Women in the Hebrew Bible
Encyclopedia
The views of women presented in the Hebrew Bible
(also called Tanakh
in Judaism, Old Testament
in Christianity and Taurat/Tawrah
in Islam) are complex and often ambivalent.
The question of women's status relative to men in the society depicted in the biblical books, i.e. Iron Age and Hellenistic era Judea
, remains a central and controversial issue.
Steven Weitzman says the Genesis creation accounts have been used to deprecate women on the authority of the Bible: Jews
and Christians, throughout their history, have used the story of Adam and Eve
to justify the inferior status for women. Thus, Paul and other early Christians looked to the Adam and Eve story to put the blame for the Fall
on Eve and derived from that the conclusion that women should not be allowed to hold positions of authority or to teach.
is narrated from somewhat different perspectives in and . The Genesis 1 narration declares the purpose of God, antedating the creation of the sexes. It has been called the "non-subordinating" view of woman. God gave the human pair joint responsibility and "rulership" over his creation.
reaffirms that perspective and has been described as interpretative of that decree of God's initial purpose.
The narrative has been called the "subordinating view" of woman for two reasons: man is created first, and woman is created out of man.
"…for Adam there was not found an help meet for him." "…no suitable helper [ēzer kenegdo] was found" (NIV). The word translated "suitable" (kenegdo) means "face to face" and denotes equality and adequacy. Woman for centuries has been instructed to be an "helpmeet" for her husband. However, any text search of both Old and New Testaments (every translation) will demonstrate that the noun "helpmeet" does not appear anywhere in the Bible. It has become a distorted contraction of the two KJV words, the noun "help" and the adverb "meet," the latter being Shakespearian English for "corresponding to" or "suitable," a phenomenon that has been corrected in all later translations.
Although the passage is often cited as biblical evidence that subordination represents God’s will for women, Theologian Roger Nicole disagrees. He believes women's place in the home, in society, and in the church is not an issue that can be conclusively determined by a few apparently restrictive passages. He writes that the starting point must be at the creation of humanity, as Jesus
himself exemplified by quoting and in response to a question by the Pharisees.
"If you look at , where God says, 'Let there be light,' you see at the end of the chapter that the creation of woman is different from the story of how woman is created in the Garden of Eden, where Eve is the helpmate to man, created to serve. In Genesis, Chapter 1, man and woman are both created equally in the image of God. Recent feminist biblical scholars have looked at Genesis 1 as a kind of countertext to the Garden of Eden story. It shows how complex the Bible's attitude toward women is."—Prof. Steven Weitzman, PhD, U. of Indiana
. This claim was frequently made during the Middle Ages
and was a subject in John Milton's classic epic, Paradise Lost
.
There is no mention of subordination in scripture until the end of . There, God explains what will become the natural consequences of the woman's disobedience, now that they both are in a fallen (sinful) state: "He [your husband] will rule over you." For eons this has been colloquially called "The Curse."
However, theologian Nicole does not see it that way: arguing that the passage is not a commandment, but a prophecy that has been fulfilled extensively over the centuries in all the earth. Whatever we may do to alleviate God’s curse is legitimate in the matter of subordination, no less than in providing some relief from the pains of the delivery of children (3:16) and the sweat in cultivating the ground and earning a living (3:17–19).
In addition, those who argue that Judaism is founded upon patriarchal principles point out that religious and governmental authority within Jewish cultures has usually been restricted to the male gender.
However, even in the Jewish Scriptures
there are countercurrents to this patriarchal emphasis. For example, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Subsequent to God making Adam in his image he made Eve.
According to classicist Edith Hamilton
, the Old Testament writers considered women just as impartially as they did men, free from prejudice and even from condescension.
In the Decalogue
(Ten Commandments) of , both male priority and gender balance can be seen. In the tenth commandment, a wife is depicted in the examples of a neighbor's property not to be coveted: house, wife, male or female slave, ox or donkey, or any other property. In this perspective, wife along with other properties belongs to the husband. On the other hand, the fourth commandment does not make any distinction between honor to be shown to parents: "father and your mother." This is consistent with the mutual respect shown for both parents throughout the Old Testament.
