The Role of Women in the Hebrew Bible Essay Example

Introduction

Hebrew Bible is a combination of ancient records entirely written in the Hebrew language. It is made up of 24 books aligned in a unique order of three divisions namely; Torah, Prophets, and Writings. Although the authors of the Hebrew Bible are arguably men, some suggest that women also participated in its writing. So, women contributed to the writing of the Hebrew Bible. There are allegations that the book belongs to men, from its characters to the patriarchs in the book of Genesis, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This essay intends to demonstrate how women are positively displayed in the Hebrew Bible and the different roles that they played in ancient Israel.

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Intellectuals combined a mindful evaluation of the Bible with the use of information from anthropology and archaeology materials. They similarly used a modified affirmation from the expansive Biblical world to restructure some predetermined characteristics of ancient Israelite culture concerning women. The features include women described as wives and child bearers within ancient Israel. Since the Bible is intensely agitated with spiritual circumstances, there are descriptions of several elements of female's religious values. The Bible's likelihood to pay attention to the people of class in ancient Israelite society equally means that it is possible to create a sensible description of the experiences of elite women, especially the women of the royal court, the judges, the princess, and the queens.

There is a small percentage of female characters that are mentioned by their names. Several of the mentioned and unmentioned women remain memorable due to their unique actions and characters. Examples of women that left a mark for remembrance are; Esther, Ruth, Abigail, Shunammite woman, Sarah, Miriam, Bathsheba among others. These women represented different characters that women played in the Israel society. The following are the narratives that demonstrate various roles that women played;

Sarah and Hagar Narrative

The narrative of Sarah is found in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. Research shows that the author of the book of Genesis is Moses. From the entire Bible, there is evidence that Genesis' author was an eyewitness to some of the events recorded in it. The implication is that the eyewitness was Moses. There have been concerns that Moses could have copied from other ancient materials. Presently, many people have started to realize that he did not plagiarize the Book of Genesis. There is evidence that he used earlier documents from Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Isaac. Christians believe that God guided Moses in composing the book. The book contains many themes, among them being the role of women, and how they are portrayed in the society like in the narrative of Sarah and Hagar through Abraham.

Abraham is a famous person in the bible but his story revolves around two women- Sarah and Hagar. Sarah was a wife to Abraham while Hagar was Sarah's personal slave who turned out to be Abraham's concubine. Sarah and her husband did not have children although God had promised them a son. Later in the story when Sarah heard the promise of God, she did not believe it because she was past childbearing age. She decided to give her slave, Hagar, to Abraham who slept with her and conceived. Sarah expected to build a household through her slave, but Hagar started to look down on her. Hagar's attitude results to Sarah mistreating her, and she later chased her away. When Hagar was in the desert, God spoke to her, sent her back to Abraham's home and she gave birth to a son and named him Ishmael.

Later, Sarah also conceived and gave birth to a son at the very time God had promised her and Abraham. Abraham named his son with Sarah- Isaac. After the birth of Isaac, Hagar and Ishmael were sent away again and this time they do not return. This story clearly displays the relations between women in a male-controlled society. It also reveals the problems related to femininity interconnecting with the disadvantages of class. Sarah belonged in a high class and she possessed power over her social inferior, Hagar.

The Shunammite Woman

This narrative is found in the book of 2 Kings. The author of this book is anonymous. It is not clear when and where the book of 1 and 2 Kings was written. Despite the authorship problem, the book clearly portrays women in a positive way. In 2 Kings, there is a tale of a woman in Shunem that treated Prophet Elisha with respect, giving him food, and a place to stay each time he was in town. One day Elisha asked his servant what the Shunammite woman desired, and the servant said she has no child. So Elisha prophesied to her that she will have a son. A year later, she gives birth, the boy grows and later the son died. She put the boy's body on Elisha's bed and went to find him. Elisha performed a miracle and brought the woman's son back to life.

The woman also appeared before the king. She sought refuge in Philistia for seven years to avoid facing famine that had hit the town. When she came back, she found out that she does not possess anything. Someone took her house and land. She appealed to the king and repossessed back her house and land. The story illustrates how gender roles connect with economic status in prehistoric Israel. The narrative happens in the midst of the underprivileged rural and contrary to the background of extreme poverty. The Shunammite woman is well off, making her extra brave compared to other poor women and men. She is wealthy enough and capable to extend hospitality to Elisha. She is independent enough and willing to confront the prophet and the king in pursuit of the well-being of her household.

