Women of the Bible - Dissertation Example

 Women of the Bible Introduction Differences in gender roles have been prominent since the ancient times. These differences are often noted with regard to the form of lifestyle practiced in the then period, which reflects through manuscripts and even religious scriptures such as the Holy Bible. Concentrating on the replication of gender roles in Bible, the distinctions made between men and women becomes clearer wherein men in the Bible have certainly obtained greater attention as compared to the women characters. Such distinctions have attracted the attention of scholars since decades (Poythress and Grudem, 2012). It is noteworthy that with an in-depth assessment of the Biblical narrations, the significance of women can be observed as not significantly distinct from that of the male characters, however, an impression of the then societal construction remains plain. Perhaps it has been owing to the little or negligible attention provided by scholars to study the women characters in the Bible that has ignited a literature gap, which calls for a wider research on the subject. In this study, the objective will be to argue against such perceived distinctions in the picturization of women in Bible. The discussion henceforth will therefore attempt to elaborate on the replication of women in Bible and summarize the learning obtained therewith referring to the book titled “Women of the Bible: A One-Year Devotional Study of Women in Scripture”. Women in the Bible Many scholars have debated the replication of women in the Bible since decades. However, lack of adequate literatures focusing on this particular aspect has forced its conclusion to remain unresolved. In the discussion henceforth, women of the Bible will be elaborated. Eve Since the beginning of life on earth, as per the Biblical narrations, distinctions between the gender roles of men and women were made clear by God when he had given life to Adam and Eve – who is the first woman on earth. As God had spoken, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’, for she was taken out of man” (Spangler and Syswerda, 2007). The narration in Bible states about her calm life filled with all sorts of pleasure a human mind can think of, with her husband Adam, until both were banished from Eden on doubting God. It was since then that God has punished the womankind with all the miseries in life and that she shall be ruled by the mankind – “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing: with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” (Spangler and Syswerda, 2007). The inspiration that can be drawn from Eve’s life is rather a caution to those who refuse to accept the authority of God (Whitfield, 2007). Nevertheless, although God had banished her from heaven, he had also promised a just avenge by her offspring to demolish her enemies (Spangler and Syswerda, 2007). Sarah The narrations of the Bible depict Sarah as a much more complicated character than Eve was, while it also illustrates her as a right-doer and a wise-chooser between the right and the wrong. She gained the identification of her husband Abraham, who but cared for another woman – Hagar, and her child Ishmael, who had the bloodline of Abraham and as well, with the permission of Sarah herself. However, gradually she was so jealous of the woman and her child that she even refused to call them by their real names but rather referred to them as “the slave woman and her child”, demanding Abraham to banish (Spangler and Syswerda, 2007). In an earlier occurrence, God had promised her a child whom she shall name Isaac, but she had doubted the words of God and had permitted her husband to sleep with his Egyptian maid, as was the practice in ancient Egypt. Hence, the causes for her sorrow become clear as her feel of jealousy and doubt in the verdict of God. She was thus punished with no child, until she was ninety, when Isaac was born as “the child of the promise” (Zucker, 2008). Hagar The mostly used and narrated identification that Hagar possessed was her being Abraham’s second wife and Sarah’s rival. She was an Egyptian slave brought into a foreign nation by Sarah and Abraham, who led a painful life throughout with only a few resources to survive. Hagar’s mistake was that her desire to lead a better life with abundance of resources, which had taken over whence she had opened the doors for Abraham on the orders of her mistress and had become greedy engaged with her intention of lording Sarah. However, on her way to escape in the desert towards a harsher life when she was pregnant, she had the joy to hear the voice of God, asking her to move back to her mistress. The voice also promised her a son, who should be named Ishmael and shall one day become “the father of a great nation”. So did she and attained a life that was indeed calmer and less harsh than it used to be before the birth of Ishmael, although she was banished from Abraham’s shade into a desert where she was busy in bringing up her only son (Spangler and Syswerda, 2007). Lot’s Wife Besides the stories mentioned above, the life of Lot’s wife also drew considerable attention of the followers of Bible. The narration of Bible with regard to Lot’s wife, who remained unnamed in both Genesis 19 and Luke 17:32, is quite brief but explanative as similar to