Stu's Blog

I wrote previously posing the question as to why women so often get a bad rap in the bible.

Phyllis Bird has written an article for the Anchor Bible Dictionary ¹ that explores how women are portrayed in the Old Testament. She reminds the reader of the distinctively male perspective that is so characteristic of the bible in general and particularly of the Old Testament. The view of women presented in the Old Testament is shaped by the male authors and conforms to the male dominated values of patriarchal society. Nonetheless, women played important roles in society and had areas of great influence. Sometimes their influence and power were not presented directly and must be inferred by how they were portrayed. Bird’s article helps the reader to be aware of these issues and to look for clues that are hinted at, particularly in the more negative types of characterizations. It is precisely at these points that the potential for female power is likely to be suppressed. This short review highlights some of the key issues that stood out to me as I read Bird’s article.

Women in the Old Testament are generally portrayed as nameless second-class people without a voice in a world ruled by men. Since Scripture comes to us from the hands of men, women never have the opportunity to tell their side of the story. Their words, even considering how seldom direct female dialog appears, is never directly from their lips or writings. This is not surprising since the authors of Scripture are males formed out of a male dominated society guided by male values. Women and their stories become the objects that accomplish the purposes of the male authors. This hardly portrays women fairly or fully. The authors were selective in their purposes and the portrayal of women suffered doubly in that not only do we have a uniquely male perspective, but also what is provided is done in such a way as to further the agendas of the authors.

Modern methods of anthropological study, literary, rhetorical, and structural criticisms all help to read between the lines of Scripture, and reveal the multifaceted and important roles women played in the history of Israel. Women were restricted and dominated in many arenas, as they have been throughout all known history and cultures, yet they had significant roles, exercised authority in their given areas of responsibility, and had a hand in shaping society and ultimately the history of Israel.

Women, with few exceptions, were denied the opportunity to lead men.² This precluded positions of institutional responsibility and leadership. On the contrary, men were expected to exercise authority over women. Legal rights of women were generally secondary and inferior to those of men. Married women were considered to be the property of their husbands.³

Women were given unique roles and responsibilities that only women could fulfill. They found both fulfillment and restriction in these roles.⁴ Such roles were most often played out in the realm of the family unit. A woman was uniquely suited to be a wife and mother, and the fundamental evidence of successful motherhood, having many children, was a means to personal fulfillment. It was also an opportunity to shape a new generation as the role of the mother included the teaching of the children. Failure at this primary role put a woman at great risk. Without children to provide care in later life, the loss of a husband due to death or divorce left a woman without property or means of support. She would be in a very desperate state indeed!

Failure in the role of mother or wife also was treated as a disgrace and viewed as divine punishment.⁵ A woman having lost her family was an outcast of society. She could very easily be viewed as a threat to normal society values and might even be forced to resort to prostitution to survive.⁶ Therefore, women were under great pressure to produce for the good of the family, in providing care, nourishment, material needs such as clothing, and especially children.

Purity was a fundamental religious and social concept in ancient Israel. Foreign women threatened the religious and social fabric and were generally portrayed as dangerous, symbolically representing immorality and embodied evil.⁷ Bird notes that the degree of fear expressed towards foreign women reveal the latent power to influence society they actually possessed.⁸ With few exceptions, foreign women were therefore generally marginalized in Scripture to protect the dominant male values.⁹

There is much more to be learned from Bird’s article. She presents a well-balanced view that brings out more positive characterizations than this review might suggest. This review has highlighted Bird’s observations of the negative portrayal of women in the Old Testament, as it is clear that women do not speak with their own voice and are generally demeaned as a result. Those in power retain the privilege of writing history and this is true of Scripture as well. I am reminded of Leviticus chapter twenty-seven where the monetary value of men and women is spelled out. If a male of age between twenty and sixty years was worth fifty shekels, a woman was worth thirty (Lev 27:3-4). We see here the evidence of sinful human nature at work that claims higher valuation for the self than for the other. We must remember this tendency to present women as lesser second-class citizens lest we succumb to a devalued view of women that would shape our expectations and beliefs in a dishonoring way. We do well to bear in mind that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27).