The Narrative of Ruth

This narrative is found in the book of Ruth. The book does not mention its writer. Some scholars attribute the book to the Prophet Samuel. Ruth is the main character in the book of Ruth in the Hebrew Bible. The women in the story are Ruth, Naomi, and Orpah. Naomi is the mother-in-law to both Ruth and Orpah. The husbands to both women died and they were left helpless, unprotected and empty. Naomi urged her daughter's in law to go back to their mothers' houses. Orpah accepted to return to her mother while Ruth refused and insisted upon remaining with her mother in law. Later in the narrative, Ruth and Naomi head to Bethlehem where Ruth got married to Boaz. Therefore, Naomi received protection through Ruth's marriage to Boaz.

How Women are portrayed in the Narratives

Women are portrayed as strong-willed and independent. For instance, in both narratives, the women exhibit strong-will and independence. In the passage of Sarah and Hagar, Sarah takes the initiative of giving her personal slave to Abraham to bear children on her behalf. When Hagar conceived she started to diminish her mistress and instead of Abraham dealing with her, Sarah takes it upon herself to deal with her. She chased Hagar away. The same character applies to the Shunammite woman in the book of 2 kings. In her narrative, she gave birth to a son who later died. She took it upon herself to look for Prophet Elisha who helped her by bringing her son back to life. She independently decides to find help. In the bible, it's not mentioned if she was married, but she is rich to an extent of providing food and shelter to Prophet Elisha whenever he was in town. It is also stated that she sought refuge in Philistia after a famine breakout. After seven years she came back only to find that her land and a house were taken from her. She took a bold step to face the king appeal to him to give her back her possessions. The king listened to her and gave her house and land back.

The role of women was to uphold the community traditions. Sarah's active involvement in the story of Hagar was to sustain the old tradition of Mesopotamia custom of a priestess, a class with the privilege of playing a greater role than their husbands in dealing with family matters. Sarah was a priestess in her home country before she decided to leave her homeland and move with Abraham to Canaan. Also, Sarah giving her maidservant to Abraham to bore children through her was to maintain a marriage contract which stated that if the wife is unable to bear children, they can give their slaves to the husband so as to have children on their behalf. In addition, Ruth upholds a tradition of levirate marriage which commanded the care of women whom husbands have died without leaving a child. The unmarried brother to the deceased husband had a role to marry his sister- in- law and have children with her. Ruth's first husband passed away without leaving a child. Boaz, a rich landowner in Bethlehem happened to be a kinsman to Ruth's late husband. Therefore, Ruth married Boaz so that she may preserve the land that her husband owned.

The Biblical narratives still portray that the women's worth is threatened if they do not have a male provider. In the narrative of Ruth, the worth of Naomi is greatly diminished due to the death of her husband and sons. Naomi is left feeling helpless, empty and destitute. If it were not for Ruth, Naomi's ending would have been a sad one. Luckily, her worth is redeemed by her daughter- in -law who gets married to a rich landowner through a levirate marriage. Boaz becomes the provider of both Ruth and Naomi. Through Boaz, Naomi had a son and could now possess the land that her son had left. The worth of Shunammite women is also affected due to the absence of a man in her life. When she stays in Philistia for seven years her land and house are taken away from her because there was no man who could protect her from losing her properties. She gets her possessions back due to her courage and boldness.

The women in the narratives had power and authority. Sarah had authority over her maidservant that's why she ordered her to have sexual relations with Abraham. Since Hagar was a mere slave, her duty was to receive and follow orders from her mistress. Therefore, she had the power to command her slave. Sarah's authority gave her the power to send Hagar away when she (Hagar) started to demean her. In the narrative of Ruth, we see both Ruth and Naomi taking power over control of own destinies. Ruth decides to go to Boaz field to collect grains. Naomi, on the other hand, sends Ruth to Boaz so that Ruth can get a levirate marriage from Boaz. The Shunammite woman had power over her life. Her wealth gave the supremacy that empowered her to approach the king without fear.

Women are portrayed as child bearers. Women in the Hebrew Bible had a role of childbearing. This role is illustrated in both narratives. For instance, in the three narratives, the women face a challenge of conceiving. For example, Sarah was not able to conceive. With time, she decides to give her servant to Abraham so that she may have children through her servant. It was a tradition that when a woman is unable to bear children, she can make an arrangement with the slave to sleep with her husband so that the servant would have children on the woman's behalf. Although later in the narrative, Sarah was able to have a child of her own. In the story of the Shunammite woman, Elisha asked his servant what the woman needs. The servant replied that the woman was in need of a child. Then Prophet Elisha prophesied to her that she will have a son, which comes to pass after one year. For Ruth's narrative, her first husband died and left her childless. Ruth and Naomi move from Moab to Bethlehem where there is a kinsman to the family of her husband who could remarry her. On their stay in Bethlehem, Ruth gets married to Boaz through levirate marriage. She later bore a son whom they named after her first husband.

There is a harmony of women in the narrative of Ruth. There is a form of friendship between Naomi and Ruth. The women travel together from Moab to Bethlehem. Although Orpah retu...