the cases of other women in the Bible. Lot’s wife and his family had the privilege to host two angels at their home in Sodom. However, in order to be safe from the evils taking place within the city, the entire family was asked to flee and settle down in the hills. As per the verdict, the entire family was ordered not to look back at Sodom once they were on their trail to freedom, neither could they stop at any point in the plain until they had reached the hills. However, at a point, Lot’s wife disobeyed the verdict by these angels and looked back, when she entirely turned into a pillar of salt. As obvious, Lot’s wife had disobeyed the order of the Angels who were but the messengers from God Himself. Therefore, disobeying them was equivalent to disobeying God and thus, was a punishable offence that bestowed on her (Tresemer, 2012). Rebekah Another story of women in Bible is that of Rebecca. While scholars have been complaining on the limited information available as to her sufferings and lifestyle, her story has been one of the most debated, as an illustration to the women’s life in the ancient era. Falling in love with Isaac, the son of Sarah and Abraham, they both married and gave birth to twins, both their children having nature opposite to each other as God had promised, wherein the younger was supposed to be served by the older. Although, Rebekah had kept the secret away from her husband as per the norms, she was but seemingly more favored towards her younger son Jacob than the older one Esau. Isaac however favored Esau more. It was under such circumstance that Rebekah once overheard Isaac order his favorite son Esau to cook him a hunt and that he shall bless him before his death for he was already 180 and had little courage to surpass the age. It was at this time when Rebekah remembered his younger son to be promised by the God as the one who would be served by the other and decided that the blessing must bestow on Jacob and not to Esau. Consequently, she cooked a farm goat and dressed Jacob as Esau, who would then deceive the father and obtain his blessings. It was also the same act that brought upon a curse to Rebekah, for which, she had to keep lonely and was abolished from the society (Matalon, 2008). Rachel The modeling of women as an initiator of either sin or virtue can be observed throughout the biblical narration of ancient stories. The same is also observable in the story of Rachel as it is in the other stories already stated above. Related to the bloodline of Isaac, Rachel was in love relationship with his younger son Jacob. Her story as well, indicated the complexities and curses that were bestowed due to greed, unfaithfulness and disobedience upon the people who take the commandment of God as granted. Jacob had two wives, one of whom was Rachel and the other her sister and the first daughter of Laban, Leah. The narration of the story proceeds with Rachel tricking her father and stealing the idols of God, in avenge to her father’s refusal from bringing inheritance to his daughters. Without knowing that the possession of the idols was with his wife Rachel, Jacob condemned a curse of death to whosoever had those. The sufferings of Rachel can also be identified with her facing the same issue of infertility like Sarah and Rebekah, which seemed to be persistent in the bloodline of Abraham. Although she was blessed of two sons, Joseph and Benjamin, her labor was painful, especially in the second occurrence that led to her death, shortly after Jacob had spoken the curse (Greenberg, 1962). Miriam The biblical narration to the story of Miriam reflects her as the elder sister to Moses, who had the responsibility to save him from the Pharaohs who had ordered the killing of all Hebrew newborns. While she saved little Moses, she also grew a strong possessiveness for her brother. With the turn of events, when Moses was at the age of marriage, Miriam voiced against him being tied with a Cushite woman. In doing so, Miriam became inclined towards speaking negatively and gossiping, which is termed as a punishable offence in the Bible. As a punishment, she was struck by tzaraat, which implies to a disease of disfigurative skin and other body parts. It was only because of the prayer by Moses that she was free from the illness. In her short story however, her true identification apart from being the sister of Moses remains undisclosed (Reiss, 2010). Rahab Deborah Unlike other women of the Bible, as already discussed above, the story of Rahab was much distinct and alluring, perhaps owing to her portrayal of a revolutionist in combination of a true worshiper and a prostitute by profession. It was as narrated in the Hebrew Bible, in the book of Joshua, that Rahab had played a significant role in protecting the Hebrew spies from being caught in Jordan valley of Jericho city. In her response to the spies when hiding them as bundles of flax thrown on the roof, she showed strong devotion to the God and by his name took the promises from the spies to save the lives of her father, mother, brothers and sisters in the city if it was captured in the near future. As was suspected, as the city fell to its doom shortly after the spies were freed from the brothel of Rahab. However, as a reward to her devotion and assistance to the fulfillment of God’s will, the promise was kept and she