Women In The Bible: Injustice toward women
Welcome back, my astounding Allies!
Arguably, many women throughout the world, even those in Christian circles have been subject to all forms of injustice, particularly, because of how women were generally treated in the Bible. Contemporary Christians however, should move beyond the Old Testament’s portrayal of women in negative ways and reinterpret those texts that affirm their leadership as created in the image of God. Travel with me on this adventure as I unfold some of the daring heist pulled off by some women in the Bible, to affirm their leadership capabilities.
The Old Testament undeniably is made up of pervasive patriarchal themes. The writers of the Old Testament seemed to have been influenced by the culture of the Aacient Near East, particularly in the way they perceived and portrayed women. Many feminists believe that the Bible cannot speak authoritatively to feminists and feminist concerns due to the pervasive presence of androcentric features within it.
Yahweh is the God of the fathers, the patriarchs, making God and the divine blessings appear patriarchal and androcentric. Men often have center stage, with women in the periphery. Some texts appear to be patently misogynistic, treating women as inferior to men. It seems impossible not to conclude that the Bible is written by men, about men, and for men [1].
African Cultures have been influenced
Almost all African cultures have regrettably been influenced by this myoptic way of seeing women. For instance, among the Akans of Ghana, there is an adage that interprets “If a woman buys a gun, it is found in the room of a man.” That is to say no matter the initiative a woman takes, it will end up with a man having the final say. Also, among the Nandi of Kenya, Regina Smith Oboler says
Men are believed to be more intelligent than women. Women are thought particularly to be incapable of foresight and to lack the ability to make and carry through sensible and realistic plans. For this reason, it is generally agreed that husbands should administer the family estate and wives for the most part concur with their husbands’ plans. It is commonly claimed that if a woman tried to manage property, she would very likely make a mess of it.
Some of the basic preconceived ideas of the Christian worldview is the belief that God is the Creator, which leads to the view that human beings do not exist autonomously [3]. And also that human beings were created in the image of God. Genesis 1:26 (NRSV) reads
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
The Image of God
The word translated as mankind is the Hebrew word ādām, it is used for both male and female. This implies that God created both man and woman in His image and gave them both dominion over the animals and over all the earth. In what way mankind is like God is not explicitly stated in the creation account, however, one may infer that dominion over the animals and over all the earth is one aspect of the image of God [4]. Throughout the Bible, several women have proved their equality with men by displaying impressive leadership qualities. I would like to discuss the leadership skills of some of these women.
The Mother of Moses
In Exodus 1:22, Pharaoh ordered all his people that every Hebrew boy born must be thrown into the Nile river. We are told in Chapter 2 that Moses was born at such an unfortunate time. Moses’ mother succeeded in concealing him for three months, we are not told his father played any role in this brave act. We can only imagine how she was able to keep the cries of an infant baby away from the ears of Egyptian assassins.
I strongly believe that, in order to carry the king’s order to the latter, the soldiers were probably tasked to enter any house where they would hear the cry of a baby, just so they could verify the gender, and drown him in the Nile river if it happens to be a boy. It took a brave and great leader, the mother, to keep poor Moses alive. We are told in verse 3 that when the nameless mother of Moses couldn’t hide him anymore, she put him in a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch.
Great act of bravely
This act can be nothing short of a meditative attempt by a great woman who desperately wanted to preserve posterity. Again, we are told in verse 4 that Moses’ sister Mirian, stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. As young as she was, she was ready to risk her life for the safety of her brother. Eventually, when Pharaoh’s daughter approached, Miriam gave her a proposition that she couldn’t resist. Moses’ mother ended up being paid to take care of her own son. Moses’ mother and Miriam undoubtedly displayed impressive leadership qualities.
Rahab and the heist
In Joshua Chapter 2, Rahab saved the lives of the two spies Joshua sent to spie the city of Jericho. She had been branded by society as a prostitute, but that did not stop her from pulling the biggest heist the city had ever seen. We are told in Joshua 2:2-3 that the king of Jericho was informed that some of the Israelites had come to spy out the land. We are not told the king was informed specifically that they were with Rahab. But the next thing was that we see the king ordering Rahab to bring the men out. It appears to me that the king knew Rahab was the only one in the city who was capable of hiding the foreigners. Eventually, Rahab was truly able to hide the spies and deceive the king’s messengers and set them on a three-day goose chase. Verse 15-16 says
So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. She said to them, ‘Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way.
She gave the spies accurate information, saved their lives and engineered their escape. It turned out that society had misconstrued her true talents and abilities and had reduced her to harlotry.
Michal the saviour
Michal was reduced to a snare by her own father, King Saul. 1 Samuel 18:20-21 reads
Now Saul’s daughter Michal was in love with David, and when they told Saul about it, he was pleased. “I will give her to him,” he thought, “so that she may be a snare to him and so that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David, “Now you have a second opportunity to become my son-in-law.
