Favorite Bible Women Draft
273 | “Enough Strife for Two Sisters”
Draft Your Favorite Bible Women
Happy Anniversary to us! We’re kicking off Year Eight of the Bible Geeks podcast with March Bracketology. This year’s 64-seed bracket honors our Favorite Bible Women. Before official voting opens on March 12th, we're drafting our ultimate squads. In Part 1, we tackle the "Women of Valor" (brave tacticians like Rahab and Abigail) and the "Matriarchs and Leaders" (foundational voices like Mary and Esther — and don't worry, we didn't pit sisters Rachel and Leah against each other!). We debate the seeding and challenge you to read up on a biblical woman you aren't familiar with this week!
Takeaways
The Big Idea: The stories of biblical women — from famous matriarchs to unnamed women of valor — are foundational examples of courage, leadership, and faith that still shape us today.
This Week's Challenge: Pick one woman from the bracket whose story you aren't familiar with and read about her this week.
Helpful Links
- Watch Episode 273 (VIDEO)
- Vote in the Tournament: Bible Bracket: Favorite Bible Women (Voting begins March 12, 2026!)
- Rahab the Courgaeous (PASSAGE)
- Abigail's Wisdom (PASSAGE)
- Deborah the Judge (PASSAGE)
- Mary, Mother of Jesus (PASSAGE)
- Queen Esther (PASSAGE)
- Sarah and the Promise (PASSAGE)
Women of Valor Regional
The brave, the strategic, and the courageous tacticians of the Bible.
Rahab – The woman of Jericho who risked all to join God's people (Joshua 2).
Abigail – The diplomat who prevented David from bloodshed through wisdom (1 Samuel 25).
Deborah – The prophetess and judge who led Israel to victory (Judges 4–5).
Naomi – The resilient matriarch who guided Ruth into Israel’s future (Ruth 1–4).
Hagar – The Egyptian servant who encountered the God who sees her (Genesis 16).
Jochebed – Moses’ mother who bravely outsmarted Pharaoh’s decree (Exodus 1:22-2:10).
Puah – The second midwife who defied the King of Egypt (Exodus 1:15-21).
Shiphrah – A midwife who engaged in holy civil disobedience (Exodus 1:15-21).
Jael – The tent-dwelling woman who struck the final blow against Sisera (Judges 4:17–22).
Zipporah – Moses’ wife who acted quickly to save his life (Exodus 4:24-26).
Pharaoh’s Daughter – The princess who rescued and adopted Moses (Exodus 2:5-10).
Tamar – The determined widow who secured Judah’s line through bold action (Genesis 38).
The Shunammite – The persistent mother who demanded a miracle (2 Kings 4:8-37).
Woman of Thebez – The brave woman who stopped a tyrant (Judges 9:50-55).
Widow of Zarephath – Shared her last meal in radical trust (1 Kings 17:7–24).
Woman with Issue of Blood – Healed by her persistent faith (Mark 5:25-34).
Matriarchs & Leaders Regional
The foundational pillars and authoritative voices of the faith.
Mary (Jesus’ Mother) – The favored servant chosen to bear the Messiah (Luke 1:26–38).
Esther – The Queen who saved her people from genocide (Esther 4:14-16).
Sarah – The matriarch who gave birth to the promised son Isaac (Genesis 21:1–7).
Ruth – The Moabitess whose loyalty placed her in the line of Christ (Ruth 1-4).
Eve – The mother of all the living and the first woman created (Genesis 2-3).
Priscilla – A teacher who helped instruct Apollos more accurately (Acts 18:24–26).
Hannah – A woman of persistent prayer and mother of Samuel (1 Samuel 1).
Lydia – A successful businesswoman and first convert in Europe (Acts 16:14-15).
Miriam – A prophetess and leader of worship after the Red Sea (Exodus 15:20–21).
Rachel – The beloved matriarch and mother of Joseph (Genesis 29-30).
Leah – The matriarch of the tribes of Judah and Levi (Genesis 29:31-35).
Rebekah – The decisive matriarch who journeyed to marry Isaac (Genesis 24).
Phoebe – A servant of the church at Cenchreae commended by Paul (Romans 16:1–2).
Bathsheba – The queen mother who helped secure Solomon’s succession (1 Kings 1).