Double standard and male priority can also be seen in Moses' orders on what to do with the captured Midianites: "Kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man intimately. But all the girls who have not known man intimately, spare for yourselves." The women of Israel were most honored and influential within the family. They gained considerable respect on the birth of her first child, especially if it was a male child. Even here, she was honored because of her function of providing a male heir, not because of her value as a person.
On a positive note, tells a son not to reject his mother's teaching, and eulogizes the ideal wife, even though she is idealized for her hard labor for her family. The laws of inheritance favored the male. A male Hebrew slave was freed after six years of servitude, while a different set of rules covered female slaves. If a man rapes an unbetrothed virgin, he must pay her father 50 shekel
s of silver and then marry her. records a most degrading use of a daughter by her father. "The gruesome story of his using his concubine to protect himself defies imagination." Infidelity to God is portrayed as an "adulteress," not an "adulterer."
Distinctions were usually made between men and women during the Old Testament period. Only men were required to attend the annual festivals though women were permitted to attend if they chose to do so. The Mosaic Law recognized women’s responsibilities at home as wives and mothers. However, this did not prohibit women from all religious service. Women served at the door of the Tabernacle. Both men and women contributed their valuables for use in the building of the Tabernacle. The Laver for ministry in the court of the tabernacle was made of brass from the mirrors of the women only.
Deborah was a prophetess who actually ruled Israel. When the Israelite men were too afraid to assume leadership, Deborah shamed Barak, the military commander of Israel’s army, for failing to assume his God-given leadership. Ultimately, he refused to advance against the enemy without Deborah’s presence and commanding influence (Judges 4:8).
Huldah, a married prophetess found the Book of the Law that the previous generation had neglected. She was trusted by Josiah, king of Judah
, to be the one to verify the authenticity of the Book of the Law. Huldah’s husband was keeper of the wardrobe in the court.
(appearances of angels and other divine apparitions).
The Old Testament
presents strong female role models, like the Judge Deborah
and Queen Esther
, who were depicted as saving the Hebrew people from disaster. In the book of Proverbs
, the divine attribute of Holy Wisdom is presented as female.
Prophecy was also often sung as may be seen in the Psalms which were inspired words put to song. Miriam and Deborah composed the two oldest pieces of literature preserved in the Bible, which are regarded as literary masterpieces. Prophecy often included instruments. In Israel’s first prophetess (Miriam) led the women in timbrel, dancing, and singing of the same song of Moses which is the most ancient praise song in the biblical record.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
writes in The Woman's Bible
: "The transfer of a camel or donkey from one owner to another, no doubt, was often marked with more consideration than that of a daughter. One loves a faithful animal long in our possession and manifests more grief in parting than did these Hebrew fathers in giving away their daughters".
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
(also called Tanakh
Tanakh
The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
in Judaism, Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
in Christianity and Taurat/Tawrah
Tawrat
Tawrat is the Arabic word for the Torah. Muslims believe it was a holy book of Islam given by Allah to Musa . The Hebrew word for their scripture, the Torah means instructions, that is why Tawrat does not refer to the entire Tanakh or Old Testament...
in Islam) are complex and often ambivalent.
The question of women's status relative to men in the society depicted in the biblical books, i.e. Iron Age and Hellenistic era Judea
Judea
Judea or Judæa was the name of the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel from the 8th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, when Roman Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina following the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt.-Etymology:The...
, remains a central and controversial issue.
Steven Weitzman says the Genesis creation accounts have been used to deprecate women on the authority of the Bible: Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and Christians, throughout their history, have used the story of Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...
to justify the inferior status for women. Thus, Paul and other early Christians looked to the Adam and Eve story to put the blame for the Fall
The Fall of Man
In Christian doctrine, the Fall of Man, or simply the Fall, refers to the transition of the first humans from a state of innocent obedience to God to a state of guilty disobedience to God. In Genesis chapter 2, Adam and Eve live at first with God in a paradise, but the serpent tempts them into...
on Eve and derived from that the conclusion that women should not be allowed to hold positions of authority or to teach.
Creation narratives
The creation of Adam and EveAdam and Eve
Adam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...
is narrated from somewhat different perspectives in and . The Genesis 1 narration declares the purpose of God, antedating the creation of the sexes. It has been called the "non-subordinating" view of woman. God gave the human pair joint responsibility and "rulership" over his creation.
reaffirms that perspective and has been described as interpretative of that decree of God's initial purpose.
