A is for Adam

His story is found in Genesis 1 and 2.

He is the first man, created in one account out of dust. His wife was Eve who in one account was created from his rib. Lived in the Garden but was thrown out when he ate of the tree of knowledge. Son Cain and Abel

B is for .....

Darn, I had just finished looking up Abigail....

B is for Bathsheba - who I think was seduced by David when he came upon her bathing by a river and was overcome with desire, and later she was the mother of Solomon, who suceeded David as King.   She's often depicted in art as a voluptuous nude or semi-nude ...

C is for ....

B is for Benjamin.

Benjamin was the favoured son of Israel, especially after the disappearance of his full brother Joseph.  Benjamin was the son of Israel's favoured wife Rachel, who died in childbirth when Benjamin was born.  When the brothers first came to Egypt Benjamin was left behind but Joseph commanded tht they bring him next time they came for food.  Joseph then tried to kidnap him before revealing to his brothers that his was the one they had tried to kill years earlier and exhorting them to bring Israel and the rest of Israel's household to Egypt.

His story, is found in Genesis.

C is for Cornelius who, after receiving a vision from God called for Peter, who came to him and shared the gospel with him, after which Cornelius became the first Gentile convert to Christianity. His story is found in Acts 10.

D is for David, who went from pasture to palace, from shepherd to King of Israel, remembered afterward as the great king.  Yes, he messed up a bit-- the whole Bathsheeba thing, this dysfunctional family... he was great, not perfect.

E is for Esther.  A jewish girl who was chosen to be queen in Persia and then used her position to save her people from the persecution plotted by Haman.  Her story is told at the feast of Purim and is found in the book named after her.  (Whcih happens to be the only book in the Bible that does not mention God)

.

F is for Felix. Paul's Judge.

Felix is generally considered a sympathetic figure to Paul, but one with not enough courage to buck the system.

G is for Gomer - wife or concubine of the prophet Hosea.

Gabriel. The archangel who acted as messenger from God to announce events to come, Gabriel is listed as one of seven archangels in Hebrew literature.

He appears to Daniel, Zachariah and Elizabeth and Mary, mother of Jesus.

His story is told in the Books of Daniel and Luke.

Hagar - Sarah's Egyptian hand maid, She gave birth to Abraham's son Ishmael.

Hagar.  Hagar was Sarah's Egyptian maid who was given by her to Abraham when Sarah had no children of her own. 

She was driven out into the wilderness a couple of times by Sarah who was jealous.

A son, Isaac, was born to her.  Her story is told in Genesis and Galatians.

   Great.  I was struggling with F.   :) 

  Gabriel- Archangel who served as a messenger of God in Judasim, Christianity and Islam.   First appeared in Daniel (I think) and was sent to fortell the births of John the Baptist and Jesus.

In Islam he is believed to have been the intermediary who revealed the Koran to Muhummed.

OK, Crazyheart, we are going to have to stop meeting like this.   Good for learning about Biblical characters, though.

Think I'll go have supper.

 Imnah:   Son of Asher brother to Ishvah, Ishvi and Beriah and sister Serah.  Found in Genesis.

I'm really trying to do this from memory.   H

H is for Hosea, one of my favourite prophets.  He compared God's love for the people to a parent's love for his children.  Getting angry when they turned away from him in rebellion - remembering how when they were young he cared for and guided them, teaching them to walk -  explaining how he is justified in his anger and how he will punish them.   But then my favourite verse  "I am God - and not man."  and he tells how he will forgive them and call them back and rebuild a relationship with them.   The story is found in the book of the prophet Hosea.

 J is for Jeremiah - the great prophet who appears to have lived through the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of Israel to Babylon.

Sorry, there seems to have been a bit of a mix-up.  Back on track I hope.

K - K is for King Saul - annointed by Samuel as Israel's first king.  Unites the tribes of Israel.  Is on the way towards building Israel into a nation when he meets David - a youth who comes to the palace to play music and entertain him but who is soon challanging him for the leadership of the nation.    David is eventually successful and King Saul is killed.   His story is told in the books of Samuel, and also in the Chronicles.

 Point of Order!

Does "King Saul" count under "K" or under "S"?

Darn it, Steven, I thought I could slip that by.  But you caught me.  K?   K?    from memory now (no peeking).   K?

Hey, Abraham's second wife - after Sarah died?   What was her name - Ketora or something like that?   Now that I've thought of it can I check Genesis?  

Found it!   Keturah!   Now, be honest.  Did any of you remember her without checking?

Genesis 25 - Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah.  She bore him (many sons).   . . . all these were the children of Keturah.    Abraham gave all he had to Isaac.  But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, while he was still living, and he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country.

That Isaac certainly was favoured, wasn't he.  First his older 1/2 brother Ishmael is sent out to the wilderness perhaps to perish.   Now, with Isaac a middle-aged man his younger 1/2 brothers are sent away 'to the East' probably never to be heard of again.

Lazarus.  Brother of Mary and Martha and friend of Jesus.

Famous because of Jesus' ability to raise him from the dead after four days.

