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Women in the Bible are wives, mothers and daughters, servants, slaves and prostitutes. As both victors and victims, some women in the Bible change the course of important events while others are powerless to affect even their destinies. The majority of women in the Bible are anonymous and unnamed. Individual portraits of various women in the Bible show women in various roles. The New Testament refers to a number of women in Jesus' inner circle, and scholars generally see him as dealing with women with respect and even equality.
Ancient Near Eastern societies have traditionally been described as patriarchal, and the Bible, as a document written by men, has traditionally been interpreted as patriarchal in its overall views of women.[1]: 9 [2]: 166–167 [3] Marital and inheritance laws in the Bible favor men, and women in the Bible exist under much stricter laws of sexual behavior than men. In ancient biblical times, women were subject to strict laws of purity, both ritual and moral.
Recent scholarship accepts the presence of patriarchy in the Bible, but shows that heterarchy is also present: heterarchy acknowledges that different power structures between people can exist at the same time, that each power structure has its own hierarchical arrangements, and that women had some spheres of power of their own separate from men.[1]: 27 There is evidence of gender balance in the Bible, and there is no attempt in the Bible to portray women as deserving of less because of their "naturally evil" natures.
While women are not generally in the forefront of public life in the Bible, those women who are named are usually prominent for reasons outside the ordinary. For example, they are often involved in the overturning of human power structures in a common biblical literary device called "reversal". Abigail, David's wife, Esther the Queen, and Jael who drove a tent peg into the enemy commander's temple while he slept, are a few examples of women who turned the tables on men with power. The founding matriarchs are mentioned by name, as are some prophetesses, judges, heroines, and queens, while the common woman is largely, though not completely, unseen. The slave Hagar's story is told, and the prostitute Rahab's story is also told, among a few others.
The New Testament names women in positions of leadership in the early church as well. Views of women in the Bible have changed throughout history and those changes are reflected in art and culture. There are controversies within the contemporary Christian church concerning women and their role in the church.
- ^ a b Meyers, Carol L. (2014). "Was Ancient Israel a Patriarchal Society?". Journal of Biblical Literature. 133 (1): 8–27. doi:10.15699/jbibllite.133.1.8. JSTOR 10.15699/jbibllite.133.1.8.
- ^ Frymer-Kensky, Tikva (2006). Studies in Bible and feminist criticism (1st ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society. ISBN 9780827607989. OCLC 62127975.
- ^ Frymer-Kensky, Tykva (1998). ""Deuteronomy"". In Newsom, Carol A.; Ringe, Sharon H. (eds.). The Women's Bible Commentary (Second ed.). Westminster John Knox. p. 591. ISBN 9780664257811.