Queen of Sheba – A monarch who traveled far to test Solomon’s wisdom (1 Kings 10).
Huldah – The prophetess whose message sparked a national reform (2 Kings 22:14–20).
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March Bible Bracket Begins
Bryan: I'm also glad that we didn't pit Rachel and Leah against each other, you know, cuz they already were so
Ryan: yeah They've had enough strife for two sisters
Bryan: need to make them fight over it again
Bryan: Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Bible geeks podcast I'm Bryan Schiele
Ryan: I'm Ryan joy
Bryan: and today on the show we are officially kicking off one of the most wonderful times of the year Of course, it is March which means it's Bible bracket
Ryan: Bible bracket, Yeah, that's right It's time for bracket ology Bible geek style. And so this year's theme focuses on favorite Bible women
Bryan: Yeah, but before we actually start voting today, we're gonna draft So we're going region by region Drafting our absolute favorite Bible women and building out our squads Making our cases and we're probably gonna argue just a little bit about some tough matchups along the way
Ryan: Alright, so let's get into the regions and start the draft
Year Eight Plans
Bryan: before we get too far into this conversation We're gonna do some fun things here over the next two episodes Ryan.
Welcome to year eight of the Bible geeks
Ryan: year eight So we just had our seventh anniversary That's that feels feels like a biblical milestone feels important. I can't believe we've raised a seven-year-old already here
Bryan: It's weird. Yeah thinking about it. It's like, you know we started doing this show before kovat and we made it through kovat and you know now we're on the other side of it and we've gone and we've done so much and Between our guided studies and all of our discussions and series and you know episodes that we've posted up to this point We have taken some breaks here and there so it hasn't been completely constant the whole time But it has been a blast and I'm looking forward to this upcoming season I think as you and I were talking about it Not really sure where we were gonna go and then I don't know suddenly everything clicked and we have a real solid plan about The next few months.
Ryan: Yeah, this is gonna be great we're gonna be getting into grace and getting into some family table type Conversations and and then this bracket that we're in that's kind of kind of define a lot of the thread of the show
Bryan: Yeah, so as as you all know March this is this was Ryan's idea long ago to Begin drafting things and we've slowly been incorporating it into the show more and more as the years gone on and this year We're doing a whole draft all about Bible women. And so over the next two episodes We're gonna go and do our draft and talk about these Bible women talk about all the impact that they've had And then over the the episodes that follow that before the results are actually announced We're gonna talk about each of these regionals in more detail and why the subject of women is so important
Ryan: yeah, there's there's boy there's a lot to talk about with all of
Bryan: get into
Ryan: but Yeah, but yeah, I mean it's it's just gonna be cool as a starting point just to talk a little bit and start to kind of lay out these draft boards of these amazing ladies and this stories that Have shaped us as they've kind of been examples of faith and you know Some of them maybe not as much always but we'll see what what women show up in the draft
Bryan: gonna be exciting.
Regions and Voting Rules
Bryan: So our four regionals that we're tackling here are the women of valor Regional and today we're also going to be drafting the matriarchs and leaders Regional and then on our next episode we're gonna wrap up our draft and we're gonna do the friends and followers of Jesus Regional and then the last regional here is the nameless Notables and so I'll let you guess what that one is all about but nameless notables.
These are our four regionals We're gonna draft two of them here on this episode and then on the next episode we'll draft two more and then the voting will Begin on March 12th year 2026. That's when all this stuff will kick off you can go to our website Bible geeks out of em slash bracket and You can cast your vote and spread the word and have your friends vote and it's gonna be a great time It will be wonderful.
So basic draft rules Ryan Just going back and forth I guess here and picking what we view as the most important Bible women in the the early seeds I know previous drafts. We did a really bad job at that and we're gonna try to do better here in this one
Ryan: do we reserve the right to recede if something gets thrown utterly off? Are we like somehow forget to draft Esther or something?
Bryan: we we definitely will have to revisit if there's any need or reason to revisit We did that last year actually, so we'll do that again this year I'm looking forward to that. One of the things that this regional is not is I'll just call them the unsavory Bible women We're very much not going to pick Jezebel or Queen Athaliah or anyone else in that category of people It Ryan had a moratorium on on me doing the villains draft And so we're gonna apply that also to the villainous women.
