The Biblical Feminine

Although it was nearly a week ago, I feel compelled to post my own notes and ruminations on Lynda Sexson's lecture about Women in the Bible. Certainly, Mrs. Sexson presented a thought-provoking and interesting discourse on women and the Bible, although I feel she was a bit disappointed that so few questions were asked. While I agree with Professor Sexson's earlier assertion that teaching through answers is a detriment to true education, I do not think that Lynda Sexson's lecture squelched the formation of further questions but was so interesting that I, at least, was perfectly content to simply listen. Even when she covered some material and topics already discussed in class, new light was shed, new perspectives revealed. So, in some part for my own benefit in preparation for tomorrow's test, I've posted an elaborated version of my notes.

Notes Revisited:

-Mrs. Sexson started with exploring the porous definition of women in the Bible, of which there is at least three categories or types to consider:

• Biological Females: The Bible is very concerned with dictating and defining female biology, whereas gender identity today is flexible beyond an individual's biological features.
• Feminine Metaphor: Plotz fails to realize that women in the Bible are largely metaphor.
• Women: Not restricted to biological females, as children, the elderly/infirm, and powerless men are also essentially female in a patriarchy (see "gender assymetry")

-Roots of Patriarchy: Patros = Father, Archos = Rules, therefore Patriarchy = Rules by Fathers

-Gender Assymetry: An overabundance of masculine metaphor found in patriarchies, with comparatively few people considered "men".

-Currently, we are living during the dissolution of patriarchy; a patriarchy established long before the Bible was conceived.

-Throughout Genesis exists a persistent concern with procreation, with there being enough humans.

• Anxiety of tribal preservation
• Ex: Lot's daughters - who remain nameless - attempt to preserve their father's seed, fearing that their people are no more. In the process, they give origin to the Moabites and Ammonites. In this story of misguided incest, the Hebrews/Israelites essentially make fun of their neighbors in Moab and Ammon, reasserting their tribal identity as a "pure" or chosen people.

-Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are considered the "founders", but what about Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel? They're often the pivot and/or catalysts of the story, without whom the patriarchs would get nowhere.

-Marriage of cousins common and encouraged up until recent history - tribal exclusivity.

-In a patriarchy, women are not despised, but ambivalent. Their potential and power are feared and thus overtly suppressed, leading them to avenues of cunning manipulation and clever covert actions.

-Differing interpretations of Terraphim

• Translated as household gods.
• Many scholars claim that the Hebrews were not yet exclusive monotheists.
• Other scholars say they're the gods of the lands surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates (in Laban's case), requisite of a landholder in the area.
• Some say they served as documents, as there was no writing. Again, they could serve to guarantee land rights.
• Some anthropologists see terraphim solely as fertility idols.

-Genesis 31:34-45

• While Laban searches for the terraphim, Rachel sits on the idols. She tells her father that the "way of the woman" is upon her. Laban flees the tent; why is he so afraid of female menstruation?
• See Leviticus 15, in which menstruation is overwhelmingly deemed "unclean" and depicted as "other".
• Some anthropologists posit that circumcision gained importance because it mimics the presence of blood during female menstruation.

-The root of testament is shared with testes/testicles, further examples of pervasive patriarchy and procreative obsession.

-Judges 11

• "...bewail my virginity"
• Jephthah's daughter dies, the laws of men are upheld.
• Numbers 30 - Rules concerning sexual vows, virginity, etc.

-Can women be part of the tribe of Israel and the Covenant of God? Or are they a means to the Covenant?

-The Writing Prophets

• Radical Yahwists and extreme exclusivists who sought cultic purity.
• Revolutionary idea: the way to worship God is to take care of one another, i.e. social justice.

-Hosea

• Yahweh tells Hosea to get a wife of "whoredom", an unclean wife.
• Hosea as a metaphorical Yahweh, with his unfaithful wife as a metaphorical Israel. Despite transgressions, remains his wife/chosen people. Chart below.

-Jeremiah

• In Jeremiah 7:18, children gather wood, fathers kindle fire, women knead dough to make cakes for the "queen of heaven" (the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar). Everyone's involved.
• The cakes invoke her image - vulva cakes.
• Presents a resistance to exclusive monotheism. The women refuse to halt their offerings for the Ishtar, the queen of heaven. Their resistance is an act of cultic transgression.