Exploring Women’s Role in the Bible

The stories about women in the bible illustrate the importance of their role and contribution to society. Women were slaves, concubines, and child bearers; they were also wives, matriarchs, and prophets. Although, some women had less important titles than others each served a purpose. Even if the Bible does not explain God’s relationship with women as with Moses and other prophets, it illustrates the love and dedication women had for Him. The scriptures describe brave, nurturing, and God fearing women whose decisions impacted the existence of the Israelites.

Women and men shared similar roles; however, men had more rights while women had limitations. For instance, male slaves were freed after six years of service while female slaves (Ex. 21:7) were freed only if their master failed to provide clothes, food, and marital rights. Furthermore, the book of Judges (19:24) portrays how a concubine and virgin daughter were offered to satisfy a group of men who wanted to sexually assault another man. As a result, the group of men rape and abuse the concubine leading to her subsequent death. This story illustrates how women’s lives were regarded less valuable than men’s.

An interesting characteristic of the bible is that it focuses on the acts of a character without referencing their name. Some scriptures feature the moral of the story rather than the heroism of the character; this allows the reader to appreciate the message. Moreover, the majority of scriptures are male dominated as men are more important in a patriarchal society. It does not mean that women did not contribute a great deal, though; when the scripture recognizes a character by name, it is because their actions were significant to mention. Ackerman (2002) points out “This is...

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... reaction to learning that Moses was not a blood relative of the Egyptian Pharaoh-thus determining he was not royalty.

References

Ackerman, S. (2002). Why is miriam also among the prophets? (and is zipporah among the priests?). Journal of Biblical Literature, 121 (1), 47-80.

Jewish Publication Society. (1985). Tanakh =: [Tanakh]: a new translation of the Holy Scriptures according to the traditional Hebrew text. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.

Ostriker A. (2002). The book of ruth and the love of the land. Biblical Interpretation, 10 (4), 343-359.

Ramon, E. (2005). The matriarchs and the torah of hesed (loving-kindness). Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender Issues, 10 (1), 154-177.

Raveh, I. (2013). “They let the children live”: The midwives at a political crossroads. Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues, 24, 11-26.