Women's Rights and the Bible

Implications for Christian Ethics and Social Policy

Hiers

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781630879273
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

In this volume, Richard Hiers challenges the popular assumption that the Bible has a low view of women and that biblical law either ignores women or requires them to be subject and subservient to men. He does so by identifying and carefully examining hundreds of biblical texts and allowing them to speak for themselves. Among the findings: • that biblical tradition generally represents women positively, as strong and independent persons; • that no text represents wives as subject to their husbands and that no biblical law requires such subjection; • that biblical laws provide many protections for women's rights and interests--in several instances, rights equal to those enjoyed by men. The book focuses particularly on the Old Testament and Old Testament law, and argues that Old Testament laws and their underlying values provide important resources for Christian ethics and social policy today.

Part One

Background: Perspectives on Women in Old Testament Times

In recent years biblical perspectives on women have been considered by many scholars, often in great detail.1 Yet relatively little attention has been given to the legal status of women under biblical law. In Part I we review biblical texts that indicate ways women were regarded in Old Testament times as prelude to a closer examination of texts relating to women’s legal status and capacity. This preliminary survey is important, because, as is generally recognized, a society’s laws are typically grounded on its current and traditional attitudes and values, at any rate, those of its dominant elements.

The first four of the following chapters demonstrate that biblical women often took center stage, usually sharing the spotlight with fortunate, but also occasionally unfortunate, men. The first chapter examines relations between the so-called “patriarchs” and their wives. It is noted that the term “patriarchs” is never used in the Genesis accounts, and that their wives are never represented as being subservient to any of the men commonly so designated. The second chapter reviews other biblical stories about husbands and wives, and observes that in each case, the wives appear to have been strong and independent personalities. The third chapter identifies a number of women celebrated in biblical tradition for their important historical contributions, or for other noteworthy deeds or status.

Several women whose actions are described in biblical “books” named in honor of women are considered in chapter 4. The fifth chapter examines attitudes toward women expressed in other biblical traditions, particularly those found in laws and the wisdom books. Separate sub-sections of that chapter describe perspectives regarding women generally, then “loose” women, mothers, daughters, wives, and, finally, widows.

1. See e.g., Ebeling, Women’s Lives; Evans, Woman in the Bible; Frymer-Kensky, Reading Women; Jay, Throughout Your Generations; Pressler, View of Women; Scholz, Women’s Hebrew Bible; Schottroff, et al., Feminist Interpretation; Starr, Bible Status; and Stendahl: Bible and Role of Women. See also studies, by, among others Lisa Sowle Cahill, Katie Geneva Cannon, Margaret A. Farley, Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Sallie McFague, Carol L. Meyers, Judith Plaskow, Letty M. Russell, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Phyllis Trible.

1

The So-called “Patriarchs” and their Wives

She went to Canaan and became the wife of Isaac, and subsequent events proved that she, like Sarah, was quite equal to the task of managing her husband.

—Anna Lee Starr

The term “patriarch” derives from Greek, and means, in effect, “ruling father,” or “father who rules.” According to one of the essays in the New Oxford Annotated Bible,1 “[t]he name ‘Patriarch’ is given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel) and his sons, for whom the twelve tribes were named.”2 Curiously, however, these persons are not designated anywhere in Genesis or elsewhere in Hebrew Scriptures as “patriarchs.”3 Instead, they are characterized simply as “fathers” of their respective progeny.4 Likewise, their wives are characterized as “mothers.”5 These mothers were neither remembered nor portrayed as having been subservient either to their husbands, or to their fathers. The first of these stories concerns relations between Abraham and his wife, Sarah.

