Feminism in the Old Testament- Article Reviews

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Juskiene, Vaineta. "Female Image in the Biblical Text: Aspect of Creationsim." Feminist -------------Theology. Journal Biblical Literature, 1 Dec. 2010. Web. 2 Apr. 2012.

Rooke, Deborah W. "Feminist Criticism of the Old Testament: Why Bother?"Libraries.Slu.Edu. ----Journal Biblical Literature, 1 Jan. 2007. Web. 6 Apr. 2012. .

Feminism in the Old Testament

The first article that is discussed in great proportion is called ‘The Feminist Criticism of the Old Testament: Why Bother?’ by Deborah W. Rooke. Rooke voices her opinion quite clear by making the statement that within the Western cultural mythology people have been engrained with the story of Adam and Eve on the biased notions that the woman (Eve) is to be subordinate to the man (Adam) because that is the common interpretation society is presented with. However, that notion as expressed by Rooke is in dire need of a feminist reading of Genesis 2-3 which will highlight the difficulties with the traditional subordinations’ reading, and ultimately will suggest other possibilities for interpretation and not just the one-sided “patriarchal authority claims, thereby making it possible to envisage, and work towards, a different world-order” (Rooke, 1). Taking the standpoint of what seems to be the polar opposite of a patriarchal world order Rooke explains how in essence the voices of the silenced women from within the pages of the book needs to be recovered. Rooke makes the point that the narrative of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2-3, a narrative “is widely understood to show women as being intrinsically inferior ...

... middle of paper ...

... punish mankind with an ending life. Rooke states that this confirms why women have been discriminated on by men throughout time in religious scripture.

Juskiene explains that they (Adam and Eve, Man and Woman) both need one another in order to flourish. Rooke’s argument is one-sided and biased as she makes claim to a lot that the woman has done correctly and only switches the “blame” from one to the other. This weakens her argument immensely, had she taken a more facilitative standpoint her argument would have been more persuasive. Rooke attempts to connect that God and man between them are scheming and are responsible for creating the conditions where something is bound to go wrong, and that they do it before the woman is created, so to put the blame on her when things do go wrong. This idea only proves the biased nature of Rooke’s argument.



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