Women in The Hebrew Texts of The Bible
Christianity developed as a sect of Judaism in the First Century AD. It therefore inherited the depictions of women already existing within the Hebrew Bible (known to Christians as The Old Testament) and through history, the women of these Jewish texts have been important in the development of Christian theology, art and attitudes to women.
In the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve were said to be the first man and the first woman. Adam was created first, and Eve from Adam's rib. Some commentators have suggested that Eve being God's second Creation indicated female inferiority, but in calling Eve "flesh of my flesh" others say a relationship of equality is implied. In a later episode, Eve persuades Adam to join her in eating from forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil - angering God, who casts them out of the Garden of Eden. These accounts were drawn upon by Christian theologians in the development of the doctrine of Original Sin.
Elsewhere, earthy depictions are given of the bearers of the children of Abraham, the Father of Judaism. His Egyptian slave girl Hagar bore Ishmael, while his wife Sarah bore Isaac. Hagar and Ishmael were banished, but with God's promise that Ishmael's descendants would found a great nation (the Arabs). Isaac's descendants meanwhile were to become the Israelites.
Others appearing in the texts include Rebekah, the wife of Isaac, who tricked Issac into blessing her second son as heir; Delilah, who brought down the mighty warrior Samson; the Queen of Sheba who was overwhelmed by the splendour of King Soloman's court; and the cursed Jezebel, who conspired with her husband to have an innocent man killed and was in turn killed for her crime.
Some women were praised in the books of Ruth and Esther. The book of Ruth is about a young Moabite woman's loyalty to her Jewish mother-in-law and her willingness to move to Israel and become a part of their culture. The story ends with her praise and blessing as she is married to an Israelite and subsequently King David comes from her lineage. In the Book of Esther, a young woman named Esther of Jewish lineage is praised for her bravery as the queen of Persia who saved many from being killed by her pleas to the king.
Read more about this topic: Christianity And Women
Famous quotes containing the words women, hebrew and/or texts:
“Many women are surprised by the intensity of their maternal pull and the conflict it brings to their competing roles. This is the precise point at which many women feel the stress of the work/family dilemma most keenly. They realize that they may have a price to pay for wanting to be both professionals and mothers. They feel guilty for not being at work, and angry for being manipulated into feeling this guilt. . . . They don’t quite fit at home. They don’t quite fit at work.”
—Deborah J. Swiss (20th century)
“Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.”
—Bible: Hebrew Song of Solomon, 4:5.
“A book is not an autonomous entity: it is a relation, an axis of innumerable relations. One literature differs from another, be it earlier or later, not because of the texts but because of the way they are read: if I could read any page from the present time—this one, for instance—as it will be read in the year 2000, I would know what the literature of the year 2000 would be like.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)