I love listening to virtuosos. I also enjoy listening to different performers play a piece of music. The “Flight of the Bumblebee,” composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, is from his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, composed in 1899–1900. My dad played trumpet and violin and could play it on both. I thought that was pretty cool. It is a flashy piece, though not nearly as difficult to play as it might sound. But there are those who can play it and those who can make it sing. The piece is meant to be played very fast, and typically, the faster you go the more exciting it sounds. I have several versions to compare. They are all interesting in different ways and for different reasons. All of the musicians are extremely talented if not outright virtuosos. Listen for is how well they bring to life the image of an actual bee in flight. Also listen to how cleanly it is played, how dynamics are used, and whether there is something particularly creative about the artist’s performance. The pair of clips towards the end are interesting in that one is from the 1996 movie Shine based on the life of David Helfgott, a brilliant pianist who suffered a mental breakdown. The last clip is Helfgott playing the piece. Some of the performances take the piece pretty far afield. I was impressed with the beatbox version. My favorite is probably Wynton, but then I love pretty much everything he does.

On the heels of 1 Chron 29:14,¹ I was reading Num 11:1-15 in the TNK² and this caught my eye: “Now our gullets are shriveled” (Num 11.6a TNK). If you ever needed a primer on complaining, look to Numbers 11. A good complainer must be 1. ungrateful, 2. a creative articulator, 3. know how to whine, and finally, 4. be willing to gorge themselves on what they complain they lack. If you are human, you probably know from personal experience a little about each of these essential qualities, but hopefully don’t excel to the degree that these folks did. The translation of v6 is somewhat ambiguous³. I like shriveled gullets. It has zing! Really good whiners don’t use plain vanilla language. Even Moses does a bit of whining: “Where am I to get meat to give to all this people?”  (Num 11:13 ESV) The NLT says whine/whined/whining is vs 10,13,18,20. The TNK substitutes weeping in vs 10 which leads me to believe that weeping is occasionally an appropriate substitute for whining. The BDE ups the ante by including vs 4 when you look for weeping. But I prefer whining as weeping is somewhat ambiguous. So what can you expect in return for a good whine? How about fire from heaven? “and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some” (Num 11:1 ESV). If that doesn’t finish it, you might just get what you asked for. “18 Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, ‘Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt.’ Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat. 19 You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, 20 but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you. (Num 11:18-20 ESV). This is serious stuff, but you too can be a first class whiner if you try, and it seems that complaining is part of the human condition. We have no need for instruction as this comes quite naturally. Where does this come from? Is there an antidote? Please, no simple moralisms. Been there, tried that.

A ten-piece outfit from Long Beach and San Diego, the Rabbinical School Dropouts play Jewish soul music (klezmer) combined with an avant-garde jazz twist. Music critics have described them as: an “esoteric space klezmer ensemble,” “psycho klez,” “Frank Zappa and Dr. Seuss intersect[ing] … [with] Woody Allen and Howard Stern”, and “[avant-garde pioneer] Sun Ra and Frank Zappa at Woody Harrelson’s backyard BBQ.”^{young Perlman perfomance. I attended a few Bar Mitzvahs in my youth. I also attended a couple of Zappa concerts long ago. I’ve always been a fan of Dr. Seuss and even kind of enjoy Sun Ra a little bit. So I was ready for the Rabbinical School Dropouts.here and here.}

Why do women get such a bad rap in the bible? Num 5:11-31 prescribes a bizarre test for suspected wifely unfaithfulness. If a man is overcome with jealousy, though he has no evidence whatsoever, he can appeal to the priest to perform a ritual to determine whether his wife has broken faith. The priest is to concoct a bitter potion and force the women to drink it. “And the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water” (Num 5:17 ESV). The potion will trigger a curse if there is guilt. “May this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your womb swell and your thigh fall away.’ And the woman shall say, ‘Amen, Amen’” (Num 5:22 ESV). Some translations say that her belly will swell and her thigh will rot.¹ Now mind you, the jealous husband has no proof whatsoever, yet the poor wife is subjected to a humiliating procedure that borders on magic. And what of the jealous wife? What concoction can she expect her potentially wayward husband to be forced to drink to demonstrate his faithfulness? There is no such provision to prove manly faith. This embarrassing passage is trying to help us see the great value in faithfulness, but the lesson comes from a context that has thankfully become very foreign to us. Then again, we might not be that terribly different after all. In any event, why are women picked on like this? Stay tuned for an answer.