OT1710 WOMEN IN THE BIBLE AND THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

Spring Semester 1999 - 2000

Ann Johnston

In this course we will set out on a journey through time and culture. We will travel with the women of the Biblical Tradition from Israel's earliest mythology, down through the ages to the beginnings of Formative Judaism and the Early Christian Community. Along the way we will engage the women of Israel and the women of the surrounding cultures. We will strive to see them and hear them in the context of society, of history, of culture, of geographical regions. Israel lived in the midst of others and borrowed heavily from others, at the same time she shared her blessing with others. While travelling this road we will enter the homes and kitchens, the prayer rooms and temples, the market places and shopping stalls, the hovels and street corners where women gather and commune with one another to tell their stories and the stories of the generations which preceded them. For as Trin T. Minh-ha has said so clearly:

"The world's earliest archives or libraries were the memories of

women. Patiently transmitted from mouth to ear, from body to body,

from hand to hand. In the process of story telling, speaking and

listening refer to realities that do not involve just the imagination.

The speech is seen, heard, smelled, tasted and touched. It destroys,

brings into life, nurtures. Every woman partakes of the chain of

guardianship and of transmission."

from Woman, Native, Other (1989,121)

It is this tradition which has the power to shape lives, to give direction, to bind persons within cultures to one another, to give identity and place within the Universe.

On this journey we will ask many questions of the women we meet, of the men in their lives but also of one another. Questions will guide our reading and our discussion. But there are two major questions which seem to hold a magnetic power for clusters of other questions. These have been clearly formulated by Athalya Brenner:

i. Can we define, on the basis of biblical literature, women's

position in the socio-political sphere beyond their traditional

domestic function? In other words, how have women participated

in the social institutions of their time and place, and can we

uncover the existence of specifically female institutions which

were later forgotten or suppressed?

ii. Can we trace the development of stereotypes and paradigms which

are used again and again, for the description of women, to the extent

that many individual portrayals contain strong elements of literary

conventions or cliches?

from The Israelite Woman (1985)

One other question hides in the shadows; but we need to address it in the light:

iii. Who are the silent voices and why are they silent?

Yes, this involves speculation, but we have asked it before in phrases such as, what are the spaces in the text? whose presence is implied by the gaps in the text? what is not being said?

This journey has geographical, cultural and chronological signposts. Thus we will travel the Ancient Near East, in our search for the cultural and religious customs of the peoples who dominated and controlled Israel in successive periods of time, but also those who encouraged and supported her in her quest for her understanding of God, her identity, purpose and meaning in rel®LA1¯ation to God, to one another and to the world. This will give us an ever changing set of lenses with which to view this evolving picture.

This is a seminar. There will be assigned readings from both Biblical and Extra-Biblical sources as well as from secondary literature. In general, the reading assignments and expectations will be distributed weekly. All seminar members, even auditors, will need to complete at least a part of the readings in order to participate in the discussion, the text study and the data gathering process of the group. Those taking the course for credit will also choose an area of specific interest for research and scheduled presentation to the seminar. The final paper or project of some nature will address one of the major questions uncovered in our research together.

Oxford Annotated Bible RSV or NRSV.

New York: Oxford University Press

Carol Meyers, Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context

New York: Oxford University Press, 1988

Alice Ogden Bellis, Helpmates, Harlots, Heroes: Women's Stories in the Hebrew Bible

Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox, 1994

Alice Bach, Editor, Women in the Hebrew Bible: A Reader

New York: Routledge, 1999

Note: In the following schedule, the first listed date is the meeting schedule for Portland and the second, that for Bangor. Portland will meet Mondays from 3:30 to 6:15; Bangor will meet Wednesdays from 1:00 to 3:50 p.m. If for any reason you are unable to meet the seminar at your chosen site and day, please try to join the other group meeting that week. Questions will differ, I am sure, but in general we will try to maintain this schedule as printed.

January 31/February 2 Course design: Goal Setting and discussion of the

nature and purposes of this seminar.

Your hopes and expectations

Methodology: Two major questions (Brenner)

plus the third and others?

Text study: questions raised by the readings

preparation for each week

Tradition/Tradition bearers; traditum/traditio

The art and purpose of Story Telling

and story tellers

The rhetoric of a Mother

February 7/February 9 Women in the Mythical Traditions of the Ancient

Near East and the specific texts of Genesis 1-11

Ugarit / Canaan / Phoenicia / Egypt

Creation Myths and their significance

Creation Mythology of Israel

Text Study: Genesis 1 - 11

February 14/February 16 Women in the Ancestor Traditions

Text Study: Genesis 12 - 36:

Sarah / Rebecca / Rachel & Leah, Zilpah & Bilhah

the Endangered Ancestress

the Barren Wife

Bloved Rachel / Silent Leah: jealousy inherited

Text Study: Genesis 37 - 50:®MDNM¯

the Joseph Cycle of the "family of Jacob"

Joseph the Saddiq and Potiphar's Wife

February 21/February 23 Reading Week

Preparation Week / Selection of Research area

Possible areas for Group Presentations:

Matriachal Portraits & Concerns

Typology of Women

Leadership of Women

Major Women Figures in Biblical Tradition

Imagery of Women and Female Imagery

Women of in (...a specific culture)

and....

February 28/March 1 Women in the Traditions of Exodus and Wilderness

Family of Moses: Mother, Sister, Brother

Egyptian Family Practices including Midwifery

Pharaoh's Daughter; Egyptian customs; Egyptian deities

Moses' Midianite Wife Zipporah

Midianite Religioun & culture

Miriam as Leader in her own right

March 6/March 8 Women in the Land Traditions & Tribal Confederacy

Influence of Fertility Religions and Practices

Judges: Typology: Deborah and Jael

Samson's Mother and Samsom's Bride

Delilah

Abuse of Women: Rape of the Concubine & consequences

Corruption of the Covenant Community

March 13/March 15 Women and the Monarchy: Egyptian and Canaanite Influences

Queen Mothers

Queens: Power behind the throne

Prophetesses

Influences: Canaanite, Egyptian, Assyrian

March 20/March 22 Women in the Prophetic Traditions - Assyrian Period

imagery, rhetoric, position

emulated and scorned

Influences from Assyria, Phoenicia, Philistia

March 27/March 29 Women in the Tradition of the Northern Covenant Community

Covenant Traditions of the North

Sinai Covenant

Covenant Code

Deuteronomic Covenant Traditions

Influence of Fertility Religions

April 3/April 5 Women in the Exilic Traditions - Babylonian Period

Covenant Traditions of the South

Influence of Babylon and Neo Babylonian cultures

Women at Elephantine

Women left behind in the land: Lamentations

April 10/April 12 Women in the Traditions of Return & Restoration

Persian Influences

Zoroastrianism

Persian custom & legal tradition

Judaism under the Priestly "Party"

Leviticus

Marriage Laws under Ezra & Nehemiah

April 17/April 23 Holy Week and Easter

April 24/April 26 Women in the Hellenized World

Women in the Maccabean Tradition

Typology of the Maccabean Mother

Influence and borrowings from Hellenism

Hellenistic "control"

Group Presentations:

May 1/May 3 Women in Formative Judaism

Judaism in the Roman World

defining women's place and women's world

Group Presentations:

May 8/May 10 Women in Early Christianity

the Early Church

the leadership of Women as service

Conflict between Judaism and Christianity, a Family Affair

Group Presentations:

May 15/May 17 Reading Week

May 19 All work due