The narrative has been called the "subordinating view" of woman for two reasons: man is created first, and woman is created out of man.
"…for Adam there was not found an help meet for him." "…no suitable helper [ēzer kenegdo] was found" (NIV). The word translated "suitable" (kenegdo) means "face to face" and denotes equality and adequacy. Woman for centuries has been instructed to be an "helpmeet" for her husband. However, any text search of both Old and New Testaments (every translation) will demonstrate that the noun "helpmeet" does not appear anywhere in the Bible. It has become a distorted contraction of the two KJV words, the noun "help" and the adverb "meet," the latter being Shakespearian English for "corresponding to" or "suitable," a phenomenon that has been corrected in all later translations.
Although the passage is often cited as biblical evidence that subordination represents God’s will for women, Theologian Roger Nicole disagrees. He believes women's place in the home, in society, and in the church is not an issue that can be conclusively determined by a few apparently restrictive passages. He writes that the starting point must be at the creation of humanity, as Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
himself exemplified by quoting and in response to a question by the Pharisees.
"If you look at , where God says, 'Let there be light,' you see at the end of the chapter that the creation of woman is different from the story of how woman is created in the Garden of Eden, where Eve is the helpmate to man, created to serve. In Genesis, Chapter 1, man and woman are both created equally in the image of God. Recent feminist biblical scholars have looked at Genesis 1 as a kind of countertext to the Garden of Eden story. It shows how complex the Bible's attitude toward women is."—Prof. Steven Weitzman, PhD, U. of Indiana
The Fall of humanity
Eve's weakness has sometimes been blamed for causing Adam's fall, and thus for humanity's fall into original sinOriginal sin
Original sin is, according to a Christian theological doctrine, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred...
. This claim was frequently made during the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and was a subject in John Milton's classic epic, Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
.
There is no mention of subordination in scripture until the end of . There, God explains what will become the natural consequences of the woman's disobedience, now that they both are in a fallen (sinful) state: "He [your husband] will rule over you." For eons this has been colloquially called "The Curse."
However, theologian Nicole does not see it that way: arguing that the passage is not a commandment, but a prophecy that has been fulfilled extensively over the centuries in all the earth. Whatever we may do to alleviate God’s curse is legitimate in the matter of subordination, no less than in providing some relief from the pains of the delivery of children (3:16) and the sweat in cultivating the ground and earning a living (3:17–19).
In addition, those who argue that Judaism is founded upon patriarchal principles point out that religious and governmental authority within Jewish cultures has usually been restricted to the male gender.
However, even in the Jewish Scriptures
Religious text
Religious texts, also known as scripture, scriptures, holy writ, or holy books, are the texts which various religious traditions consider to be sacred, or of central importance to their religious tradition...
there are countercurrents to this patriarchal emphasis. For example, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Subsequent to God making Adam in his image he made Eve.
Double standard and male priority
The status of woman in the Old Testament is not uniform.According to classicist Edith Hamilton
Edith Hamilton
Edith Hamilton was an American educator and author who was "recognized as the greatest woman Classicist". She was sixty-two years old when The Greek Way, her first book, was published in 1930...
, the Old Testament writers considered women just as impartially as they did men, free from prejudice and even from condescension.
In the Decalogue
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
(Ten Commandments) of , both male priority and gender balance can be seen. In the tenth commandment, a wife is depicted in the examples of a neighbor's property not to be coveted: house, wife, male or female slave, ox or donkey, or any other property. In this perspective, wife along with other properties belongs to the husband. On the other hand, the fourth commandment does not make any distinction between honor to be shown to parents: "father and your mother." This is consistent with the mutual respect shown for both parents throughout the Old Testament.
Double standard and male priority can also be seen in Moses' orders on what to do with the captured Midianites: "Kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man intimately. But all the girls who have not known man intimately, spare for yourselves." The women of Israel were most honored and influential within the family. They gained considerable respect on the birth of her first child, especially if it was a male child. Even here, she was honored because of her function of providing a male heir, not because of her value as a person.
