Course Description
Portrayals and views of women, and women's views, in the Hebrew Bible and related literature. The selection of texts will highlight a particular set of themes each semester.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
A full-blown research paper engaging texts in Hebrew or, if
apocryphal, Greek, with the aim of publication; conducting at
least one discussion session, or delivering a thirty-minute
lecture.
Athena Title
Women of Old Test Hebrew Bible
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Advances understanding of how to reconstruct a panoply of historical ideological perspectives on social relations in terms both of their literary or other symbolic expressions -- myth, iconography, ritual, etiquette -- and the practicalities of daily life. The evolution of women's status over time in relation to external realities. Analysis of narrative, legal, and theoretical texts for assumptions about society on which assertions are based, as a starting-point for a historically contextualized reading of society. Identifying ideological prejudices disposing readers, today as well as earlier, to particular conclusions from the material.
Topical Outline
I. The Bible and Literature of the Time (situating the reading) II. Realities of Daily Life and Gendered Activities III. Biblical Figures such as: Eve; the daughters of man; Israel's matriarchs; Moses' wives; Miriam and other prophetesses; women in Judges; women in Samuel; queens and concubines; motherhood IV. Women in Law Traditional usage Prescriptions concerning women in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy Marriage - divorce - inheritance - succession - purity - cult practice Comparanda in ancient world V. Images of women in late Biblical (e.g., Esther) and intertestamental literature VI. The feminine role in worship VII. The history of goddesses in the Biblical world