They will not be on this draft. So Ryan pick carefully
Ryan: Okay, yeah the goal as we're trying to what I'm thinking about is in the seating what are people gonna vote for you know What would I vote for but also trying to think about favorites and be loved care? so so hopefully you'll see some some ladies at the top of these lists where you say, oh, I love her and and and if anybody was gonna somehow troll our draft and put Delilah and Jezebel and Some of these ladies at the top that would be that would be unfortunate.
So we're we're leaving them out Thank you for following that principle and we'll we'll we'll start where Bryan here.
Women of Valor Draft
Bryan: So our first regional that we are going to draft is the women of valor This is the the brave the strategic the courageous tacticians in the Bible these women who have done some amazing things and I'm gonna do the Gentlemanly thing here Ryan and allow you to pick first you
Ryan: Oh, okay.
Bryan: pick go for it.
Ryan: women of valor. I am gonna start with Rahab
Bryan: Yeah That's the correct first choice I
Ryan: She is so courageous and faithful and yeah.
Bryan: so courageous so faithful and just an unlikely hero Really of of the Bible definitely for sure alright, so next on my list then is going to be the diplomat who prevented a Giant massacre through her wisdom and that was Abigail Woman of valor as in first Samuel 25 she stood up and prevented the king really the future king from doing some really bad stuff That
Ryan: I love it. Okay I'm going to follow that up with another rock star of the faith here the judge Deborah
Bryan: is a solid one. I did not have Deborah in this list, but I'm glad you picked Deborah
Ryan: yeah, she could have gone in in in another list our leaders, but yep
Bryan: Deborah. So the prophetess who judged Israel. Yeah, of course. All right, so next on my list Let's see. I'm gonna pick Jacob ed as a woman of valor who was Moses mom who? outsmarted Pharaoh's decree here in Exodus to Jacob ed maybe not the most popular of these women, but definitely top on my list.
Ryan: I I like that. I had her elsewhere, but I like that here I am going to go with Hagar
Bryan: Ooh I'm
Ryan: who you know out in the wilderness alone slave girl that's chased out Egyptian girl in in the middle of the desert and she kind of meets the God who sees and names her son after the God who hears and The bravest thing is doing the counterintuitive thing of returning home to Sarah as God commands her to do so Hagar.
Bryan: gonna be honest. She was not on my list at all
Ryan: Oh, wow.
Bryan: I don't know why that is the case like Hagar is amazing and wow, okay Yeah The courage though really to go back to Sarah after all of that stuff went down boy That just that shows me where I'm at. I I totally missed out on that one. Good call. I'm I'm with you there Um, let's see.
I'm gonna go with who so in the same vein of Moses mom I'm gonna go with Pua who was the second midwife who defied the king of Egypt in Exodus 1 Yeah, yeah
Ryan: I'm just let's do this as a pair I'll throw Shipra right next
Bryan: oh Good for you
Ryan: can't leave her out, right?
Bryan: no. Yep. I got you there. Sounds good. All
Ryan: courageous Yeah women who feared God and yeah, there's there's a lot to that story Imagine if they were not around to save Moses and and these other Hebrew boys.
Bryan: right I'm gonna go with Jael as my next pick the tentmaker who struck the final blow against Cicero and judges for Yeah, solid solid next pick there as we get down to the eighth position in the women of valor regional. What do you got for nine?
Ryan: Okay, we're nine. I am gonna go with the Pora while we are in this we've been in in a Moses theme
Bryan: Yeah, yeah for
Ryan: and You know, she there's a very strange scene But she she saves Moses life there by her courage and thought thoughtfulness and wisdom there So the Pora
Bryan: want to talk about that strange scene I still scratch my head is like how how did that happen? What is going on in that story? I really have no idea boy I don't know Maybe this just does not make any sense for us to continue to do but I'm gonna stay in the story of Moses and go With Pharaoh's daughter here
Ryan: oh Man I love it. She I almost went I almost moved her to two other lists, but she's great here. Yes
Bryan: so Pharaoh's daughter at the tenth position Yeah Maybe needs to be moved up in the list But she's you know doing a doing a really powerful thing there and courageous thing by taking on this little Hebrew boy.
