Course Description
A selection of Iconic female agents mainly in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, their characterization, their social worlds, and the use to which the writers put these, in the context of ancient literature.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
In addition to producing a research paper based on the materials
in the course, students will be responsible for collaboratively
developing a history of literature on a theme or component of
the subject. The publication of this collection on the
departmental website will be judged on the basis of its scope,
its presentation, but especially by the construction of
analytical categories with relevance not just to the theme or
corpus under study, but also to the scholarly treatment of
related or comparable phenomena.
Athena Title
Women Old Test Hebrew Bible
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
To explore pertinent aspects of the culture that shaped and reappropriated the types and images bearing on feminine roles and values in society. Thus, to illustrate how the history of interpretation, including that represented by the stories' embedment in various contexts, reflects social and intellectual history. And to show how elites exploit the images of politically and economically marginal categories in propounding their messages and in recruiting their listeners. At a historical level, vicissitudes in the legal, cultic, economic, and social status of women reflect political economy.
Topical Outline
I. Introduction to the Sources and Criticism Biblical Texts Hebrew Bible Apocryphal Literature New Testament Feminist Approaches to Biblical Scholarship Comparative Ancient Literature on Women and Females: goddess, protagonists, victims, family, prophetesses, priestesses, saloon-keepers, whores, daughters, concubines, and the control of reproduction II. Socio-Historical Context Domesticity Gods and Goddesses Recurring States of Liminality Marriage Law -- Bible and Near East Levitical and Deuteronomic Laws for Women Gender and Sexuality III. Types and Tropes Mothering: Eve, Mary, Sarah, Rebecca Figurative Mothers: Deborah, Jephthah's Daughter, Rachel Kings and Daughters David and Bathsheba Amnon and Tamar Salome Women as "Other" Tamar and Judah Jael and Sisera Judith and Holofernes Replacements Snow White Miriam Lot's Daughters The Levite's Concubine The Body Politic: Mother, Daughter, Wife, Whore Israel Jerusalem Rome