Although they had been married for some time, Sarah had not yet borne any children. In order that she might have children, Sarah instructed Abraham to have intercourse with Hagar, her Egyptian maid, as her surrogate.6 Later, after Hagar had conceived, Sarah thought Hagar looked at her “with contempt,” and angrily addressed Abraham: “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my maid to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May YHWH judge between you and me!” (Gen 16:5). To which Abraham meekly responded, “Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her as you please.” Whereupon, Sarah “dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.”7 Asked by YHWH’s angel, who found Hagar “in the wilderness,” how she came to be there, Hagar answered, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” The angel then told Hagar, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her” (Gen 16:8–9). The story does not say that anyone ever told Hagar—or Sarah—to submit to Abraham.

Later, after Hagar returned and her son, Ishmael, was born, Sarah saw Ishmael playing with her own son, Isaac,8 and again gave her husband orders, this time: “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac” (Gen 21:10).9 Again, Abraham did as he was told, even though “the thing was very displeasing” to him.10

There being no formal marriage ceremonies in those days, Hagar may or may not have been Abraham’s wife. Sarah thought she was beginning to act too much like one. Hagar was a remarkably determined and competent person. It is unclear whether she bore her (and Abraham’s) son, Ishmael, while still in the wilderness, or after she had returned to Abraham’s camp (Gen 16:7–15). In any case, Hagar again managed to survive the hardships of life in the wilderness, along with her son, after Abraham, once more, at Sarah’s command, cast her out (Gen 21:8–21).

Rebekah, who was to become Isaac’s wife and the mother of Jacob and Esau, is likewise presented as a determined and autonomous personality. Although Laban, Rebekah’s brother, proposes to let Abraham’s servant “take her” to Abraham as wife for his son, Isaac, the decision whether she would actually go is left to Rebekah herself. Following preliminary colloquies, Laban and his (and Rebekah’s) mother call Rebekah and ask her, “Will you go with this man?” To which she replied, “I will go.”11

After her sons Jacob and Esau come of age, and Isaac has “grown old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see” (Gen 27:1), Rebekah arranges a deception whereby her husband, Isaac, is tricked into giving his blessing to Jacob—her favorite son—instead of to Esau12 (whose Hittite wives she cannot abide),13 the son Isaac had intended to bless. Just as Sarah determined which of her husband’s sons would be his (and her) heir, her daughter-in-law, Rebekah, chose which of her own and Isaac’s sons would receive his blessing.14 Rebekah then tells Isaac that she is totally opposed to Jacob marrying any of the local women, and so Isaac dutifully sends Jacob back to Paddam-Aram, with instructions to marry one of her nieces.

There, Jacob becomes infatuated with Rachel, one of Laban’s daughters.15 Sly uncle Laban then arranges for Jacob to marry Leah, his other daughter, instead; all the while—until morning light reveals otherwise—Jacob believed he was marrying Rachel.16 Necessarily, both Rachel and Leah were Laban’s accomplices, if not co-conspirators, in perpetrating this fraud upon their prospective husband. As the result, Jacob ended up having to agree to work a total of fourteen years for his uncle Laban.17 A few years later, after her sister, Leah, had borne several sons, Rachel addressed Jacob in s...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part One: Background: Perspectives on Women in Old Testament Times
• Chapter 1: The So-called “Patriarchs” and their Wives
• Chapter 2: Other Stories about Biblical Husbands and Wives
• Chapter 3: Other Biblical Women of Recognized Status or Importance
• Chapter 4: Women in Books of the Bible Named for Women
• Chapter 5: Perspectives on Women in other Biblical Traditions
• Part Two: The Rights and Legal Status of Women in Biblical Law
• Chapter 6: Women’s Rights
• Chapter 7: Equal Protection
• Chapter 8: Capacity to Appear and Testify in Court
• Chapter 9: Capacity to Make Contracts and to Purchase, Own, and Sell Property
• Chapter 10: Women as Beneficiaries of Wills and Donors of Estates
• Chapter 11: Women as Heirs to Property by Operation of Law
• Chapter 12: Summary of Findings
• Chapter 13: As to Christian Ethics and Social Policy
• Bibliography