The Israelite woman : social role and literary type in biblical narrative / [print]
Athalya Brenner.
- New York, New York : Bloomsbury Publishing, [(c)2015. Sheffield, England : JSOT [(c)1985.
- 144 pages ; 22 cm.
- The Biblical seminar T & T Clark Cornerstones .
- The Biblical Seminar T&T Clark Cornerstones .
PART I: WOMEN, PROFESSIONS AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS Queens ; Queen Mothers ; Jezebel (1 King 16-2 Kings 10) --Athaliah (2 Kings 11-2 Chronicles 22-23:15) ; Esther ; Summary Wise Women ; The term 'wise' and its applications ; The woman of Tekoa (2 Samuel 14) ; The Woman of Abel-Beth-Maacah (2 Samuel 20:14-22) ; The 'skilled women' of Jeremiah 9:16(17) ; The 'wise-hearted' women of Exodus 35:25 ; Abigail (1 Samuel 25:2-42) ; Wisdom personified as a woman (Proverbs 1-9) ; Summary Woman poets and authors ; General considerations ; Female authorship in the Song of Songs ; Miriam (Exodus 15) and Deborah (Judges 4-5) ; Conclusions Prophetesses ; General considerations ; Huldah (2 Kings 22:14-20 - 2 Chronicles 34:22-28 ; Noadiah (Nehemiah 6:14) ; Miriam (Exodus 15, Numbers 12) ; Deborah (Judges 4-5) ; New Testament prophetesses: Anna, and the 'false prophetess' ; Summary Magicians, sorcerers and witches ; General considerations ; Zipporah (Exodus 4:24-26) ; The medium of En-Dor (1 Samuel 28) ; Magicianj prophetesses (Ezekiel 13) ; Warnings of classical prophets against magic and witchcraft ; Magic, witchcraft, and sorcery in the Law ; Summary Female prostitution ; Secular prostitution and sacred (cult) 'prostitution' ; Rahab (Joshua 2) ; King Solomon's judgment (1 Kings 3:16-28) ; Tamar and Judah (Genesis 38) ; Conclusion PART II: LITERARY PARADIGMS OF FEMALE TYPES AND BEHAVIORS General considerations Mothers of great men (The hero's mother) ; The Matriarchs ; The birth of Moses (Exodus 2:1-10) ; Mary and Elizabeth (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:5-80 and 2:1-7) ; Summary The two sides of the temptress ; The 'positive' temptress: Tamar and Ruth ; Lot's daughters (Genesis 19:31-36 ; Potiphar's wife (Genesis 39) and the zara woman (Proverbs 1-9) ; Samson's women (Judges 14-16) ; Summary Foreign women ; Hebrew Bible attitudes towards foreign women and mixed marriages ; The positive side: Tamar, Ruth, Rahab, and Jael ; The negative side: Potiphar's wife, Samson's women, and the zara woman of Proverbs ; Summary The ancestress ; an extended female metaphor (Genesis 2:4b-3:24) ; The story of the first man ; The story of the first woman ; and humankind ; Genesis 2:4b-3:24: Echoes and interpretations in the New Testament Conclusion.
In the first edition of The Israelite Woman Athalya Brenner-Idan provided the first book-length treatment by a feminist biblical scholar of the female characters in the Hebrew Bible. Now, thirty years later, Brenner provides a fresh take on this ground-breaking work, considering how scholarly observation of female biblical characters has changed and how it has not. Brenner-Idan also provides a new and highly personal introduction to the book, which details, perhaps surprisingly to present readers, what was at stake for female biblical scholars looking to engage honestly in the academic debate at the time in which the book was first written. This will make difficult reading for some, particularly those whose own views have not changed. The main part of the book presents Brenner-Idans's now classic examination of the roles of women in the society of ancient Israel, and the roles they play in the biblical narratives. In Part I Brenner-Idan surveys what can be known about the roles of queens, wise women, women poets and authors, prophetesses, magicians, sorcerers and witches and female prostitutes in Israelite society. In Part II the focus is on the typical roles in which Hebrew women appear in biblical stories, as mother of the hero, as temptress, as foreigner, and as ancestress. In these narratives, for which there are standard plots and structures and characterizations readily available, women play a generally domestic role. Not only is the book a highly valuable resource detailing the social role of women in ancient Israel, and showing how the interpretation of women in the bible has been influenced by convention, but it is also a challenging reminder of how outdated attitudes can still prevail. https://www.amazon.com/Israelite-Woman-Literary-Narrative-Cornerstones/dp/0567657736/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=9780567657732&qid=1636035868&s=books&sr=1-1