Christian Biographies ¦ Read the inspirational stories of Christian men and women

Jesus loved Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus.  Their home in Bethany seemed to be one of the few places Jesus could go and truly relax.  Mary and Martha are often contrasted—Mary as the devout learner and Martha, the bustling, morose...

Pontius Pilate was appointed the fifth Roman prefect over Judea during the reign of Tiberius.  He served in that capacity between AD 26-36.  Pilate was known to be a tough leader, as relentless as he was cold-blooded.   He may have met...

The life of Judas Iscariot is one shrouded in deep mystery.  Scripture offers little light to cut through the mist.  In fact, in any honest treatment of him, the questions should probably outnumber the answers. Even Judas' surname is...

John, the son of Zebedee, seemed to realize early on that the humble carpenter of Nazareth was no mere mortal at all. After Jesus called John to leave his fishing nets and become a 'fisher of men, John never once looked back. Especially in his younger...

Matthew is best known for the gospel bearing his name.  In his fine account Matthew emphasized the many Old Testament messianic predictions which were fulfilled in Christ's life.  Also, reflecting an accountant's background, he carefully arranged...

Many have read the few gospel references to the apostle Thomas and branded him a brooding pessimist. Instead it may be that Thomas was more of a common sense realist. His was a practical mind confronting mystical truth. He was a person of common sense wrestling with uncommon knowledge.

If we were given the responsibility of selecting the twelve disciples of Christ, I wonder how we would proceed.  Very possibly, we would screen thousands of applicants and carefully select only the highest achievers—rare administrative geniuses,...

When Jesus was still an infant, Mary and Joseph took him to the Temple. Mary was there to make a purification offering as instructed by God’s Law following the birth of each child. As Mary and Joseph walked into the Temple court, an old man named Simeon hurried over, obviously beside himself.

An eccentric recluse wandered the Judean wilderness, subsisting on grasshoppers and wild honey.  Dressed only in camel hide and leather strap, at first glance he appeared wild and, perhaps, unbalanced.  It was not until he opened his mouth to...

He was born the son of simple peasants. Though he seemed to know all mankind, he never traveled very far from his hometown. Though he possessed obvious wisdom, he never achieved high academic degrees, or gave an exam, or wrote a book.

When they were young newlyweds, Zacharias and Elizabeth dreamed of a home filled with the sounds of children. But the years passed and Elizabeth did not conceive. Finally the couple came to the deadening realization that it would always just be the two of them.

No one had ever paid unusual attention to young Mary.  She was born in a poor family from the insignificant town of Nazareth. She didn’t appear to stand out from her peers and would probably not have been voted ‘most likely to succeed.’ Eventually,...

Joseph was a quiet man—reserved, gentle, and soft-spoken.  He was betrothed to a young woman from Nazareth named Mary.  To his horror, during the engagement period he learned that Mary had become pregnant.  Knowing he had not violated her,...

Nehemiah was no slouch.  He was sharp, efficient, and focused to a fault.  And when, as a veteran statesman, he turned his focus to the rebuilding of old Jerusalem and the exacting of religious reforms, nothing and no one was allowed to stand in...

Ezra was a Hebrew priest and a scribe during the era of the Persian empire.   He also served in the Persian government.  In contemporary language, one historian states Ezra's title as Secretary of State for Jewish Affairs. Approximately 458...

In perhaps the world’s first beauty pageant, what was it about a young Jewish girl that stood out from among the most ravishing females in the Persian empire?  And this was no fly-by-night affair. Entrants were painstakingly coached and prepared for...

Daniel was a Jewish young man, probably of royal descent.  As a late teen he was among those deported from Jerusalem by the conquering Babylonians in about 605 BC.  After three years of formal education in the language and literature of Babylon,...

As to the prophet Ezekiel's personal life, the Bible is largely silent.  He was probably reared in Jerusalem where he may have served briefly as a priest before he was carried into exile by the Babylonian army.  His prophetic calling and entire...

Jeremiah's lifelong complaint to his mother was that she'd ushered him, a personality with such painful sensitivity and feeling, into a world so out of joint for such a person.  When called by God to prophesy, Jeremiah shrank away begging, "Please,...

Imperfect people don't disturb me too much.  In fact, it can be somewhat comforting to be reminded that others share my fallibility.  A tender heart, however, is vital in this life.  Because if our hearts are cold and callous, we won't care...

One mark of great writers is that their writings often transcend their deeds.  Isaiah was a great man, yet his life history seems swallowed up in the sheer force of his fascinating prophecies and brilliant imagery.  We do know that he was an...

Hezekiah acceded to Judah's throne from 715 to 686 BC.  In spite of the fact that his father, King Ahaz, was an evil king, Hezekiah surprisingly gave his full allegiance to Yahweh.  In fact, it was said that no other Judean king before or after...

Elisha was chosen by God as the successor to Elijah. One might have expected God to select a prophet much like Elijah to carry on his work. But, instead, He chose two men who seem as unlike each other as oil and water. Elijah was recognized by his long...

