Who was King Saul in the Bible?
Saul started out very well only to see his subsequent disobedient actions derail what could have been a stellar, God-honoring rule over the nation of Israel. How could someone so close to God at the start spiral out of control and out of favor with God? To understand how things in Saul’s life got so…
How old was Noah when he died?
According to Genesis 7:6, “Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth.” This is reiterated in verse 11. The flood lasted about a year, and in Genesis 8:13 we find that “by the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried…
Who was Gaius in the Bible?
Several men in the New Testament share the name Gaius, a common name in the first century. All of these men were involved in the ministry of the apostles in one way or another. Gaius of Corinth. Paul baptized a man named Gaius in Corinth—one of only two he baptized there (1 Corinthians 1:14). Later,…
What can we learn from what the Bible says about James the apostle?
Jesus had two disciples named James: James the son of Zebedee and James the son of Alphaeus. Another James, the half-brother of Jesus, was never one of the twelve disciples but was a leader in the early church of Jerusalem (Acts 15:13) and wrote the epistle of James. One of the Twelve, James the son…
Who was King Jotham in the Bible?
Jotham became king of Judah at age twenty-five and reigned for sixteen years, from 750 to 735 BC (2 Kings 15:33; 2 Chronicles 27:1). “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Uzziah had done, but unlike him he did not enter the temple of the Lord. The…
Who was King Manasseh in the Bible?
The story of King Manasseh is told in 2 Kings 21:1–18 and 2 Chronicles 32:33–33:20, and he is also mentioned briefly in Jeremiah 15:4. Manasseh was king of the southern kingdom of Judah and the son of the godly king Hezekiah. Hezekiah had undertaken reforms in Judah to rid the land of idolatry. Manasseh, a…
What is the story of blind Bartimaeus?
The story of Blind Bartimaeus occurs in the Gospel of Mark and concerns the healing of a blind beggar called Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus. A parallel account mentions two blind men (Matthew 20:30), but Mark focuses on the one who was no doubt familiar to his readers. On his way out of Jericho, Jesus…
How many Marys are in the Bible?
Mary was a common female name in Israel during the time of Christ. The New Testament mentions six different women with the name Mary. The Hebrew form of the name is Miriam (or Miryam), given to the sister of Moses. The best-known Mary in the Bible is Mary the mother of Jesus. She was the…
Who was Abiram in the Bible?
There are two men named Abiram in the Bible. Although the name Abiram means “exalted father” in Hebrew, neither of these two men is connected to an exaltation in Scripture. The first Abiram mentioned in the Bible was a son of Eliab from the tribe of Reuben (Numbers 16:1). Along with his brother Dathan, Abiram…
Who was Jezebel in the Bible?
“Jezebel” is a name synonymous with evil; she is the epitome of the wicked woman. So infamous is her name that, to this day, no one names their baby daughter “Jezebel.” To call a woman a “Jezebel” is the greatest insult imaginable. Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal, a priest of the cruel, sensuous, false…