Category: Biblical People

Short bios of people in the Bible

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Biblical People

Biblical People: The Persistent Widow

persistent widow

Later Jesus uses another story to instruct the people about God and prayer. 

This time he tells them of a widow who has received unfair treatment. She goes to the judge seeking justice. But the unscrupulous judge ignores her appeals for help. Despite him dismissing her, she keeps coming before him, over and over. She’s so intense that he begins to fear for his safety.

Eventually, she wears him down. 

Even though he cares nothing about her plight or doing what’s right, he decides to help her just so she’ll stop bugging him. In the end, he makes sure she receives the ruling she sought all along.

This, Jesus says, is an illustration to keep praying for what we need. If an unjust judge will answer a woman’s pleas, how much more will a just God answer ours?

Do we ask God once and stop, or are we persistent when we pray?

[Discover more about the persistent widow in Luke 18:1–8.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Biblical People: The Woman Who Lost Her Coin

woman who lost her coin

Jesus shares a story to instruct the people.

There’s a woman who has ten pieces of silver. She misplaces one of them. You’d think she’d be more careful, but she wasn’t. Due to her negligence, she loses 10 percent of her funds. This isn’t a paper loss when the stock market drops. This is real money. One-tenth of her wealth is gone.

Panicked, she lights a lamp and carefully searches the floor. To her relief, she finds the lost coin. She lets everyone know about her good fortune, and they share in her delight. She even throws a party.

Then Jesus makes his point. There’s an even greater celebration when someone turns their life around to follow God.

How excited do we get when someone decides to follow Jesus?

[Discover more about the woman who lost her coin in Luke 15:8–10.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Biblical People: The Crippled Woman

the crippled woman

A woman is disabled, so much so that she is perpetually bent over and can’t begin to stand straight. She has endured this for eighteen years.

When Jesus sees her, he reaches out and touches her crippled form. Immediately the bones in her body realign. She stands up straight, thanking God.

A religious leader who sees this happen should have joined in on the celebration. Instead he criticizes Jesus because this healing happened on their day of rest, the Sabbath. The misguided leader thinks his traditions and religious rules are more important than helping people in need. 

Jesus thinks otherwise and sets him straight.

This woman becomes the center of controversy, not for what she does but because a religious leader tries to use her to advance his own agenda. 

Have we ever judged a person or their situation when we should have offered love instead?

[Discover more about the disabled woman in Luke 13:10–17.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Biblical People: A Woman in The Crowd

a woman in the crowd

As Jesus speaks, a woman in the throng is so mesmerized by his words that she yells the first thing that comes to mind. It comes out something like, “Your mom rocks!” I think she’s trying to affirm him and honor the mother who raised him.

Jesus responds indirectly. He says that even better are people who hear what God says and obey him. This puts things in perspective. 

The woman, enthralled by Jesus, attempts to communicate her enthusiasm. But she misses the main point: obeying God is what matters most.

In our zeal for Jesus, how often have we said or done something that was off base from what he wants from us?

[Discover more about the woman in the crowd in Luke 11:27–28.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Biblical People: The Queen of the South

Queen of the South

Jesus criticizes the people for not realizing who he is. He calls them an evil generation. He alludes to the queen of the south (the queen of Sheba), who, after hearing about King Solomon’s reputation, comes to check things out for herself, traveling a great distance and giving him many gifts. She is not disappointed with what she sees and hears.

Now Jesus—who is much greater than King Solomon—stands before them, but they fail to seek him with the same earnestness that the queen of the south sought Solomon. 

They don’t understand. Jesus, I think, is miffed.

The queen of the south made an extraordinary effort to discover the truth about King Solomon. Are we willing to put forth the same effort to seek Jesus? 

[Discover more about the queen of the south in Luke 11:29–31. See “The Queen of Sheba” for the backstory in the Old Testament section.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Biblical People: The Hemorrhaging Woman

the Hemorraging Womand

A woman suffers from chronic bleeding for twelve years, making her ceremonially unclean the entire time. According to Jewish law, this condition restricts how she functions in society and prohibits her from participating in religious practices. She spends all her money on doctors, but none of them help. Instead, her bleeding gets worse.

In desperation, but with great faith, she believes Jesus can heal her. 