The prophet, Elijah, towers like a mountain in Gilead above the other prophets. Elijah was a Mount Sinai of a man—with a heart like a thunderstorm. There is a solitary grandeur about him that is all his own—there is mystery and unearthliness, a volcanic...

A peculiar and somewhat mournful interest hangs around the life of Jonah. Elements of good and evil struggled powerfully within him---at times plunging him to the lowest depths and, at others, raising him to supernatural heights. Born in a morally dismal...

A book entitled Money, Sex and Power hit the religious market some years back. The primary point of the author was that very few Christians can resist the temptations posed by free sex, great wealth, or power over others. He was right. Many gifted men and...

Joab was one of those frightening individuals who can be intensely loyal and brutally vindictive simultaneously. His relationship with his Uncle David was not the typical harmlessly affectionate relationship between a nephew and his uncle. Some believe...

Thank God that the saying Like father, like son is not always true. King Saul bore a son named Jonathan who was as much better than himself in character as heaven is greater than earth. Yet in spite of his father's faults, Jonathan followed Saul loyally...

God sometimes finds his most remarkable children in the most unlikely places. David tended sheep on the backside of nowhere. Jesse, his father, didn't appear to be an especially nurturing father, and we know nothing of David's mother. As the youngest son,...

The life of Saul is one steeped in confusing paradox. At times, Saul appeared humble and good; at others, he seemed conceited and stubborn with an undisguised streak of brutality. Reading Saul's story one feels uneasiness and tension, the way one might...

On the surface, the life he was called to lead does not appear particularly harrowing. As a boy, Samuel was committed to tabernacle service by his parents. God called him into lifelong ministry in a very personal way, and Samuel was to become the final...

Only a parent who yearns for a child and cannot bear one can fully understand Hannah. Hannah was married to a kind man named Elkanah, but she suffered the disgrace of sterility. This was a huge disgrace in a society in which family propagation and...

In order to survive a famine, a Jewish family once left Israel for prosperous Moab. In Moab the husband died and the two sons ended up marrying Moabite women. Ten years later, tragedy struck again and the two sons also died. The grief-stricken mother,...

Manoah and his wife had tried for years to bear a child but were unsuccessful. Then an angel appeared, announcing they were to have a son. He was to be a Nazirite—that is, he could not drink alcohol or eat unclean foods and no razor was to touch his head....

A terrified young man secretly threshes a meager crop of wheat at an ancient wine press. He is a member of the weakest clan in Israel and he is the youngest in his family. He has never stood up to the Midianites, who dominate Israel. Nothing about him...

The name Deborah means 'a bee', and in view of the intelligent and hard-working reputation of the bee, Deborah was a fitting name for the fifth judge in Israel. Married to a man named Lapidoth, it is not known if Deborah and her husband ever bore children....

Moses was a rare leader with remarkable foresight. Most of Israel's righteous judges and kings did not think to train worthy successors to their leadership. Moses was an exception. From the small group of young men who gravitated to Moses, Joshua was...

The Egyptian Pharaoh was deeply threatened by the burgeoning numbers of captive Israelites in Egypt. In an insane move, he decreed that Israelite males should be immediately exterminated at birth. A Jewish baby named Moses was born and hidden in the river...

Aaron was the older brother of Moses. When Moses complained to God that he needed a spokesman to accompany him before the Pharaoh, God sent Aaron as his companion. Aaron was a smooth, eloquent speaker. He obediently stood with Moses before Pharaoh and spoke the words...

Most believe that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, the crowning achievement of his life. What he is best known for, however, is the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt to the very edge of the Promised Land. From beginning to end of his history, we...

Joseph was the quintessential spoiled brat. As the child of Jacob's beloved Rachel, he was his father's favorite son. It seems as if, after experiencing the ruination parental favoritism had wreaked in his own family, Jacob would avoid it at all costs. But...

How would you like it if your parents had named you 'Manipulator'? This is essentially what the parents of Jacob did. His name meant supplanter "one who tries to take the control, often unfairly, for one's own benefit, or as we might say today ‘smooth...

Isaac was the promised son born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age. One can almost picture the elderly couple cooing over their baby like young parents. Think of the pampering he must have enjoyed, especially from his mother. When his mother passed...

Sarah, Abraham's wife, was 75 years old and still childless. Though God had promised she and Abraham would have a son, Sarah felt she'd run out of time. She convinced Abraham to take her handmaid, Hagar, as a second wife. Soon Hagar became pregnant....

It is almost instinctive for us to cheer when crime is repaid with justice, for that is the way things should be. "Sinners deserve all the grief they get!" we proclaim. But what can we say when life bludgeons the innocent and the guilty live like kings?...

Abraham is known as a mighty man of faith. In Hebrews 11, faith's great hall of fame, more is written about Abraham than any other person. Is there some mistake? When Abraham and his wife, Sarah, travelled down to Egypt, Abraham was so afraid that someone...

How does one stand with one’s family on law-abiding principles when every other human on earth has chosen continuous evil and violence? The Bible first makes mention of Noah when he was 500 years of age. At about this time, God communicated to him that...