Ryan: Okay. I am going to go with Tamar here
Bryan: Ooh All
Ryan: Tamar is an interesting interesting figure and you know in the line of Christ and You know, there's she was being mistreated and she was clever and put herself, you know, kind of in the line of fire To kind of correct that herself whenever the patriarch Judah was not doing what he should.
Bryan: right. Well, that is that's a solid one. I Mmm, this this person is gonna show up in another list for me and I feel like you like I want her to go here I'm gonna pick the shoonamite woman
Ryan: Mm-hmm.
Bryan: that you know, she wanted to see the miracle She wanted to see the the miracle for her child and and she was persistent In second Kings for some put in the shoonamite woman here
Ryan: Okay
another unnamed woman who I'm gonna stick with that and I'm gonna go with the woman of Thabes who is a heroic figure in Judges 9 who saved her city from a Bimelech as he was Usurping and trying to kind of take over so she dropped an upper millstone on his head Kind of goes in the vein also of Jael of these kind of warrior Warrior women who are pictured as taking matters into their hands when they needed to.
Bryan: Alright, so I'm gonna lean into this Not same exact time period but where I was at Previously, I'm gonna go with the widow of Zarephath who is basically sharing her last meal in this extreme act of courageous Generosity really in first Kings chapter 17. So women of Zarephath is at position 14 So you got 15 here next?
Ryan: Okay, I am going to go with the woman with the issue of blood
Bryan: Ooh
Ryan: who was brave enough to touch Jesus Just she believed that if she had enough faith and if she could get close enough She didn't touch his garment that that would do the job
Bryan: Yeah, so a lot of these were leaning on the unnamed women here And so I feel like that's a solid one though in her courage to to stand up and basically make the teacher Unclean by coming and yeah,
Ryan: well, there's a lot of women who were unnamed. So I feel like that list is pretty long And
Bryan: it is for sure.
Ryan: so yeah I don't want to steal any of the big hitters the top seeds from the other things because Most of these women and all the other lists are women of valor. But
Reseeding and Underdogs
Bryan: Yeah Alright, so let me just throw in here my last one and I know now that it is probably gonna get receded So my last pick for pick 16 is Naomi who was very courageous in the way that she skillfully Guided Ruth and I kind of at this point feel like maybe we should pause and think about this list as a whole What are you seeing here as like maybe needing to be reshuffled in this list?
Hmm.
Ryan: Well, do you see Ruth going in the same list as? Naomi or do you see her in the matriarchs list?
Bryan: Yeah, that's true, too. So
Ryan: that's we could either put them together kind of a little higher or we could you know, we could we could leave Naomi here and bump her up and And and put Ruth into the matriarchs list as not exactly a matriarch but is certainly part of the line of Jesus Okay,
Bryan: a line of Jesus I would throw I'm okay leaving Ruth off of this list and Naomi as the she struck me as the architect more in in her story and the one who was kind of pulling the strings Behind the scenes so I just feel like in comparison to the rest of these maybe she needs to get moved up
Ryan: Yeah, I like I like moving her up Maybe to four
Bryan: just gonna
Ryan: bump Jacob Ed down.
Bryan: right above Jock abed So that leaves us with our top three as Rahab Abigail and Deborah and then you've got of course Naomi Jock abed Hagar and and down on the list anything else feel like it's out of out of sorts here
Ryan: No, I'm liking the list I I think that I think there's a really interesting Moses cluster
Bryan: there is
Ryan: that Hagar is like right in there with all the rest of them are together You could move Hagar up to five and then have six through eleven be Moses story I kind of like the symmetry or whatever there.
Bryan: then. All right. Hey guys at five. All right So, what do you think like looking at this list? Who is like the big underdog here in this regional that could kind of maybe make a Cinderella run? To the tournament.
Ryan: Yeah Well, there's some of these ladies at the bottom, you know the woman with the issue of blood being a sixteen seed I feel like she has a chance Although, you know, it's that's a rough one with with one going against Rahab. So maybe it's more the middle seeds you look at I think JL I'm gonna say
Bryan: interesting
Ryan: her, you know, it's such a Unforgettable story I could see all of the guys voting for her as just this tough lady And then a lot of the women saying yeah, you know, I mean Shipra is great But you know who is gonna carry the midwife vote and JL is gonna carry us into you know later seeds.
What about you?
