According to traditional Jewish enumeration, the Hebrew canon is composed of 24 books written by various authors, using primarily Hebrew and some Aramaic, which came into being over a span of almost a millennium. [27] :17 [28] :41 The Hebrew Bible's earliest texts reflect a Late Bronze Age Near Eastern civilization, while its last text, thought by most scholars to be the Book of Daniel, comes from a second century BCE Hellenistic world. [27] :17 According to the Books of Kings, Jezebel incited her husband King Ahab to abandon the worship of Yahweh and encourage worship of the deities Baal and Asherah instead. Jezebel persecuted the prophets of Yahweh, and fabricated evidence of blasphemy against an innocent landowner who refused to sell his property to King Ahab, causing the landowner to be put to death. For these transgressions against the God and people of Israel, Jezebel met a gruesome death— thrown out of a window by members of her own court retinue, and the flesh of her corpse eaten by stray dogs.

The narrative describes the people of Israel as having been oppressed by Jabin, the king of Canaan, for twenty years. Deborah sends a prophetic message to Barak to raise an army and fight them, but Barak refuses to do so without her. Deborah declares his refusal means the glory of the victory will belong to a woman. [73] A battle is fought (led by Barak), and Sisera, the enemy commander, is defeated. [73] God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, ‘What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation’” ( Genesis 21:17-18). In the West, the status of Egyptian women was high, and their legal rights approached equality with men throughout the last three millennia BCE. [7] :5–6 A few women even ruled as pharaohs. [7] :7 However, historian Sarah Pomeroy explains that even in those ancient patriarchal societies where a woman could occasionally become queen, her position did not empower her female subjects. [8] :x In the King James translation these verses read as "Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you. But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance” ( John 20:1). Mary was a young woman chosen by God for an amazing purpose. Her story is predicted in the Book of Isaiah, and is fully told in the Gospels.

This concept [of patriarchy] was formulated by nineteenth-century anthropologists using classical literature, especially legal texts, ... Biblical scholars ...soon took up the term. By the early twentieth century, sociologists (notably Weber) extended the concept of patriarchy to include society-wide male domination. This too entered scholarship on the Hebrew Bible and ancient Israel. However, the validity and appropriateness of this concept to designate both families and society have recently been challenged in several disciplines: in classical scholarship, by using sources other than legal texts; in research on the Hebrew Bible and ancient Israel, also by using multiple sources; and in the work of third-wave feminists, both social theorists and feminist archaeologists. Taken together, these challenges provide compelling reasons for abandoning the patriarchy model as an adequate or accurate descriptor of ancient Israel. [1] :9 Women did have some role in the ritual life of religion as represented in the Bible though they could not be priests; but then neither could just any man. Only male Levites could be priests. Women (as well as men) were required to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem once a year (men each of the three main festivals if they could) and offer the Passover sacrifice. [28] :41 They would also do so on special occasions in their lives such as giving a todah ("thanksgiving") offering after childbirth. Hence, they participated in many of the major public religious roles that non-Levitical men could, albeit less often and on a somewhat smaller and generally more discreet scale. [43] :167–169 Old Testament scholar Christine Roy Yoder says that in the Book of Proverbs, the divine attribute of Holy Wisdom is presented as female. She points out that "on the one hand" such a reference elevates women, and "on the other hand" the "strange" woman also in Proverbs "perpetuates the stereotype of woman as either wholly good or wholly evil." [44] Economics [ edit ] In the Gospel of Luke, Mary visits Elizabeth, her cousin, twice, and twice Elizabeth calls her blessed (Luke 1:42,45). Mary herself states all future generations will call her blessed (1:48). Mary "ponders" Simeon's warning that "a sword would pierce her soul" in Luke 2:34,35. She is troubled by Jesus staying behind in the Temple at Jerusalem at 12 and his assumption his parents would know where he was (Luke 2:49). Mary "ponders all these things in her heart." [126] :16,17 Theologians Evelyn Stagg and Frank Stagg say the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20 contain aspects of both male priority and gender balance. [36] :21 In the tenth commandment against coveting, a wife is depicted in the examples of things, possessions, belonging to a man that are not to be coveted: house, wife, male or female slave, ox or donkey, or 'anything that belongs to your neighbour.' On the other hand, the fifth commandment to honor parents does not make any distinction in the honor to be shown between one parent and another. [37] :11,12 Sarah was the wife of Abraham, a wealthy man of Ur. Told by God to leave their home, they went to Canaan. And at 90 years old, she was blessed by God’s gift of a son. Their account is found in Genesis.Main article: Levite's concubine The Levite finds his concubine lying on the doorstep, James Tissot, 19th century Certainly I will go with you,’ said Deborah. ‘But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.’ So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh” ( Judges 4:9). The wife of Isaac, Rebekah was childless until God blessed them with twin boys, Esau and Jacob. She asked the Lord why the babies were pushing against each other inside her, and Genesis details the surprising prophecy.

What can we learn from Leah? Leah relied on God in prayer and did not let her distressing family situation blind her to God’s support. ( Genesis 29:32-35; 30:20) The account of her life realistically portrays the failings of polygamy, an arrangement that God tolerated for a time. His approved standard of marriage is for a husband or wife to have just one spouse.— Matthew 19:4-6. On another occasion, Mary extended exceptional hospitality to Jesus by putting “costly perfumed oil” on Jesus’ head and feet. ( Matthew 26:6, 7) Others present accused Mary of being wasteful. But Jesus defended her, saying: “Wherever this good news [of God’s Kingdom] is preached in all the world, what this woman did will also be told in memory of her.”— Matthew 24:14; 26:8-13.

Amnon desires Tamar deeply. Immediately after explaining Amnon's desire the narrator first uses the term sister to reveal Tamar is not only Absalom's sister but is also Amnon's sister by another mother. Phyllis Trible says the storyteller "stresses family ties for such intimacy exacerbates the coming tragedy." Full of lust, the prince is impotent to act; Tamar is a virgin and protected property. Then comes a plan from his cousin Jonadab, "a very crafty man". [49] :39 The story of the biblical Queen Athaliah was the inspiration for one of the greatest tragedies of French dramatist Jean Racine, Athalie. [151] [152] After God gave the Israelites a decisive victory, Deborah composed at least part of the song that she and Barak sang recounting the event. In that song she mentioned the role that Jael, another fearless woman, had played in defeating the Canaanites.— Judges, chapter 5. Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scripture…When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately” ( Acts 18:24, 26).