On a positive note, tells a son not to reject his mother's teaching, and eulogizes the ideal wife, even though she is idealized for her hard labor for her family. The laws of inheritance favored the male. A male Hebrew slave was freed after six years of servitude, while a different set of rules covered female slaves. If a man rapes an unbetrothed virgin, he must pay her father 50 shekel
Shekel
Shekel , is any of several ancient units of weight or of currency. The first usage is from Mesopotamia around 3000 BC. Initially, it may have referred to a weight of barley...
s of silver and then marry her. records a most degrading use of a daughter by her father. "The gruesome story of his using his concubine to protect himself defies imagination." Infidelity to God is portrayed as an "adulteress," not an "adulterer."
Judges and prophets
The Bible portrays Rebekah, Rahab, Deborah, Jael and Esther and their contributions to the nation of Israel with faithfulness and extreme candor. These women are represented in the Old Testament as multidimensional human beings – self-reliant, resourceful, influential, and courageous – but at the same time capable of resorting to morally questionable means in order to accomplish their ends.Distinctions were usually made between men and women during the Old Testament period. Only men were required to attend the annual festivals though women were permitted to attend if they chose to do so. The Mosaic Law recognized women’s responsibilities at home as wives and mothers. However, this did not prohibit women from all religious service. Women served at the door of the Tabernacle. Both men and women contributed their valuables for use in the building of the Tabernacle. The Laver for ministry in the court of the tabernacle was made of brass from the mirrors of the women only.
Deborah was a prophetess who actually ruled Israel. When the Israelite men were too afraid to assume leadership, Deborah shamed Barak, the military commander of Israel’s army, for failing to assume his God-given leadership. Ultimately, he refused to advance against the enemy without Deborah’s presence and commanding influence (Judges 4:8).
Huldah, a married prophetess found the Book of the Law that the previous generation had neglected. She was trusted by Josiah, king of Judah
Kingdom of Judah
The Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....
, to be the one to verify the authenticity of the Book of the Law. Huldah’s husband was keeper of the wardrobe in the court.
Religious privileges of women
Women as well as men were able to consecrate themselves with the vow of a Nazarite. Women shared in the sacred meals and great annual feasts. They shared with the men in offering sacrifices. They also were privileged to experience theophaniesTheophany
Theophany, from the Ancient Greek , meaning "appearance of God"), refers to the appearance of a deity to a human or other being, or to a divine disclosure....
(appearances of angels and other divine apparitions).
The Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
presents strong female role models, like the Judge Deborah
Deborah
Deborah was a prophetess of Yahweh the God of the Israelites, the fourth Judge of pre-monarchic Israel, counselor, warrior, and the wife of Lapidoth according to the Book of Judges chapters 4 and 5....
and Queen Esther
Esther
Esther , born Hadassah, is the eponymous heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther.According to the Bible, she was a Jewish queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus...
, who were depicted as saving the Hebrew people from disaster. In the book of Proverbs
Book of Proverbs
The Book of Proverbs , commonly referred to simply as Proverbs, is a book of the Hebrew Bible.The original Hebrew title of the book of Proverbs is "Míshlê Shlomoh" . When translated into Greek and Latin, the title took on different forms. In the Greek Septuagint the title became "paroimai paroimiae"...
, the divine attribute of Holy Wisdom is presented as female.
Liturgical song and dance
Hebrew women attended worship services and provided a ministry in music. They sang and danced in worship and often celebrated before the Lord with singing, dancing, and tambourines. The “daughters of music” were singing women, but they were not included in the temple choir.Prophecy was also often sung as may be seen in the Psalms which were inspired words put to song. Miriam and Deborah composed the two oldest pieces of literature preserved in the Bible, which are regarded as literary masterpieces. Prophecy often included instruments. In Israel’s first prophetess (Miriam) led the women in timbrel, dancing, and singing of the same song of Moses which is the most ancient praise song in the biblical record.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an American social activist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early woman's movement...
writes in The Woman's Bible
The Woman's Bible
The Woman's Bible is a two-part book, written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a committee of 26 women, and published in 1895 and 1898 to challenge the traditional position of religious orthodoxy that woman should be subservient to man. By producing the book, Stanton wished to promote a radical...
: "The transfer of a camel or donkey from one owner to another, no doubt, was often marked with more consideration than that of a daughter. One loves a faithful animal long in our possession and manifests more grief in parting than did these Hebrew fathers in giving away their daughters".