OUR UNSUNG HEROES
OF THE BIBLE
OVERLOOKED MEN IN THE BIBLE —
WHO THEY ARE AND WHAT THEY CAN
TEACH US TODAY ABOUT GOD
REUBEN

WHO WAS HE: Although part of the plot against Joseph, it is
Reuben who persuades the others not to kill Joseph, tries to rescue
him, and who later concludes that the trouble the brothers run into in
Egypt was divine punishment for the plot. In classical rabbinical
literature, Reuben is described as being motivated by a sense of
responsibility over his brothers (since he was the eldest), and as
having become angry when he discovers that Joseph had gone
missing as a result of his brothers selling him to Ishmaelites. The
rabbinical sources argue that the first cities of refuge were located in
the territory of the tribe of Reuben, since Reuben (the individual)
had tried to save Joseph from the mob of his brothers.
 WHAT DOES HE TEACH US: Reuben teaches us that, unlike
Cain, we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.
JABEZ

WHO WAS HE: Jabez or Jabes is a biblical male given name from
the Old Testament. It is of Hebrew origin. In 1 Chronicles, Jabez is a
well-respected man (hinted to be an ancestor in the lineage of the
kings’ tribe of Judah, though none of his family is mentioned)
whose prayer to God for blessing was answered (1 Chronicles 4:9–
11). The name Jabez is Hebrew for “he makes sorrowful” as his
mother stated “I gave birth to him in pain.” Jabez was labelled with
“sorrow” at birth, but his prayer against contracting sorrow nullified
the label. His life contradicted his name.
 WHAT DOES HE TEACH US: This otherwise anonymous
descendant of Judah teaches us two things: That we need not be
defined by our history and that we need to count our blessings.
ELDAD AND MEDAD

WHO WERE THEY: Eldad and Medad are mentioned in the Book of
Numbers, and are described as having prophesied among the Israelites, despite
the fact that they had remained in the camp, while 70 elders had gone to the
tabernacle outside the camp to receive the ability to prophesy from God.
According to the narrative, Joshua asked Moses to forbid Eldad and Medad
from prophecy, but Moses argued that it was a good thing that others could
prophesy, and that ideally all the Israelites would prophesy.
 WHAT DO THEY TEACH US: The story of Eldad and Medad is not unlike
the story of the disciples who complained to Jesus that they had seen a man
casting out evil spirits and had wanted to forbid him. “John said to him,
“Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to
stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him;
for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward
to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you,
whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ
will by no means lose the reward” (Mk 9.38–41).
METHUSELAH


WHO WAS HE: Methuselah, “Man of the dart/spear,” or
alternatively “his death shall bring judgment” is the man in the
Hebrew Bible reported to have lived the longest dying at the
age of 969, seven days before the beginning of the Great
Flood. Methuselah was the son of Enoch and the grandfather
of Noah. The name Methuselah or the phrase “as old as
Methuselah” is commonly used to refer to any living person
reaching a great age.
WHAT DOES HE TEACH US: The Bible does not tell us a
lot about Methuselah but the fact that he dies 7 years before
the flood seems to be testimony of a perfect life in an
otherwise evil generation destined for destruction.
BALAAM

WHO WAS HE: Balaam is a diviner in the Torah, his story occurring towards
the end of the Book of Numbers. The etymology of his name is uncertain.
Every ancient reference to Balaam considers him a non-Israelite, a prophet, and
the son of Beor, though Beor is not so clearly identified. Balaam refused to
speak what God did not speak and would not curse the Israelites, even though
King Balak of Moab offered him money to do so (Numbers 22–24). But
Balaam’s error and the source of his wickedness came from sabotaging the
Israelites as they entered the Promised Land. According to Numbers 31.16 and
Revelation 2.14, Balaam returned to King Balak and informed the king on how
to get the Israelites to curse themselves by enticing them with prostitutes and
unclean food sacrificed to idols. The Israelites fell into transgression due to
these traps and God sent a deadly plague to them as a result (Numbers 31.16).
 WHAT DOES HE TEACH US: God’s plans will not be thwarted not matter
how much we may try so we might as well cooperate.
ENOCH