In fact, she senses she needs only touch his clothes. She worms her way through the throng and stretches out her hand to brush the hem of his robe. When she does, healing power leaves him, and her bleeding stops. Her body is restored. 

Though she thinks she does this in secret, Jesus is aware that healing took place. He stops and demands to know who touched him. Unable to escape, she comes forward in fear to confess what she did. 

Jesus affirms her faith, pronounces her healed, and sends her away in peace.

Do we have this kind of faith? 

[Discover more about the bleeding woman in Mark 5:25–34 and Luke 8:43–48, as well as the Old Testament instructions about this situation Leviticus 15:25–30.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Biblical People: The Daughter of Jairus

Daughter of Jairus

Jairus is a leader at the local synagogue. His twelve-year-old daughter is gravely ill. He comes to Jesus and begs the Rabbi to heal his little girl. Jesus agrees, but he’s delayed along the way when he stops to heal a hemorrhaging woman. Then word comes to Jairus that it’s too late. His daughter is dead.

Jesus ignores their words and tells Jairus to just believe. Apparently, Jairus does.

When Jesus arrives at Jairus’s house, the mourning for his daughter’s passing has already begun. Dismissing the crowd, he leads her parents and three disciples to her body.

He takes the dead girl’s hand and tells her to get up. Much to everyone’s shock, she does. Then she walks around, very much alive.

We don’t know what this girl experienced in the spiritual realm when she was dead or what her life in the physical realm was like afterward.

But she must certainly have lived with an appreciation for her father’s strong faith and the knowledge that her second chance at life is because of Jesus’s power over death.

She experienced Jesus’s healing power, in part, because of the faith of her father. Do we have that kind of faith today?

[Discover more about Jairus’s daughter in Mark 5:22–43 and Luke 8:40–56.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Biblical People: The Widow from Nain

Widow from Nain

A woman from the town of Nain has sorrow heaped upon sorrow. First, her husband dies. Then her only son perishes. At that time, the culture dismisses a woman without a male in her families, such as a husband or son.

This woman’s future is indeed bleak.

During the funeral procession for her boy, a large crowd follows along, mourning with her and sharing in her grief.

Jesus comes up to the group, and his heart goes out to the woman. He touches the coffin. The pallbearers stop. Jesus speaks to the dead boy, “Son, get up.” The lad sits up and starts talking. Jesus gives him back to his mom.

Jesus doesn’t act because of the woman’s faith or at her request. He acts because he has compassion for her and her loss. Jesus raises her son from the dead. He performs a miracle for this woman’s benefit, in her best interest. 

Though Jesus didn’t raise every dead person during his time on earth, he did raise some.

Do we believe Jesus is able to do amazing things for us today?

[Discover more about the widow from Nain in Luke 7:11–17.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Biblical People: The Mother-In-Law of Peter

Mother in law of Peter

I don’t think of any of Jesus’s twelve disciples as being married, but we know that at least Peter is—because we learn he has a mother-in-law. We see her only once in the Bible, and she’s not at her best. She’s incapacitated by a severe fever.

When Jesus comes to Peter’s house, he sees Peter’s ailing mother-in-law, touches her hand, and the fever goes away. To show her appreciation, she gets up and serves Jesus, making a meal for him.

Jesus has done much more for us than taking away a fever. What are we doing to show our gratitude?

[Discover more about Peter’s mother-in-law in Matthew 8:14–15.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Biblical People: The Daughter of Herodias

Daughter of Herodias

The daughter of Herodias dances for her stepdad at his birthday party. We don’t know if she offers her performance or if Herod commands it. And we don’t know what kind of dance this is. Is it an innocent expression of joy or a suggestive display of sexuality?

What we do know is that her performance pleases everyone. So enamored, her stepdad promises her anything she wants.

Unsure of what to ask for, she seeks her mom’s advice, who coaches her on what to request: the head of John the Baptist. The daughter does what her Mom says, and Herod reluctantly follows through.

Herodias uses her daughter—who is innocent of wrongdoing—to bring about the death of her enemy.

Has someone ever used us to accomplish their selfish goals? What could we have done to avoid it?

[Discover more about Herodias’s daughter in Matthew 14:6–14 and Mark 6:21–28.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.