Carol Meyers - Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books and the New Testament

A landmark one-volume reference exploring all the women mentioned in the Bible: prophets, poets, prostitutes, and a host of others

S ince the 1960s many biblical scholars have studied the Bible with a focus on gender. Yet such research is only slowly reaching a wide audience beyond the academy. Seven years in the making, Women in Scripture is the groundbreaking work that will finally open this field to readers of all backgroundsJews, Christians, and everyone fascinated by a body of literature that has exerted a singular influence on Western civilization.

The editors have taken on the ambitious task of identifying every woman and group of women mentioned in the Bible, whether named or unnamed, well known or heretofore not known at all. The result is more than eight hundred articles, written by the finest scholars in the field, that examine the numerous women who have often been obscured by the androcentric nature of the biblical record and by centuries of translation and interpretation that have paid little or no attention to them. At last, Women in Scripture gives these women their due.

They are remarkably variedfrom prophets to prostitutes, military heroines to musicians, deacons to dancers, widows to wet nurses, rulers to slaves. There are familiar faces, such as Eve, Judith, and Mary, seen anew with the full benefit of the most up-to-date results of biblical scholarship. But the most innovative aspect of this book is the section devoted to the many women who in the scriptures do not even have names.

In both scope and accessibility, Women in Scripture is an exceptional work. Combining rigorous scholarship with engaging prose, each of these articles on women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books, and the New Testament will inform, delight, and challenge readers interested in the Bible, scholars and laypeople alike. Together, these articles create a volume that takes the study of women in the Bible to a new level.

CAROL MEYERS , general editor, is a professor of biblical studies and archaeology at Duke University and the author of Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context.

TONI CRAVEN , associate editor, is a professor of the Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, and the author of Artistry and Faith in the Book of Judith.

ROSS S. KRAEMER , associate editor, is an adjunct professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania and, most recently, the coeditor of Women and Christian Origins.

Copyright 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company

All rights reserved

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

www.hmhco.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Women in scripture : a dictionary of named and unnamed women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books, and the New Testament / Carol Meyers, general editor ; Toni Craven and Ross S. Kraemer, associate editors.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-395-70936-9

1. Women in the BibleIndexes. 2. Women in the BibleBiographyDictionaries. I. Meyers, Carol L. II. Craven, Toni. III. Kraemer, Ross Shepard, 1948

v3.1116

FOR OUR DAUGHTERS

Kathryn Ruth Craven

Jordan Harriet Kraemer

Dina Elisa Meyers

Julie Kaete Meyers

Contents

by Carol Meyers

by Carol Meyers

by Toni Craven

by Ross S. Kraemer

by Alice Ogden Bellis

by Karla G. Bohmbach

CONTRIBUTORS

VALERIE ABRAHAMSEN, Boston, Massachusetts

SUSAN ACKERMAN, Dartmouth College

HUGH ANDERSON, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

JOUETTE M. BASSLER, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University

ANGELA BAUER, Episcopal Divinity School

LYN M. BECHTEL, Drew Theological School

ALICE OGDEN BELLIS, Howard School of Divinity

ADELE BERLIN, University of Maryland

CHANA BLOCH, Mills College

KARLA G. BOHMBACH, Susquehanna University

BEVERLY BOW, Cleveland State University

ATHALYA BRENNER, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

MARC ZVI BRETTLER, Brandeis University

SHEILA BRIGGS, University of Southern California

BERNADETTE J. BROOTEN, Brandeis University

LUCINDA A. BROWN, Wilmington, Delaware

RHONDA BURNETTE-BLETSCH, Greensboro College

CLAUDIA V. CAMP, Texas Christian University

TONY W. CARTLEDGE, Apex, North Carolina

JOHN J. COLLINS, University of Chicago

TONI CRAVEN, Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University

SIDNIE WHITE CRAWFORD, University of Nebraska, Lincoln

MARY ROSE D'ANGELO, University of Notre Dame

KATHERYN PFISTERER DARR Boston University School of Theology

DIANA VIKANDER EDELMAN, James Madison University

TAMARA COHN ESKENAZI, Hebrew Union College

J. CHERYL EXUM, University of Sheffield, England

CAROLE R. FONTAINE, Andover Newton Theological School

FRANK S. FRICK, Albion College

TIKVA FRYMER-KENSKY, University of Chicago

JENNIFER A. GLANCY, Le Moyne College

BETH GLAZIER-MCDONALD, Centre College

ELAINE ADLER GOODFRIEND, California State University

WILLIAM R. GOODMAN, JR., Lynchburg College

SANDRA L. GRAVETT, Appalachian State University

MAYER I. GRUBER, Ben-Gurion University, Israel

JO ANN HACKETT, Harvard University

WALTER J. HARRELSON, Wake Forest University Divinity School

SUSAN TOWER HOLLIS, Western New York Center of State University of New York, Empire State College

LILLIAN R. KLEIN, Bethesda, Maryland

RONALD S. KLINE, Arlington, Texas

ROSS S. KRAEMER, University of Pennsylvania

ALICE L. LAFFEY, College of the Holy Cross

ELIZABETH C. LAROCCA-PITTS, Duke Divinity School

AMY-JILL LEVINE, Vanderbilt Divinity School

LYNN LIDONNICI, Vassar College

VASILIKI LIMBERIS, Temple University

ELIZABETH STRUTHERS MALBON, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

MADELINE GAY MCCLENNEY-SADLER, Duke University

ANNE MCGUIRE, Haverford College

CAROL MEYERS, Duke University

ERIC M. MEYERS, Duke University

MARGARET M. MITCHELL, McCormick Theological Seminary

CAREY A. MOORE, Gettysburg College

JULIA MYERS O'BRIEN, Lancaster Theological Seminary

CAROLYN OSIEK, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago

THOMAS W. OVERHOLT, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point