WHO WAS HE: According to the Book of Genesis, Enoch was a
son of Cain, grandson of Adam, and father of Irad. After Cain
arrived in the Land of Nod, to which he was evicted by the Lord as
his punishment for murdering his brother Abel, his wife got
pregnant and bore Cain’s first child, whom he named Enoch. The
city Cain founded in the Land of Nod was named after his son
(Genesis 4.17). According to Jubilees 4.9, Enoch’s mother was
named Awan. According to Josephus, Enoch fathered seventy-seven
children by two wives.
 WHAT DOES HE TEACH US: Enoch is the quintessential man of
God who comported himself according to what God had decreed
and for that he is named as one of the few people to be directly
taken by God.
ISHMAEL

WHO WAS HE: In Genesis 16, the birth of Ishmael was planned by the
Patriarch Abraham’s first wife, who at that time was known as Sarai. She and
her husband Abram (Abraham) sought a way to have children in order to fulfil
the Abrahamic covenant that was established in Genesis 15. Since Sarai had yet
to bear Abraham a child, her idea was to offer her Egyptian handmaiden Hagar
to Abraham, so that they could have a child by her. Abraham consented to a
marital arrangement taking Hagar as his second wife in his old age. Customs of
that time dictated that, although Hagar was the birth mother, any child
conceived would belong to Sarai and Abraham (Sarah and Abraham). Hagar
fled after Sarai dealt harshly with her for showing contempt for her mistress
following her having become pregnant. However, the promise would be to a
son of Sarai; yet God would make of this child a great nation, who would be
named Ishmael, because he was of the seed of Abraham.
 WHAT DOES HE TEACH US: True greatness does not depend on one’s
accident of birth. It depends on one’s willingness to cooperate with God’s plan.
ONESIMUS AND PHILEMON
WHO WERE THEY: Onesimus (Greek: Ὀνήσιμος Onēsimos, meaning
“useful” is also called Onesimus of Byzantium and The Holy Apostle
Onesimus in some Eastern Orthodox Churches, was a slave to Philemon of
Colossae. He may be the same Onesimus named by Ignatius of Antioch as
Bishop in Ephesus. Philemon was an early Christian in Asia Minor who was
the recipient of a private letter from Paul of Tarsus. He is known as a saint by
several Christian churches along with his wife Apphia. Philemon was a wealthy
Christian and a minister (possibly a bishop) of the house church that met in his
home.
 WHAT DO THEY TEACH US: One of the most subversive principles of
Christianity was well captured by Paul and demonstrated by Onesimus and
Philemon: “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed
yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer
slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ
Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs
according to the promise” (Gal 3.27–29).

YOSEPH BEN HELI

WHO WAS HE: Joseph is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of Mary, the
mother of Jesus and the stepfather of Jesus. In Roman Catholic, Eastern
Orthodox and Anglican Christian traditions, he is regarded as Saint Joseph.
Christian tradition places Joseph as Jesus’ foster father. Some historians state
that Joseph was Jesus’ father. Some differing views are due to theological
interpretations versus historical views. The Pauline epistles make no reference
to Jesus’ father; nor does the Gospel of Mark. The first appearance of Joseph is
in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Each contains a genealogy of Jesus
showing ancestry from King David, but through different sons; Matthew
follows the major royal line from Solomon, while Luke traces another line back
to Nathan, another son of David and Bathsheba.
 WHAT DOES HE TEACH US: Joseph is probably one of the most unsung
heroes of Christianity. The Bible gives him very few lines like a peripheral
actor in a play but his sense of doing the right thing and readiness to listen to
God are an example not only to fathers but Christians of every generation.
CRISPUS-SOTHENES


WHO WAS HE: It would seem that the use of Sosthnes’ name in 1 Cor is
important to mention because he was once a leader but now a brother in
Christ. He was once a leader of a synagogue who probably many of the
converted Jewish Corinthians were quite familiar with as they may have
attended the same synagogue. Maybe his name was used a reminder to
them at how the Church at Corinth got its start versus what it had become.
There is merit to Sosthenes and Crispus being the same person based on the
idea that some converts to Christianity were given new names. After all,
Paul, who was once Saul, was given a new name (Acts 13.1–12).
WHAT DOES HE TEACH US: Sosthenes seems to have embodied the
Beatitudes, particularly Matthew 5.11–12, “Blessed are you when people
revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely
on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for
in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
THEOPHILUS