King Saul developed profound hatred for David after the women sang a song that “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousand.” But Saul’s effort to have David killed was thwarted. When he realised that Michal was in love with David, he thought he could leverage that to achieve his selfish ambition. Saul gave David an unrealistic task, to bring him a hundred foreskins of the Philistines. David instead of a hundred foreskins brought two hundred. Saul lost abysmally, but would not give up. He later conspired to kill David in the comfort of David’s home. 1 Samuel 9:11-13 reads
Saul sent men to David’s house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, “If you don’t run for your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll be killed.” So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped. Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats’ hair at the head.
It took the intervention of Mical to save David’s life. She devised a perfect escape plan and executed it. Micah thus was loyal to David and through her directives, the lineage of the Messiah was preserved.
Tamar and her resilience
Tamar was subjected to gross social injustice and was eventually sentenced to death. In Genesis 38:7 we are told Judah’s firstborn, Er was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death. Judah’s second born, Onan was asked to sleep with Tamar to raise offspring for his brother. Here, Tamar was reduced to a sex object. Onan decided to perform coitus interruptus, after having sexual intercourse with her, because of his selfish reasons. Therefore, God killed him also. The two sons of Judah thus were dead by no fault of Tamar, she simply became a victim of her circumstance.
Few years later, when Shelah, the last born of Judah, reached maturity, Judah decided to discontinue their tradition. Without the help of any feminist or human right advocate, Tamar decided to take matters into her own hands. She disguised herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which was on the road to Timnah. Judah mistook her to be a prostitute and had an affair with her without paying anything. Tamar managed to get his staff, signet and bracelets which she tendered as evidence to vindicate herself when she was eventually found pregnant. But for the items she took from Judah, she would have been burnt alive.
Judah’s confession
Judah’s own confession was that “She hath been more righteous than I”. I believe Tamar was able to draw the community’s attention to the injustice and the disdain treatment they met to women. Tamar should not be seen as seductive and unreasonable, but rather a strong woman who fought for what she believed in.
The Daughters of Zelophehad
Lastly, the daughters of Zelophehad were women who stood up against what was known to be a gross social injustice. There was a law that if a man died without having a son, his male next of kin shall inherit him even if he had daughters. This was a classical example of how women were treated unfairly. But in Numbers 27:1-11, the five daughters of Zelophehad, namely, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah dared to make a difference. They stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leaders, and all the congregation and skillfully argued their case. Verse 3 to 4 reads
Our father died in the wilderness; he was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah, but died for his own sin; and he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan because he had no son? Give to us a possession among our father’s brothers.
The women are “right”
Moses at this juncture had no option but to go before God. Contrary to his expectation, God said to him that the daughters of Zelophehad were right and that he should give them inheritance among their father’s brothers and pass the legacy of their father on to them. God established this law: “If a man dies, and has no son, then you shall pass his inheritance on to his daughter.” This clearly shows that what was accepted as a law against women was never the position of God. Zelophehad’s daughters provoked the law’s amendment and ended up fighting for women across generations.
Conclusion
It is evidently clear that women have a lot to offer, as people created in the image of God. Therefore, contemporary Christians should move beyond the Old Testament’s portrayal of women in negative ways and reinterpret those texts affirming their leadership as created in the image of God. If we consider the bravery of Moses’ mother, the loyalty of Mical, the resilience of Tamar, and the proactiveness of Rahab, indeed women in the Bible have a lot to offer in terms of leadership. And this obviously confirms the fact that God created both men and women in his own image.
The Creator Himself created Eve and Adam, who both shared His likeness. So there is no room for the disparity in the design of man and woman. In Genesis 1:28, God rewards both man and woman. There is no preference for one gender over the other. As stated in Gen 1:28, both man and woman are given equal authority in overseeing creation in addition to being created in God’s image and blessed by Him [5]. Let us see the women for who they truly are, not what “culture” and society have reduced them to be.
Thank you for stopping by. Subscribe to my newsletter below and get notified of new posts. You may also drop a comment or question in the comment section below.
References
[1] Robert B. Kruschwitz, “Women in the Bible: Christian Reflection, A series in faith and ethics,” 11
[2] Regina Smith Oboler, “Women, Power, and Economic Change: The Nandi of Kenya,” (California: Stanford University Press, 1985), 60
[3] Anthony A. Hoekema, Created in God’s Image (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1986), 14
[4] Anthony, Created in God’s Image, 24
[5] Elizabeth A. McCabe, Women in the Biblical world: A survey of Old and New Testament Perspectives (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2009), 22.
Awura
That was a deep one on Moses mother and sister! Very insightful ?