three days of searching?

In the Temple he was sitting among the teachers, listening and asking questions. His mother said they had been searching anxiously; he asked why they had needed to look anywhere else.

At a wedding in which Galilean town did Mary tell Jesus that the hosts had run out of wine?

Cana is where she then told the servants to do whatever her son said. Six stone jars of water became wine, the first of his signs in the fourth Gospel.

In which town in Galilee was Mary's home when an angel announced that she would bear a son?

Nazareth was so obscure that when a future disciple named Nathanael first heard of it, he asked whether anything good could come from there.

To which country did Joseph take Mary and the infant Jesus to escape King Herod's soldiers?

Egypt sheltered the family until Herod died. Only Matthew tells the story, in which Joseph is warned in a dream and slips away by night.

By what Latin name is Mary's song of praise in Luke's Gospel known, after its opening word?

The Magnificat takes its name from the Latin for magnifies. Mary sings it while visiting her pregnant relative, and churches still sing it at evening prayer.

Which judge and prophetess is called a mother in Israel in the victory song over Sisera?

Deborah held court under a palm tree, and the army commander Barak refused to march against Sisera unless she came with him.

Which king's mother taught him the sayings that open the final chapter of the Book of Proverbs?

Lemuel is named nowhere else in Scripture. His mother's advice was blunt: leave strong drink alone and speak up for the poor and the voiceless.

In Proverbs 31, the worth of a virtuous woman is said to be far above which precious stones?

Rubies is the King James wording. The poem is an alphabetical acrostic in Hebrew, and it pictures her children rising up to call her blessed.

Which prophetic book pictures God comforting Jerusalem as a mother comforts her child?

Isaiah returns to the image more than once, asking elsewhere whether a woman could ever forget the baby she is nursing.

Which young companion of Paul learned his faith from his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice?

Timothy had a Jewish mother and a Greek father, and Paul reminded him that he had known the holy Scriptures from infancy.

Which son of Leah became the ancestor of King David and the royal line that ruled in Jerusalem?

Judah was her fourth son, and she named him from the Hebrew word for praise. The words Jew and Judea both come from his name.

Who was the first child born in the Bible, the eldest son of Adam and Eve?

Cain was greeted by his mother as a man gained with the Lord's help. He grew up to work the soil, and to kill his younger brother.

Which devout old man held the infant Jesus and warned Mary that a sword would pierce her own soul?

Simeon had been promised that he would not die before seeing the Messiah. With the baby in his arms, he declared that he could now depart in peace.

In which New Testament book is Jesus's mother Mary last mentioned by name, praying with his followers in Jerusalem?

Acts places her in an upstairs room with the apostles and the brothers of Jesus, praying together in the days before Pentecost.

Which animals under the table did a Syrophoenician mother mention to Jesus, pleading for her child?

Dogs under the table still eat the children's crumbs, she said, turning his own image back on him. Jesus told her that for that answer her girl was already well.

What did the mother of Zebedee's sons kneel and ask Jesus to grant her two boys?

Seats at his right and left were not his to give, Jesus answered. The other ten disciples were indignant with the two brothers when they heard about it.

Which woman of Jericho, who hid two Israelite spies, does Matthew name as the mother of Boaz?

Rahab tied a scarlet cord in her window so the invading army would spare her household, and she ended up in the family tree of King David.

Which mother told the girl who danced for Herod Antipas to ask for a prophet's head on a platter?

Herodias held a grudge because the prophet had condemned her marriage to her first husband's brother. Most Bibles leave the girl unnamed; the historian Josephus calls her Salome.

What did the mother of the boy Samuel sew and bring to him each year at Shiloh?

A little robe went with her on every yearly pilgrimage, a new one each time as he grew. She had given her firstborn to serve at the shrine, and later had five more children.

Which grandson of Eli was named by his dying mother to mark the capture of the Ark of the Covenant?

Ichabod was her lament in a name: the glory has departed from Israel. She had gone into labour on hearing that the Ark was lost and her husband and father-in-law were dead.

Which concubine of King Saul guarded her executed sons' bodies, driving off birds and beasts?

Rizpah spread sackcloth on a rock and stayed from the barley harvest until the rains came. When King David heard, he had the dead gathered up and buried.

What did the Shunammite woman's son do seven times as the prophet Elisha brought him back to life?

Sneezed is the detail the story gives just before the boy opens his eyes. His mother had saddled a donkey and ridden to Mount Carmel to fetch the prophet herself.

Which Christian in Rome does Paul greet along with a woman he says had been a mother to him too?

Rufus may well be the son of Simon of Cyrene, the passer-by made to carry the cross, since Mark names a Rufus as one of Simon's sons.

In which US state did a Methodist church in Grafton hold the first official Mother's Day service?

West Virginia is where Anna Jarvis grew up, and the building is now the International Mother's Day Shrine, a National Historic Landmark.

Which flowers did Anna Jarvis send by the hundred to the first Mother's Day church service?

White carnations arrived in place of the founder herself: she stayed away, sending five hundred blooms and a telegram explaining what the day meant.

In which season of the church year does Mothering Sunday, the British Mother's Day, always fall?

Lent holds it on the fourth Sunday, a day when people once went back to their mother church, the one where they had been baptised.

According to Jesus in Mark's Gospel, who counts as his true mother and brothers?

Whoever does God's will is his brother, sister and mother, he said, while his own family stood outside the crowded house asking for him.