WHO WAS HE: Theophilus is the name or honorific title of the person to
whom the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles are addressed (Luke
1.3, Acts 1.1). It is thought that both Luke and Acts were written by the
same author, and sometimes argued that the two books were originally a
single unified work. Both Luke and Acts were written in refined Koine
Greek, and the name θεόφιλος (Theophilos), as it appears in the prologues
of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the apostles, means friend of God or
loved by God or loving God in the Greek language. No one knows the true
identity of Theophilus and there are several conjectures and traditions
around an identity. In English Theophilus is also written Theophilos, both a
common name and an honorific title among the learned (academic) Romans
and Jews of the era.
WHAT DOES HE TEACH US: Whether one is a commoner or of royal
blood we are all God’s children and whatever our backgrounds are God can
use these for the spreading of his kingdom.
GAMALIEL

WHO WAS HE: Gamaliel the Elder or Rabban Gamaliel I was a leading authority
in the Sanhedrin in the early 1st century CE. He was son of Simeon ben Hillel and
grandson of the great Jewish teacher Hillel the Elder, and died twenty years before
the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (70 CE). He fathered a son,
whom he called Simeon, after his father, and a daughter, whose daughter (in other
words, Gamaliel's granddaughter) married a priest named Simon ben Nathanael. In
Christian tradition, his second son Abibo (also Abibas, Abibus) converted to
Christianity and is venerated as a saint. Gamaliel is a Hebrew name meaning
reward of God. In the Christian tradition, Gamaliel is celebrated as a Pharisee
doctor of Jewish Law. The Acts of the Apostles chapter 5 speaks of Gamaliel as a
man of great respect who spoke in favour of the arrested apostles of Jesus in Acts
5.34, and the Jewish law teacher of Paul the Apostle in Acts 22.3.
 WHAT DOES HE TEACH US: For me Gamaliel is one of those sensible
characters who are assure me, as Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord,
Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my
Father in heaven” (Mt 7.21).
SIMEON BACHOS


WHO WAS HE: Church Father St. Irenaeus of Lyons in his book
Adversus haereses (Against Heresies, an early anti-Gnostic theological
work) 3.12.8 (180 CE), wrote regarding the Ethiopian eunuch, “This man
(Simeon Bachos the Eunuch) was also sent into the regions of Ethiopia, to
preach what he had himself believed, that there was one God preached by
the prophets, but that the Son of this (God) had already made (His)
appearance in human flesh, and had been led as a sheep to the slaughter;
and all the other statements which the prophets made regarding Him.” In
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo tradition he was referred to as Bachos and
in Eastern Orthodox tradition he is known as an Ethiopian Jew with the
name Simeon also called the Black, the same name he is given in Acts
13.1.
WHAT DOES HE TEACH US: I think the character of Simeon Bachos is
testimony once again of the egalitarian nature of the message of Jesus
Christ.
MARCUS AURELIUS

WHO WAS HE: The anonymous Roman centurion at the foot of
the cross is part of the story of the crucifixion. The Roman soldiers
did not break Jesus’ legs, as they did to the other two men crucified
(breaking the legs hastened the crucifixion process), as Jesus was
dead already; this further fulfilled prophecy, as noted in John 19:36,
“For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A
bone of him shall not be broken.” One of the soldiers pierced the
side of Jesus with a lance and water flowed out. In Mark 15.39,
impressed by the events the Roman centurion calls Jesus the Son of
God. For a Roman centurion this is as close as you can get to
treason.
 WHAT DOES HE TEACH US: The power of the Gospel knows
no ethnic and social barriers and penetrates through all strata of
society.
PRAYER
For the times when we have been less than heroic, Lord we are
sorry.
For the times we have not used or abused our God-given hero
talents, Lord we are sorry.
Give us the courage not to hide our potential but to be generous, not
to dismiss others or envy their talents but to celebrate their gifts.
Encourage us to emulate the sunny side and avoid the dark sides of
Reuben, Jabez, Eldad and Medad, Methuselah, Balaam, Enoch,
Ishmael, Joseph, Onesimus and Philemon, Crispus-Sosthenes,
Theophilus, Gamaliel, Simeon Bachos and Marcus Aurelius so that
we too may one day be celebrated as unsung heroes.
Amen.