Biblical Women in World and Hebrew Literature
Women characters are presented in the Bible in various degrees of elaboration and complexity as life-like, historical figures. In modern Hebrew literature, as part of reconnecting to the Bible as a source of inspiration, writers were drawn to the triangle of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel. Since the 1980s, feminist criticism has deeply influenced the reading of the Bible, redeeming outcast women characters and giving voice to certain deprecated biblical women. The portrayal of biblical women in contemporary world and Hebrew literature allows us access to the thoughts of biblical women, exposure to their world, and better understanding of their motivation and sensitivities.
In order to present a concise overview of biblical women in world and Hebrew literature throughout the ages, one has to resort to some crude generalizations. While such generalizations may simplify the extremely heterogeneous and multi-faceted phenomena under discussion, one hopes that they will not necessarily distort the subject. To approach this wide and varied field, I would like to propose certain distinctions and to focus on some representative cases. These distinctions may, with some modifications, apply to male and female biblical characters alike.
Evaluation of Biblical Women Characters
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The Founding Mothers
This first group of women characters includes the mother of humankind and the four matriarchs of the Jewish people. These five deserve a separate section not only because of their role in the text but also because they seem to possess certain traits that are later manifested in many other biblical women characters. Thus, they function as archetypes, encapsulating a set of motives and potentials that will later be realized in their many (literal and metaphorical) daughters.
The Mother of Humankind
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The Four Matriarchs
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Foreign Women
Foreign women interested the biblical authors for more than one reason. At different times, they represented a source of attraction but also of danger—a threat to the formation of a coherent and homogeneous nation. When the tribes of Israel were trying to occupy Canaan, the question of intermarriage was very pertinent one for the patriarchal society. Later, in exilic conditions, it became an acute issue with regard to the hosting society (for the way erotic relationship in the Bible sometimes indirectly represents ambigious national conflicts and attitudes, see Keshet). This basically ambivalent attitude towards foreign women is evident in that some of the most pious and ideally portrayed women in the Bible are of alien origin, but at the same time, some of the most negative and dangerous also come from foreign lands. The following section examines these two extremes, as well as some interesting mixtures.
The Pious Ones
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Foreigners: The Evil Ones
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Foreigners: Ambivalent Cases
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Victimized Women
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The Changing Fates of Minor Characters
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Aschkenasy, Nehama. Eve’s Journey: Feminine Images in Hebraic Literary Tradition. Philadelphia: 1986.
Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Princeton: 1953.
Bach, Alice. Women, Seduction and Betrayal in Biblical Narrative. Cambridge, Mass.: 1997.
Bach, Alice (ed.) Women in the Hebrew Bible: A Reader. New York: 1999.
Bal, Mieke. Lethal Love: Feminist Literary Interpretations of Biblical Love Stories. Bloomington: 1986.
Baumgarten, Murray. “Abishag.” In Biblical Patterns in Modern Literature, edited by David H. Hirsch and Nehama Aschkenasy, 127–141. Chico, California: 1984.
Bebe, Pauline. Isha: Dictionnaire des femmes ed du judaisme. Paris: 2001.
Bird, Phyllis. “Images of Women in the Old Testament.” In Religion and Sexism: Images of Women in the Jewish and Christian Traditions, edited by Rosemary Radford Ruether, 41–88. New York: 1974.
Brenner, Athalya and Carole Fontaine (eds.) A Feminist Companion to Reading the Bible: Approaches, Methods and Strategies. Sheffield: 1997.
Brown, Amy Benson. Rewriting the Word: American Women Writers and the Bible. Westport, Connecticut: 1999.
Exum, Cheryl J. Fragmented Women: Feminist (Sub)versions of Biblical Narratives. Valley Forge, Pennsylvania: 1993.
Exum, Cheryl J. Plotted, Shot and Pained: Cultural Representations of Biblical Women. Sheffield: 1996.
Fisch, Harold. New Stories for Old: Biblical Patterns in the Novel. Basingstoke, UK: 1998.
Idem. The Biblical Presence in Shakespeare, Milton and Blake: A Comparative Study. Oxford: 1999.
Fishelov, David. Samson’s Locks: The Transformations of Biblical Samson (Hebrew). Tel Aviv and Haifa: 2000.
Hirsch, David H. and Nehama Aschkenasy (eds.). Biblical Patterns in Modern Literature. Chico, California: 1984.
Jacobson, David C. Modern Midrash: The Retelling of Traditional Jewish Narratives by Twentieth Century Hebrew Writers. Albany, New York: 1987.
Jagendorf, Zvi. “In the Morning Behold, It Was Leah: Genesis and the Reversal of Sexual Knowledge.” In Hirsch and Aschkenasy, 51–60.
Jasper, David and Stephen Prickett (eds). The Bible and Literature, A Reader. Oxford: 1999.
*Jeffrey, David Lyle. A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature. Grand Rapids, Michigan: 1992.
Kartun-Blum, Ruth. Profane Scriptures: Reflections on the Dialogue with the Bible in Modern Hebrew Poetry. Cincinnati, 1999.
Keshet, Shula. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: Intertextual Narrative in Jewish Culture. (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: 2003.
*Liptzin, Sol. Biblical Themes in World Literature. New Jersey: 1985.
Meyers, Carol L., general editor. Toni Craven and Ross S. Kraemer, associate editors. Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament. Boston and New York: 2000.
Pardes, Ilana. Countertraditions in the Bible: A Feminist Approach. Cambridge, Mass.: 1992.
Ravitzky, Ruthi, ed. Koreot Mibereshit (Women Reading in Genesis/from the Beginning) (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: 1999.
Shacham, Chaya. Women and Masks—From Lot’s Wife to Cinderella: Representations of the Female Image in Hebrew Women’s Poetry (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: 2001.
Stanford, William B. The Ulysses Theme: A Study in the Adaptability of a Traditional Hero. Oxford: 1954.
Steinzaltz, Adin. Women in the Bible (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: 1984.
Sternberg, Meir. The Poetics of Biblical Narrative: Ideological Literature and the Drama of Reading. Bloomington: 1985.
Zion, Tanya. Stories of Our Beginnings: Conversations About Human Relations, A Dialogue with the Book of Genesis (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: 2002.
*Zmora, Israel. Women of the Bible (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: 1964.
*Works of major importance.
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