Bryan: Yeah, I was I was thinking in that same vein about Pharaoh's daughter How I could see Pharaoh's daughter going pretty far here I think she's got you know, really just not not named very much not not a big part of the story But I could I could see her making it pretty far in the tournament.
Matriarchs and Leaders Draft
Bryan: Not sure yet but anyway I'm good with this list for the for the women of valor and if you're good with that let's move on to the matriarchs and leaders section and Because you started I'm gonna start this one and I cannot pick anyone except for Mary the mother of Jesus Of course the matriarch here.
I suppose if you want to talk about the favored one So go ahead and pick number two,
Ryan: Okay, well then I'm gonna go Esther
Bryan: of course, you're going to Esther Esther's
Ryan: I mean
Bryan: Esther's
Ryan: daughters have schooled me well on who to this this list is very Full of their favorites for sure. But Esther is is a champion in our in our family. Who's next?
Bryan: right, then we're doing Sarah as the third seed here Sarah, of course You know the promised covenant mother back in Genesis 21. So Sarah is my next one
Ryan: I will go with Miriam. No, no. No, I'm sorry. I pull him back I gotta go Ruth because we put her in that regional
Bryan: I Was just gonna say I'm like if you don't put Ruth here, we're in big trouble
Ryan: Yeah
Bryan: How about this is gonna be a different one, but humor me here for the fifth seat. I'm doing Priscilla Who of course was was a great mentor for
Ryan: Yeah.
Bryan: Apollos? along with her husband and I feel like she Was such an important figure in the early church and while maybe not a leader in the sense that we think about it today Apollos would not be the kind of teacher.
He was without Priscilla being such a good influence on him.
Ryan: Yeah Oh, I mean you can see how much of a leader she is or an influential woman in the early church by the fact that You know, she risked her neck. She's hosting a church. Her name is listed ahead of her husband's sometimes You know the flip-flop and that you know that that's one of my favorites I'm gonna go here
somebody that could have gone on some of these other lists But I'm gonna go Hannah as as a kind of matriarch, you know
Bryan: Straight up a matriarch. Yeah, of course
Ryan: know,
Bryan: mother to Samuel.
Ryan: certainly courageous. Yeah, just mighty in her faith and so influential
Bryan: All right Let's talk about Lydia here kind of a early church Tent pole I guess in a very literal way kind of but yeah Lydia there act 16 great businesswoman first convert in Europe. Yeah. What about number
Ryan: again her hospitality. Yeah, you you're you're cleaning out my friends and followers Regional here with some of these New Testament pics, but I will go here with Miriam
Bryan: All right. I was wondering when she was gonna pop
Ryan: the prophetess. Yeah
Bryan: Okay All right, so let's think about I'm gonna go with no, I'm gonna do the favored one first I'm gonna go with Rachel here for pick number nine So mother to Joseph the favored wife there Rachel go ahead and go
Ryan: yeah, I would have got Leah first before Rachel, but I'll put Leah in there right now.
Bryan: All right that works for
Ryan: I Mean the the faith that is seen in some of the names course My son's name is Asher taken from something that that she picked out But Judah and praise and and some of these you can you can see the faith of these two Matriarchs, so we're starting to build our matriarch side of the the picture who's next
Bryan: right so if you've got Leah here then I think I'm just gonna go for Rebecca as my as my next pick here.
Ryan: I think that's the right one and then I'm gonna take us all the way back to the beginning Speaking of mothers and go with Eve
Bryan: man
Ryan: might be too low, I don't know
Bryan: up too low. We'll reach up. We'll reshuffle here in a bit. Yeah Eve Embarrassingly was not on my list man
Ryan: important pretty important as women in the and figures in the Bible go not always perfect again But anyway, we'll keep we'll keep going who's next after Eve
Bryan: Let's think about how about
I'm gonna go with maybe a contested Possible servant of the early church here. I'm gonna go with Phoebe as number 13
Ryan: Definitely a servant of the early church. That's for sure. But I know what you mean that the deaconess Session there. Is that what you mean? Yeah.
Bryan: Uh-huh
Ryan: Let's see. We already took junk a bad, right?
