The Editors of LIFE - Legendary Women of the Bible

WOMEN OF THE BIBLE

WE LEARN IN GENESIS THAT Rebekah was very fair to look upon. One day while at the well in Nahor, Mesopotamiahere in a painting by the English artist Frederick Goodallshe met Eliezer, a servant sent by Abraham in search of a wife for his son Isaac. She accompanied Eliezer back to Canaan, married Isaac, and became a matriarch of the biblical tradition.

INTRODUCTION

Lessons from Their Lives

By Lily Rothman

THE STORY OF NAOMI AND Ruththe subject of this 1859 painting by Emile Levyis one of mothers, daughters, marriages, and a woman whose seemingly incidental decision reverberates through the generations.

The narratives of the Bible are, by and large, driven by the actions and decisions of men. And yet women are always therepresent and integral if frequently overlooked. If one explores the books stories and progress, one finds that women often have a far more central role than is generally acknowledged. Women have been around just as long as men have (or almost, according to most interpretations of Genesis). Adam and Eve show up in the very same verse, just words apart from each other: Male and female, the Bible tells us, God created them.

Sometimes in Biblical stories, female figures reside in the background, unnamed or even unmentioned. Other times women emerge front and centerDeborah planning a military campaign or Salome demanding the head of John the Baptist. Often theyre very front and very center: Eve deciding to eat the forbidden fruit. Mary bringing Jesus Christ into the world. This book brings these and many other women of the Bible into greater focus and relief, investigating what we know about them from the book itself, as well as what we have learned from modern research into the lives of the ancient peoples who lived in the Middle and Near East.

These women are sometimes heroes with superhuman-seeming bravery, risking their lives to save their people or taking decisive action to intervene in dangerous situations. At other times, they are guided by all-too-human impulses, letting jealousy rule their decisions or going to extremes to give their children an advantage over others. Terrible things happen to some of these women. Other women do terrible things themselves. Some bring wisdom, as prophets and judges. Others bring children into the world. In fact, often the critical element in a Biblical womans story is Gods intervention in the conception of a child. In this way, though constrained by circumstance and position, mothers are still active via their connection with God, a connection that moves the Biblical story forward into another generation.

RECOGNIZING THE SIGNIFICANT IMPACT OF women in Biblical narratives doesnt require glossing over the patriarchy of the societies the Bible describesa patriarchy that, as the late theological scholar Tikva Frymer-Kensky has written, was neither created by the Bible nor repudiated by it. But as Frymer-Kensky found in her studies, the status of women in biblical society isnt necessarily accompanied by the belittling rationalizations a modern reader might expect. On the one hand, women occupied a socially subordinate position, Frymer-Kensky wrote in Reading the Women of the Bible. On the other hand, the Bible did not label them as inferior.

Nor was their influence necessarily inferior, different though it was. More subtle power of the kind that women have tended to wield throughout history can be especially important at moments of great upheavalso much of the history recounted by the Bible.

Proof of that lasting impact is all around us in the babies everywhere who, thousands of years after the matriarchs lived, still bear their names. In the United States, Elizabeth and Leah are still among the most popular names for baby girls, according to the latest edition of the Social Security Administrations annual list of the top baby names. (Genesis has also become a popular name, though Eve is lower on the list.)

Some people have found in these Biblical stories a positive social order to replicate, in which soft power remains the only kind of power available to women. Some have found something inescapably problematic that can only be rejected. Many others have found something in between, messages to be considered and questioned. One striking example of that questioning can be seen in the development of new customs such as Miriams Cupa cup of water that some celebrants add to the set of ceremonial items used at the Jewish Passover holiday as a way to acknowledge the role of Miriam in the Exodus story. In telling the story of how that idea was first developed in Boston in 1989, the scholar Penina Adelman relates this observation from one of the first participants in that ritual: It felt as if the cup already existed, the woman said, and was just waiting to be discovered.

In the pages of the Bible are many women who have been there all along. To discover them, all you have to do is look.

EXODUS, 15:20

TINTORETTOS 16TH-CENTURY depiction of the Crucifixion includes the women who supported Mary in her hour of grief (seen here in a detail).

Women of the Bible

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Kostya Kennedy

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Christina Lieberman

EDITOR Lily Rothman

WRITER Daniel S. Levy

DESIGNER Allie Adams

COPY CHIEF Parlan McGaw

COPY EDITOR Helen Eisenbach

PICTURE EDITOR Rachel Hatch

WRITER-REPORTER Amy Lennard Goehner

PHOTO ASSISTANT Steph Durante

PRODUCTION DESIGN Sandra Jurevics

MEREDITH SPECIAL INTEREST MEDIA

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, FINANCE Anthony Palumbo

VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING Jeremy Biloon

DIRECTOR, BRAND MARKETING Jean Kennedy

SALES DIRECTOR Christi Crowley

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, BRAND MARKETING Bryan Christian

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, FINANCE Jill Earyes

SENIOR BRAND MANAGER Katherine Barnet

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Kostya Kennedy

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Gary Stewart

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Christina Lieberman

EDITORIAL OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Jamie Roth Major

MANAGER, EDITORIAL OPERATIONS Gina Scauzillo

SPECIAL THANKS Brad Beatson, Melissa Frankenberry, Kate Roncinske

MEREDITH NATIONAL MEDIA GROUP

PRESIDENT Jon Werther

MEREDITH MAGAZINES PRESIDENT Doug Olson

PRESIDENT, MEREDITH DIGITAL Stan Pavlovsky

PRESIDENT, CONSUMER PRODUCTS Tom Witschi

CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER Michael Brownstein

CHIEF MARKETING & DATA OFFICER Alysia Borsa

MARKETING & INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS Nancy Weber

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENTS

CONSUMER REVENUE Andy Wilson

DIGITAL SALES Marla Newman

RESEARCH SOLUTIONS Britta Cleveland

PRODUCT & TECHNOLOGY Justin Law

CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER Matt Minoff

CORPORATE SALES Brian Kightlinger

VICE PRESIDENTS

FINANCE Chris Susil

BUSINESS PLANNING & ANALYSIS Rob Silverstone

DIRECT MEDIA Patti Follo

STRATEGIC SOURCING, NEWSSTAND, PRODUCTION Chuck Howell