was spared with her life along with those of her dear ones (Jerome, 2014). Hannah Throughout the Bible it has been repeated several times that birth of a child is painful for women although preciously desired and hence, because the pleasure of motherhood in itself is divine, it is only through the blessings of God that a woman can become a mother and bear a child in her womb. In the story of Hannah too, the same verdict was bespoken as was in the case of Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel, who had problems in conceiving child and thus, had to pray for motherhood from God. Hannah too had complications in her conceiving. She was the second wife of Elkanah but was bestowed with special care and treatment by her husband. Unastonishingly, her special care caused jealousy among the other wives of Elkanah and Hannah was given to mistreatments increasing every year for her. Her infertility as well as a major cause for her mistreatment for which, she had been devoted to constant praying to God that went unanswered until she had sought refuge under a tabernacle. As she was praying to the almighty with all her faith, she was deceived as a drunken lady by the high priest Eli. Nevertheless, as was her nature, to the rebuke of the priest Hannah calmly responded about her wretched state and her prayers those went unanswered. Hearing to her story, the priest gave her his prayer wish and promised a child to her. Shortly later, the promise was sufficed and she became a mother giving birth to Samuel. Keeping to her prayers, she however dedicated her son to the God in the ark after three years, showing complete devotion to Him (Truth for Today, 2005). Esther Esther, another great woman of the Bible, was a queen in the Jewish empire and was bestowed with the solemnity that enriched her rhetoric character for the good of many under sufferings. Not much is asserted about Esther’s family life save her devotion towards her people and all those who were marginalized, including women of the then society, Jews, African American and homosexuals. She was the one who used her intellect and her rhetoric character to resolve the mournful conditions of the marginalized and thus, was serving the God by serving His creations – the human souls. Nevertheless, on account that little has been mentioned about Esther in biblical narrations, scholars have argued over her role as a pure soul (Klubnik, 2011). Conclusions Besides the above-mentioned narrations signifying women and their positions in the biblical narrations, there are many other women who received considerable value in portraying the right and the wrong as was dictated by God. My learning from the context helped me deduce the fact that birth and death of any human are the two occurrences that occurs on the decision of God. With both these occurrences in a human life, the role of women have been imperative in the biblical accounts as studied in the case of the 10 great female characters. Womanhood, however, has been commonly defined as synonymous to motherhood wherein the bearing of a child was the most demanding phase in a woman’s life and could only come through the blessings of the Supreme. On the contrary, the feeling of hatred, jealousy, favoritism and replication of distrust to the Lord were a few of the sins, which bestowed wrath on the women of the Bible and lead their lives to misery. Nevertheless, as the story of the 10 women studied above depicts, through the way of worshiping and constant prayers, the soul can be freed from such miseries and the blessings of the Lord can be obtained. The most intriguing fact however, which I learnt from the stories of the Bible was the distinction between the roles of a woman and a man in the society. Throughout the accounts obtained, this distinction was apparent, which although I disregard as a depiction of sexism, but certainly a replication of the punishment that Eve had called for unknowingly by disobeying the orders of God. References Greenberg, M. (1962). Another Look at Rachel’s Theft of the Teraphim. Journal of Biblical Literature, 239-248. Jerome, O. M. (2014). Rahab in the Book of Joshua and other Texts of the Bible. Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 19(3), 19-29. Klubnik, P. (2011). Esther: A story of the providence of god in a pagan land. Retrieved from http://www.biblicalresources.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Esther-Bible-Study.pdf Matalon, G. (2008). Rebekah's Hoax. Jewish Bible Quarterly, 36(4), 243-251. Poythress, V. and Grudem, W. (2012). The gender-neutral bible controversy: Muting the masculinity of god's words. Tenessee: Broadman and Holman Publishers. Reiss, M. (2010). Miriam Rediscovered. Jewish Bible Quarterly, 38 (3), 183-190. Spangler, A. and Syswerda, J. E. (2007). Women of the Bible: A one-year devotional study of women in scripture. Michigan: Zondervan. Tresemer, E. (2012). The salt that she became: The unnamed wife in genesis. Mythological Studies Journal, 3, 1-12. Truth for Today. (2005). Hannah: A monument to motherhood. Retrieved from http://www.biblecourses.com/english/en_lessons/en_198802_02.pdf Whitfield, J. L. (2007). The Invisible Woman: Eve’s self image in paradise lost. Oshkosh Scholar, II, 57-61. Zucker, D. J. (2008). What Sarah saw: Envisioning genesis 21:9-10. Jewish Bible, 36(1), 54-63. Read More