Bible Quiz

013

Childbirth

1. How many times does the Bible mention the birth of twins?

2. Identify the two women in the Bible who died during childbirth.

3. Who kicked strongly inside the womb of his mother?

4. Which biblical book mentions two persons who were lame from birth?

5. Who is the priest who describes a stillborn child?

6. What agricultural metaphor is used to describe the growing fetus in the womb and especially the safely born infant?

7. Which prophet frequently compares contemporary historical events with the pain and struggle of childbirth?

8. Elisha purifies waters that were believed to be the cause of what obstetric problem?

9. How was salt used to treat newborn infants?

10. The Old Testament mentions control once. What is the method?

Prepared by Richard N. Jones, Near East Antiquity Consultation Group, Inc.; and Department of Human Trace Metals Analysis, Associated Regional and University Pathologists, Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah.

014

Answers

1 Twice. Jacob and Esau “struggled together within [Rebekah],” causing her to inquire of the Lord, God told her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples, born of you, shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23). the other birth of twins—Perez and Zerah, sons of Tamar, daughter-in-law of Judah (Genesis 38:27–30)—also heralds a rivalry, this time between two clans of Judah. The natural occurrence of homozygotic “identical” twins (one fertilized egg that divides in such a way as to form two identical neonates) appears to be essentially constant, one in every 250 births. The occurrence of heterozygotic “fraternal” twins (two fertilized eggs) varies depending on race, socioeconomic variables and other factors. Jacob and Esau may have been heterozygotic twins, because Esau is distinguished by red hair apparently not possessed by his brother Jacob.

2. Rachel and Phinehas’s wife. Jacob’s wife, Rachel, died during a difficult labor while on a Journey from Bethel to Ephrath. “And as her soul was departing, she named him Benoni [meaning “son of my sorrow”]; but his father called his name Benjamin [a propitious name traditionally understood as meaning “son of the right hand”]” (Genesis 35:18), Phinehas’s wife died during the birth of Ichabod, The text says that her labor came upon her when she heard the news of the Philistine capture of the Ark of the Covenant and of the death of her husband and father- in-law in battle, “And she named the child Ichabod [meaning “no glory”], saying, “The glory has departed from Israel” (1 Samuel 4:21).

3. John the Baptist. At the Annunciation, when an angel foretold to Mary the birth of Jesus, Mary also learned that her relative Elizabeth had conceived a son in her old age, “For with God nothing is impossible” (Luke 1:37), Mary went to visit Elizabeth, who was in her sixth month of pregnancy, and “when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb …” (Luke 1:41), an event that Christian theologians interpreted as an in utero witness by John the Baptist of the divinity of Jesus.

4. Acts. As the apostles Peter and John were about to enter the Temple through the Beautiful Gate at the hour of prayer, “a man lame from birth” asked them for alms. Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk” (Acts 3:6), and the man leaped up, “stood and walking and leaping and praising God” (Acts 3:8). In the second mention of lameness from birth, the apostle Paul, while preaching to a crowd at Lystra, noticed “a cripple from birth, who had never walked” (Acts 14:8). Paul, “seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, ‘Stand upright on your feet.’ And he sprang upright and walked” (Acts 14:9–10).

5. Aaron. When Miriam was stricken with a skin disease of some sort as divine punishment for her challenge to Moses’ authority, Aaron begged Moses, “Let her not be like a stillbirth which when it comes out of its mother’s womb, half of its flesh is eaten” (Numbers 12:12). Moses then beseeched God, who reduced Miriam’s punishment to a seven-day expulsion from the Israelites’ camp. Aaron’s appeal reflects an accurate knowledge of the events of a stillbirth. If the dead infant is not delivered or expelled quickly, its skin begins to peel off, often in large sheets.

6. Fruit of the womb. This well-known expression appears in several places in the Bible. Its first appearance is in Genesis 30:2: When the barren Rachel complains to Jacob, he replies, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

7. Isaiah. In prophesying the destruction of Babylon, Isaiah says, “pangs and throes shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman in labor” (Isaiah 13:8). To describe the people when they were without God, he says they were “like a woman with child, who and cries out in her pangs, when she is near her time” (Isaiah 26:17). He even portrays his own prophesying with this metaphor: “For a long time I have held my peace, I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in travail, I will gasp and pant” (Isaiah 42:14).

8. Miscarriage. When the men of Jericho complained to Elisha about bad water, “he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it, and said, ‘Thus says the Lord, I have made this water wholesome; henceforth neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it’ ” (2 Kings 2:21).

9. Rubbed on the skin. The Book of Ezekiel describes Jerusalem as a foundling, for whom the usual treatment of a newborn was neglected: “… your navel string was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you nor rubbed with salt nor swathed with bands” (Ezekiel 16:4). Salt was applied to the skin to dry and toughen it.

10. Coitus interruptus. When the Lord slew Judah’s wicked son Er, Judah told another son, Onan, to impregnate his dead brother’s wife. “But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went into his brother’s wife he spilled the semen on the ground lest he should give offspring to his brother” (Genesis 38:9). This displeased the Lord who slew Onan also.

Childbirth

1. How many times does the Bible mention the birth of twins?
2. Identify the two women in the Bible who died during childbirth.
3. Who kicked strongly inside the womb of his mother?
4. Which biblical book mentions two persons who were lame from birth?
5. Who is the priest who describes a stillborn child?