His story is told in Luke and John.

M?    M?

Who begins with M?    Mary, or Mary, or Mary or Martha, or why not Mark

Mark has a gospel named after him.  He is rumoured to have been a young friend of Peter.  Or could he have been the John Mark that Paul knew in the book of Acts. 

N is for Naomi, the woman in the Bible who became very bitter and angry after her husband and sons died, but her daughter-in-law Ruth continued to follow her and take care of her anyway.

It's been 1/2 hour since anybody posted.  Can I post again without hogging the game?

N - Naomi  - found in the book of Ruth.   This unfortunate woman moved with her husband and two sons to the land of Moab when a famine occured in Israel.  Years past and the family continued to live in Moab, putting down roots - the boys married.  Then a curious illness struck and killed Naomi's husband and sons, but left the women untouched.  A widow in a foreign land, Naomi decided to return to her own country where she hoped a relative might take her in.  One of her daughters-in-law, Ruth, decided to accompany her.  Ruth treated Naomi with love, care and respect and Naomi looked out for Ruth.  Ruth married a kinsman of Naomi an became an ancestor of King David. 

  Obadiah (sp?):  (This is from memory so I'm not sure)   Prophet, wrote a book called Obadiah which if I remember is the shortest one in the Bible.   About the destruction of Edom and...well.... that's all I remember without the google.

O is for Obed, son of Ruth and an easy segueway from Naomi.  Naomi lost both sons and her husband, with no hope that she would ever have a child to love again.  Ruth bore Obed, who the people referred to as "Naomi's boy". 

Obed, as was mentioned by seeler, became the grandfather of David.

Potiphar.  Think he was a captain in Pharoah's army.  He was the one who bought Joseph from the slave-traders.  Potiphar's wife kind of messed things up for Joseph, but eventually Joseph prevailed.

I like the name....have seen Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat umpteen times.

Q is Quirinius, in some translations, who was in power at the time Joseph and Mary made that trip to Bethlehem.

R - Rachel

Filed under S.  For superhero.  For supremely luxurious hair.  And for being a sucker.

EDIT:  Oh, and I fergot:  mentioned in Judges and the Tanakh.

Great name...that's what I named my daughter.  I hope it doesn't lead her down the same path of being the second (albeit favourite) wife and mother to a boy who is sold by his older half brothers as a slave because they are jealous of him.

Saul - aka Paul, one of the disciples of Jesus.

Mists

Of the Rachels I have known, they have all been very gentle, caring, concerned people.

IT

Russ

some gal

Are you sure, says Thomas?

IT

Russ

Uriah - the Hittite, husband of Bathsheba, murdered by order of David.

Ever the doubter - eh Russ? Okay, so I guess Saul doesn't really count as a disciple since he converted to Christianity just after Jesus died, but that's how I think of him.

Simply brilliant, RussP :3

V--Virgin Mary (Ha!  I didn't think I could come up with a V name...and I guess I didn't really...but this should count!)

Going to raise another point of order there MistsofSpring

Here is one starting with V - Queen Vashti - the rather self confident wife of King Xerxes (ooo, bonus point) and who, apparently, was the reason for the whole "wives obey your husbands" and old men seeking virgin brides rules, but I, personally, like her spunk....

Ester 1:9

PS:  Nice thread Alidragon, thank you...

LB

It will come about in that day,” declares the LORD of hosts, “that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered

     Zechariah 13:2

(Do I get another bonus point for my quote)

Y?   Y?    Nothing is jumping to my memory.   Y (why) did I suggest that memory rule?    Maybe it could just be a guideline.   Y?

Yahweh.  Hope this counts?

Yahweh is the personal name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible.

Zechariah, father of John the Baptist.

Can we go around again?  

Anna - wasn't she the elderly widow in the temple who saw the baby Jesus when he was brought there for dedication?   I think this is in Luke's gospel.   Yes, Matthew has the holy family fleeing for Egypt.

Balaam, have tongue, will travel, hired to put a curse on Israel, talked out of it by his ass. 

I'm going to try to participate just using women.   And I'm going to lift my restriction of just from memory.

The only woman I could find was Cozbi.  Her biblical reference is Numbers 25: 1-9, 14-17.     Her story is told of during the time when Moses was leading the Hebrew people out of Egypt.   They spent 40 years wandering around before finally reaching the 'promised land'.  During that time it probably was important to keep the group together and laws were developed for that purpose.  One of the laws forbit marriage outside their group.  One of the Hebrew men (named Zimri) had brought a Midianite woman into his family.  The grandson of Aaron the priest followed them into their tent and stabbed them both to death.   Not a pretty story - not an easy time to live in.

Cozbi is my choice for 'C'.   

 D is for Deborah. She was a prophet. According to Judges people came to her to solve problems. She also organised n army and led it to drive an oppressive foreign army out of Israel

(I'm totally still singing "Potiphar was counting shekels...")

E is for Elijah.  Always loved the story of him ascending to heaven in a chariot of fire.  That's probably at least partially due to the fact I owned the Bible - the graphic novel.