Biblical Values about Women—part 2

The other side of the stories

My last post outlined the predominant biblical value about women: women are inferior to men. I also made the case that the Bible was written by men to men. Therefore, a woman’s voice is not heard from our sacred texts. This lack of a woman’s perspective from our book is a serious and therefore noteworthy shortcoming. However, some biblical writers did push back on the view of women being less than men. This post will try to do justice to that side of the story.

Let’s begin

I admire the biblical writers for telling ALL KINDS of stories. The strength of the Bible lies in the brutal starkness with which biblical writers recount scandalous narratives. The biblical writers opened up opportunities for engagement with the past. This window for ongoing inspiration became, for Judaism, the foundation for survival. The Hebrew University scholar Isaiah Gafni said, “Judaism survived because Judaism adapted.” In part, this adapting spirit, the willingness to expand beyond the written word, was fueled by the writers of the Bible themselves. Read on to see what I mean.

Back to the 1st Book

Eve deserves her own post, so I will write about her in the future. The Eve story has been the one narrative used most to harm women. Therefore, Eve’s story deserves extra attention.

The rape of slave girl Hagar is a tale that is a scandal for both Abram and Sarai. The patriarch and matriarch of Judaism do not trust God. Whereas their lack of faith is probably the main theme of the narrative, that shortcoming does not diminish the shame of Hagar’s abuse. The evidence in this narrative is clear: women like Hagar were tools to meet the needs of the powerful. In this case, the poor girl’s mistress (Sarai) was a partner in the abuse. In fact, like Eve, Sarah is often blamed because she initiated the act. Poor Abraham!

However, the biblical writer goes to great pains to present Hagar as protected by God. This storyteller assures his readers that the fruit of the rape, Ishmael, is loved both by Abram and God.

When Abraham dies, both Isaac and Ishmael bury him. And in the same chapter, Ishmael’s descendants are listed, named before Isaac’s. Why? Ishmael is the first born son of Abraham and the writer followed the protocol even though Ishmael was the son of a servant girl. The fact that the writer of this story follows that cultural norm is huge, clearly honoring Hagar and her son (Genesis 25).

Tamar

Genesis 38 records the sordid narrative of another disadvantaged woman fighting for her life. The story reflects poorly on Judah, the forebearer of David and portrays Canaanite Tamar as the better person. The author gives us a picture of the vulnerability of women. But whether intentional or not, the writer also provides a powerful character lesson: In our sacred book, character matters! Eve, Hagar, Tamar, like so many women, showed grit and determination and integrity as they fought for their rightful place in a world that viewed them as second class.

Think Susan B Anthony, Shirley Chisholm and a host of others! These are the ilk who are the heroes of the Bible. It’s easy to pick a fight when you have all the power, but when you have little or none, that’s when the fight you pick becomes worthy of a story.

The progressive author of Job

Thankfully, some biblical authors pushed back against the marginalization of women. For example, according to the Bible, Job had seven sons and three daughters and the writer of the book of Job actually names those daughters but not the sons, a reversal of standard practice.  Also, these daughters “received an inheritance along with their brothers,” wonderfully subverting the standard legal practice of not giving daughters a share of the family land (Job 42).

And the ancients who penned the stunning narratives about Deborah (Judges 4-5) and Huldah (2 Kings 22:14-20) were pushing back against patriarchy as well. These authors took great joy in recounting the nomadic woman Yael driving the tent peg through the head of the mighty warrior Sisera. And then these same writers add the rich conversation between Sisera’s mother and her servants. “Why is my son delayed?” “Surely your big boy is enjoying the spoils of war: a girl or two for every man.” Irony at its best.

The New Testament and new roles for women

The New Testament also pushes back on the cultural notion that women are second class. Paul was quite progressive for his time as he considered Phoebe to be a “deacon” and Junia to be “preeminent among the apostles” (Romans 16:1, 7). He also wrote: “there is no longer male nor female” (Galatians 3:28).

Most significantly, Jesus as presented in the Gospels seems to value women. Jesus had women followers and women supporters, and the first witnesses to the resurrection were women. This inclusion is good news and can encourage us as we think about women in every area of life.

What to do with all of this stuff?

In my last post I asked you to consider the question: what do we do with biblical values that harm others?

Maybe a Jesus story will give us hooks on which to hang some thinking points. The narrative happens on the Temple Mount during the festival of Sukkot. Jesus’ teaching is interrupted when a group of religious men, both old and young, bring a woman into the circle of disciples. Has she been roughed up? We can only imagine.

“We caught this woman in the act of adultery. The law of Moses commands us to stone her. What do you say?” (John 8).

The storyteller has Jesus bend down and write in the dirt. We don’t know what he is writing. The religious men, old and young, persist in pressing Jesus on what he would do to this woman. Then Jesus stands up and says, “Let the one without sin cast the first stone.” Of course, one by one the men walk away, first the old and then the young. Jesus is left alone with the woman.

“Who is left to condemn you?”

“No one, sir,” the woman. Jesus is standing right in front of her. Yet she answers, “No one, sir.”

What is not explicit in this story, but is in this story nonetheless, is Jesus’ attitude toward the referenced commandment: “The law of Moses commands us to stone her.”

Here’s what Jesus didn’t say, but actually did: “I don’t care what Moses commanded: We. Don’t. Stone. Women!”

A way forward for me

Jesus’ startling rebuke of the religious men caught in an obvious double standard (where’s the man in this scenario?) gives us direction for our question: what do we do with biblical values that harm others?

In order to fiercely and freely engage with the Bible we acknowledge that our book was written by men and to men. And then with that fact in hand we engage in dialogue with the writers of “the book that we love.”

If the Bible were a person, we would get in that person’s face for some of the things he said. Can we get to the place where we acknowledge out loud what we practice in our reading of the scriptures: Not every biblical value is a timeless truth. Some of these values are cultural norms that brought suffering to innocent people. And these values we reject.

I care deeply for the many good people who are being lost to the church because we will not let them think out loud about this kind of stuff. If you care as well, then walk with me on this journey of discovery. Share these posts. Comment. Think.