We asked Bible scholar to share insights with Journal readers on ways that the lives of women in the Bible can be helpful to women today.
Over the last two centuries, many women have challenged the Bible as a patriarchal document written by and for men. In the last 25 years, however, a number of female Bible scholars, joined by male colleagues, have produced a prodigious body of research showing that some of the gender-related issues about the Bible arose from interpretations laid on it over time, rather than from the text itself. Their research supports the view that the nature of the creator presented in the Bible is feminine as well as masculine.
The stories of many women in the Bible certainly show the saving presence of God. Shiphrah and Puah, two midwives charged by Pharaoh to kill all the male babies born to Hebrew women, defied the official order and spared the infants' lives. Here are two single women—slaves—who courageously stood up to the man who at that time represented the greatest power on earth. Today, their actions might be labeled as civil disobedience. Where did they find this courage to be champions for the moral law? The Bible says simply that they "feared God." See Ex. 1:15-21. In the Bible, fear of God is a phrase frequently associated with moral and ethical behavior. It implies a "conception of God as One who makes moral demands on humankind." In practice, this concept restrains evil and stimulates good. Nahum Sarna, Exodus (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1991), p. 7. Because of their trust that God was active in their lives, these midwives protected others and were in turn protected themselves. Eventually, they had homes and children of their own.