Bryan: Yes, we
Ryan: Okay, I'm gonna go bath Sheba Queen Bath
Bryan: Whoa
Ryan: of Solomon And of course part of the the crazy story there with
Bryan: Yeah, wow, that's uh, that's a good one also was not on my list, but I I can see that right there That's good
Ryan: Yeah I just I'm just saw another one that snuck through but that's okay. We'll keep going
Bryan: Okay. Okay So let me think here. I'm gonna go with
I'm gonna do a weird one at the end here for my final pick and pick 15. I'm gonna go with the Queen of Sheba Yeah So
Ryan: figure yeah,
Bryan: I mean speaking of leaders, right not exactly a great woman of faith necessarily, but she did She did go and seek out Solomon and his wisdom. So yeah picking
Ryan: absolutely Yeah, okay And the one that I that I was thinking of here another prophetess that we didn't get to was
Bryan: Yeah, she was on my
Ryan: her in there. Yeah
Bryan: Okay.
Ryan: And second Kings there. Mm-hmm.
Bryan: All right. So
Ryan: that completes our
Reshuffle and Early Favorites
Bryan: yeah looking at the list I think the only one that stands out to me as needing to be reshuffled is Eve Or at least one of them, but where would you stick Eve in the list?
Ryan: yeah. Yeah Maybe after Ruth or is that too low?
Bryan: No, I think that's right So we've got Mary the mother of Jesus Esther Sarah Ruth and Eve. Yeah, I think that's good And then Priscilla is next Hannah. Okay Yeah,
Ryan: Yeah. No, I like this list There's I you your your picks brought a nice mix of New Testament in where mine would have totally camped in the Old Testament Probably so I like that.
Bryan: I am thinking that you know Some of these matchups are gonna be pretty obvious like Esther and the Queen of Sheba pretty much gonna be a blowout there But
Ryan: That's how it's supposed to
Bryan: I mean it really
Ryan: verses of 15. So
Bryan: I'm also glad that we didn't pit Rachel and Leah against each other, you know, cuz they already were so
Ryan: yeah They've had enough strife for two sisters
Bryan: need to make them fight over it again
Ryan: No,
Bryan: All right. So this is our first two regionals the women of valor and the matriarchs and leaders on our next conversation We're going to pick the great women from the friends and followers regional and the nameless Notables regional and then voting will begin but yeah, that's where we're at here Ryan.
Are you good with this list so far? You think we're in big trouble. Have we pulled it way too many off of your your backlog here.
Ryan: I think we're gonna be okay I think I think we we drew from some heavy lists to fill in some some spots here so there's lots of overlap, but there's You know, I I do you have an early pick for winner here so far from these two
Bryan: I I don't know who's I don't know who's gonna blow Mary out of the water the mother of Jesus I think she has to be like real down to the final four problem. What about
Ryan: don't know. She's in her. She's in a regional with Esther and Ruth
Bryan: Yeah, that's gonna be
Ryan: those are two two biggies and and I you know, I know some ladies who love them some some Phoebe, you know
Bryan: Oh, right, right. Yeah.
Ryan: You know, she's a she's a powerhouse So yeah, I think it'll be interesting to see Mary's got her work cut out for her though with Esther and Ruth, especially Sarah
Bryan: you make you make a
Ryan: other regional.
Bryan: I would agree with
Ryan: Yeah, the other regional, you know, those top two seeds Rahab and Abigail I think are gonna be strong Naomi and Hagar Yeah, it's it's gonna be fun to watch this play out
Reading Challenge and Wrap
Bryan: All right, so a lot of names a lot of verses maybe a challenge for this week We're gonna post this list so far If you have not read through one of these stories and you're like who is that person that we just talked about Challenge for this week is to go off and read the story of one of these women and familiarize yourself with their story There's a few on this list that I will be reading about for sure.
Ryan: Yeah, yeah this I love that challenge because there's you know, there's ones that you just of course everybody knows that story and then there's others you're like, uh, maybe maybe I do need to go back and read about you know, hold again or This these this cluster of Moses ladies and spend some time in Exodus 1
Bryan: Yeah, well and we will be discussing a lot of these people in more detail in the upcoming weeks But thanks everyone for tuning in to the Bible geeks podcast. You can find us on our website at Bible geeks out of them You can find show notes for this episode and this entire list at Bible geeks out of them as well And until the next episode everyone may the Lord bless you and keep you.
Ryan: alone.