Daughters of Eve

Martyn Whittock, Esther Whittock

Description

Women play an immensely important role in the Bible: from Eve to the Virgin Mary, Sarah to Mary Magdalene, Naomi to the anonymous woman suffering severe menstrual bleeding who was healed by Jesus. They are a sisterhood of faith. As such, they challenge many of our assumptions about the role of women in the development of the biblical story; about the impact of faith on lives lived in the 'heat and dust' of the real world. Here we will meet the prostitute who ended up in the genealogy of Jesus, a national resistance fighter, a determined victim of male sexual behaviour who challenged patriarchal power, a far from meek and mild mother of Jesus, a woman whose life has been so misrepresented that she is now the subject of the most bizarre conspiracy theories, and more. Renowned historians and Biblical scholars, Martyn and Esther Whittock, take the reader on a fascinating journey, one unafraid to ask difficult questions, such as, 'Was Eve set up to fall?'

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Lion Hudson
• Date de parution: 19 mars 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780745980874
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

This book is dedicated to the strong and wonderful women in my life who have had a big impact on my own faith: my godmother, Auntie Alison, who I can always turn to for prayers and support; my teenage mentor, Helen Shields, whose theological knowledge has helped my faith to grow; Ruthie, who has supported me with love and friendship since we were teenagers at St Thomas ; and, of course, my mother, Christine Whittock, whose quiet but assured faith, generous heart, and endless love has made her the best female role model I could have asked for. My life would not be as rich or as full if any of you were not in it.
Esther Whittock

Text copyright 2021 Esther Whittock and Martyn Whittock
This edition copyright 2021 Lion Hudson IP Limited
The right of Esther Whittock and Martyn Whittock to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by
Lion Hudson Limited
Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Business Park
Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 8DR, England
www.lionhudson.com
ISBN 978 0 7459 8086 7
eISBN 978 0 7459 8087 4
First edition 2021
Acknowledgments
Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Cover images: desert Shadi Nassri/GettyImages; woman Wavebreakmedia/istockphoto.com
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1 Eve: Fall-girl ?
Chapter 2 Sarah: Mother of Nations
Chapter 3 Rebekah: Controversial Mother
Chapter 4 Tamar: Table-turner
Chapter 5 Rahab: A Conspiracy of Prostitutes and Spies
Chapter 6 Deborah: Prophet, Judge, and a Sisterhood of Liberation
Chapter 7 Naomi and Ruth: Sisterhood in Adversity
Chapter 8 Hannah: The Woman Who Gave Away Her Son
Chapter 9 Esther: The Right Woman, in the Right Place, at the Right Time
Chapter 10 Mary: Revolutionary Mother of Christ
Chapter 11 The Woman at the Well: Breaking Conventions
Chapter 12 The Woman with the Issue of Blood: From Woman s Problem to Public Miracle
Chapter 13 Martha and Mary: Conflicting Models of Service?
Chapter 14 Mary Magdalene: A Much Misrepresented Woman
Chapter 15 Nympha and the Church in Her House
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
References
Preface
In each one of our explorations of these remarkable women of faith, we have examined the evidence in the same way for each of the women concerned. For each one we first examine them as A woman in context . This looks at how each is presented in the Bible, with some reference to later commentaries, where these help unpack issues.
We then look at what happened next, in a section that we have called His-story or her-story ? This play on the word history reminds us that most historical writing in the past has been, in effect, his-story - being told very much from a male point of view. In the centuries following the writing of the biblical accounts, most of the commentary, interpretation, reflection, speculation, and (at times) disinformation regarding these women has been written by men. All of these women s reputations and images have been hugely affected by this - whether positively or negatively. This section in each chapter looks at this process and how it has affected the way that these women have been presented over the years. In some cases, the impact of (predominantly) male attitudes has been very significant indeed in forming the dominant image of these women that we now have. Eve and Mary Magdalene stand out strikingly as women whose later image has been significantly altered, even at times distorted, by male attitudes. However, the later history of every one of these women is revealing and, at times, surprising - and sometimes shocking.
Each chapter then closes with Sister on sister . This whole book is a daughter-father collaboration, but in these sections the focus is Esther s. As a young, professional woman (she is a Religious Studies teacher in a busy comprehensive secondary school), Esther gives her own personal and twenty-first-century take on each of the women in question and how they speak to her today. In doing this, she has considered their message to modern people, including those of faith and those who do not subscribe to religious belief. This is because while faith speaks to faith, its principles can also challenge, encourage, inform, and provoke even when those affected do not themselves have a religious belief. We hope that this will encourage other women and men to do the same: to reflect on the enduring impact and importance of each of these women, whose lives became extraordinary because of their faith in God and their actions.
Chapter 1
Eve: Fall-girl ?
Everyone has an image of Eve: apple in hand, she invites Adam to take a bite of the forbidden fruit. Behind them, the serpent responsible for this chain of temptation watches the catastrophe unfold that it has set in motion. However Eve is understood - literal progenitor of humanity or symbolic woman in a poetic description of the origins of life - she is a seminal character. All the other women in this book are, consequently, Daughters of Eve , either literally or figuratively.
A woman in context
Woman first appears in the Old Testament book of Genesis in chapter 1, verses 26-27. It is noteworthy in this account of creation that both genders are necessary in order for the image of God (however this is understood) to be represented:

Then God said, Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 1
In chapter 2:18-23, a second account of the creation of Woman is more personalized:

Then the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.
The word Woman , in the last verse, is the Hebrew ishshah , 2 related to the word Man , ish . So far, though, she has no name. Neither has the man, although in 2:7 the words formed man [Hebrew adam ] from the dust of the ground [Hebrew adamah ] will give us the name that we know to be associated with him (that is: Adam). 3 Strictly speaking, adam should be translated into English as human (gender inclusive) rather than man (that is: a male). This account of her creation makes it clear that Woman is companion to Man; there is no hint of subordination. 4
It is not until Genesis 3:20 that we learn that The man named his wife Eve . In Hebrew, her name, Chava/Chavah, sounds like the Hebrew word for living being or to breathe (chaya/chayah) or the related word life (chai). And we are told that this is because she is the mother of all people. As found in Genesis, the word is in its causative form, meaning she caused all future life to occur .
By this point in the story, though, Eve s claim to fame has been dramatically established, as earlier in chapter 3 we learn that the serpent had tempted her to eat from the forbidden tree of knowledge in the middle of the garden. She then gave some to her husband and, having eaten, their eyes were opened (verse 7) and they realized they were naked. Suddenly embarrassed by this discovery, they cover their nakedness with a covering of sewn fig leaves. When God discovers this, the man blames the woman, and the woman blames the serpent. Interestingly, the account of the eating of the fruit rather suggests that Adam - who was with her (3:6) - was present when the serpent spoke to Eve. However, this event is almost always later depicted as a solitary experience on the part of Eve; just her and the serpent, and then she draws in Adam. The actual account is more nuanced.
As a result of their disobedience, God cursed the serpent so that conflict will exist between it and the woman, and between its children and hers. The woman is, in most English translations, punished with pain in childbirth; despite this she will desire her husband who will have authority over her. Although painful childbirth is the usual English translation (Genesis 3:16), the Hebrew phrase can more accurately be translated as, I will make great your toil and many your pregnancies. 5 This is a significant difference. When one realizes that some nineteenth-century doctors opposed pain relief to women in labour by quoting this verse, one gains an insight into both the significance of translation accuracy and the willingness of many men to impose their own view of scripture on the experiences of women. Queen Victoria s use of chloroform during the birth of Prince Leopold, in 1853, was fairly decisive in reversing this attitude; although earlier Professor Charles Meigs had opined that painful contractions were natural and physiological forces that the Divinity has ordained us to enjoy or to suffer , 6 in a direct reference to Eve and the perceived message of Genesis 3:16.
The man is punished through the earth itself being cursed with thorns and thistles and hard labour being necessary to produce crop