Women of the Bible Trivia
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This women of the Bible trivia quiz covers 98 free questions with answers on the matriarchs, judges, queens, prophetesses and disciples of the Old and New Testaments. You will meet Sarah, Hagar, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah in Genesis; Miriam, Deborah, Jael and Ruth in the days of Moses and the judges; Hannah, Bathsheba, Abigail, Esther, Jezebel and Huldah in the age of kings; and Mary, Elizabeth, Anna, Mary Magdalene, Martha, Lydia, Priscilla, Dorcas and Phoebe in the Gospels and Acts. It is built for Bible study groups, Sunday school leaders, church quiz nights and anyone who wants a real test rather than the same ten easy questions. Difficulty ranges from names every churchgoer knows to details like Huldah's husband's job title and the adviser who had Vashti deposed. Every answer has been checked against the biblical text and standard reference articles, and each explanation adds one detail worth remembering.
30 of 98 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Before God renamed her in Genesis 17, Abraham's wife was known by what name?
Sarai
Sarai became Sarah in the same chapter where Abram became Abraham, as God promised the couple a son of their own.
Q 02After an angel found her by a spring, Hagar called God by which name, often rendered 'the God who sees me'?
El Roi
El Roi was her name for him after the angel sent her back to her mistress and promised her descendants too many to count.
Q 03Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, came from which nation?
Egypt
Egypt was her homeland, and after Abraham sent her and Ishmael away she found her son an Egyptian wife in the wilderness of Paran.
Q 04How did Abraham's servant recognise Rebekah as the right wife for Isaac at the well?
She offered to water his camels
She offered to water his camels, the very sign he had prayed for, and kept drawing water until every one of his ten camels had finished.
Q 05Rachel died giving birth to which son of Jacob?
Benjamin
Benjamin was Jacob's name for him; with her dying breath Rachel had named the boy Ben-Oni, 'son of my mourning'.
Q 06Who tricked Jacob into marrying Leah instead of Rachel?
Laban
Laban, the sisters' father, sent Leah in on the wedding night, saying the younger could not marry before the elder, and Jacob worked seven more years for Rachel.
Q 07Leah traded what to Rachel in exchange for a night with Jacob?
Mandrakes
Mandrakes were prized as a fertility aid, yet it was Leah, who handed them over, who conceived next and bore Issachar.
Q 08Deborah delivered her judgments while sitting beneath what kind of tree?
Palm
The Palm of Deborah was where Israelites came for judgment, and from there she summoned their commander and told him God had ordered an attack on Sisera's army.
Q 09Which Israelite commander refused to march against Sisera unless Deborah went with him?
Barak
Barak got his escort, but Deborah warned the glory would go to a woman, and it was Jael who killed the fleeing Sisera.
Q 10Jael killed the fleeing general Sisera with what?
A tent peg
A tent peg, hammered through his temple as he slept; the Song of Deborah then hailed Jael as 'blessed above women'.
Q 11When Sisera asked Jael for water, what did she give him instead?
Milk
Milk, when he had asked only for water; she covered him with a mantle, and once he fell asleep she killed him.
Q 12Jael is traditionally described as the wife of which Kenite?
Heber
Heber had split from the other Kenites, and his household was at peace with King Jabin, so the fleeing Sisera expected to be safe with his wife.
Q 13Ruth, the great-grandmother of David, belonged to which people?
Moabites
Moabites were barred from Israel's assembly by Deuteronomy, yet Ruth left Moab for Bethlehem after her Israelite husband Mahlon died.
Q 21Esther was raised by which cousin, whose refusal to bow to Haman set the plot in motion?
Mordecai
Mordecai had also exposed a plot against the king, and when the king read of it in the chronicles, Haman had to lead him through the city in honour.
Q 22Esther's rescue of the Jews of Persia is celebrated on which holiday?
Purim
Purim is named after pur, the lot Haman had cast before him day after day to fix the date for destroying the Jews.
Q 23Which queen was deposed for refusing King Ahasuerus's order to appear before his guests?
Vashti
Vashti refused to be shown off to the king's drinking guests, and his adviser Memucan warned that every wife in Persia would follow her lead.
Q 14Which of Naomi's daughters-in-law turned back to her own people rather than go to Bethlehem?
Orpah
Orpah kissed Naomi goodbye and went home, and the Talmud later made her the mother of Goliath, whose giant kin fell to Ruth's descendants.
Q 15Returning widowed to Bethlehem, Naomi told the townspeople to call her by what name instead?
Mara
Mara means 'bitter': she had gone out full, she said, and come home empty, her husband and both sons dead.
Q 16When Hannah prayed silently at the sanctuary in Shiloh, the priest Eli assumed she was what?
Drunk
Drunk, because her lips moved but no sound came out; once she explained, Eli blessed her, and she later bore Samuel.
Q 17Before David, Bathsheba was married to which soldier?
Uriah the Hittite
Uriah the Hittite carried David's own letter to Joab, which ordered him placed in the fiercest fighting at the siege of Rabbah so he would be killed.
Q 18Which wealthy husband of Abigail, whose name means 'fool', insulted David?
Nabal
Nabal died about ten days after Abigail told him she had fed David's men behind his back, and David then married her.
Q 19David's wife Abigail gave her name to an English word for which kind of woman?
A lady's maid
A lady's maid, after a waiting-woman called Abigail in the 1616 play The Scornful Lady; the Bible's Abigail perhaps inspired it by calling herself a 'handmaid'.
Q 20Which Hebrew name, meaning 'myrtle tree', does the Book of Esther give its heroine when she is first introduced?
Hadassah
Hadassah is her name in Esther 2:7, and on her cousin's orders she kept her Jewish identity secret when she was taken into the king's palace.
Q 24Jezebel was a princess of which Phoenician city before she married King Ahab?
Tyre
Tyre was ruled by her father Ithobaal I, and after the marriage Ahab served Baal and built him an altar in Samaria.
Q 25Jezebel had which man executed on false blasphemy charges so Ahab could take his vineyard?
Naboth
Naboth was stoned on the word of two lying witnesses, and Elijah told Ahab that dogs would lick his blood where they had licked Naboth's.
Q 26After Jezebel was thrown from a window, what did the dogs leave of her body?
Her skull, feet and palms
Her skull, feet and palms were all that was found; moments before, she had painted her face and adorned her hair to taunt Jehu from the window.
Q 27Rahab hid Joshua's two spies on her roof under what?
Bundles of flax
Bundles of flax on her roof hid them, and she later let the spies down by a cord through her window, since her house was built into the town wall.
Q 28Matthew's genealogy of Jesus names Rahab as the mother of which man, by Salmon?
Boaz
Boaz, who later married Ruth.
Q 29Delilah is described as a woman from which valley?
Sorek
Sorek was her valley, and once Samson admitted a razor would sap his strength, she lulled him to sleep on her knees and had his seven locks shaved.
Q 30On her third failed attempt to bind Samson, what did Delilah do with his hair?
Wove it into a loom
She wove it into a loom, pinning his seven locks, but he woke and walked off with the pin; each Philistine lord had offered her 1,100 pieces of silver.