Reading the Women of the Bible: A New Interpretation of Their Stories

by Tikva Frymer-Kensky

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award • Reading the Women of the Bible takes up two of the most significant intellectual and religious issues of our the experiences of women in a patriarchal society and the relevance of the Bible to modern life.

“Frymer-Kensky addresses both modern hypotheses and traditional beliefs, and acknowledges which arguments can be supported and which questions remain unanswered. [A] very approachable text.” — Houston Chronicle

Genres: Religion, Jewish, Theology, Nonfiction, Old Testament, Feminism, Biblical Studies

480 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2002

About the author

Dr. Tikva Frymer-Kensky was a professor of Hebrew Bible and the History of Judaism at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School, Law School, and the Committees on the Ancient Mediterranean World and Jewish Studies. She held an M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University.

Frymer-Kensky's areas of specialization included, in addition to Bible studies, Assyriology and Sumerology, Jewish studies, and women and religion. Her feminism was deeply grounded in the ancient world and, as a Jew, she used that extensive knowledge to argue for monotheism and dialogue between Christians and Jews, to give voice to ancient women, and to advocate for a mending of halakha.

Reviews

[Dalaina May · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. It covers the stories of a number of familiar and unfamiliar women in the Old Testament, especially the disturbing ones (which are most of them). Written by a brilliant orthodox Jewish Assyriologist who is an expert in ancient Mesopotamian literature, it is a very is a very different perspective than I am used to reading. I do not agree with all of the author’s conclusions (or even her perspective on biblical inerrancy), but her insight into ancient Jewish/Mesopotamian culture and languages sheds a lot of light on some of the stranger biblical narratives. I especially appreciate how she was able to explain how the blatant sexist ideology presented in the Old Testament is not a reflection on the heart of God, but rather shows how God worked graciously through ancient patriarchy for the sake of both men and women. She wrote, “Understanding that these stories are frequently told as critiques of the social situations that they portray rather than in approval of them can lead us to applaud rather than deplore their inclusion in Scripture.” This book is heady and has to be read with a discerning mind, but it very much worth the time. Frymer-Kensky has enabled me to read of rape, murder, and misogyny and still see grace. That is impressive.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just fantastic. I love her balance and her respect for the Hebrew Scriptures. Her knowledge of the Near East is indispensable as well. No stridency, only clear eyes.

[Laura Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was from a college class on Women of the Old Testament, and I loved it. Little mind is traditionally paid to the women of the bible, and they're commonly just painted as reformed whores, conniving bitches, or good little servants to their men....gag me.
I'm not some bra-burning man-hating feminist, but women of such historical caliber deserve to be showcased for their importance!


Here's a review that I just found on Amazon that sums it up perfectly:

By Erica Herron (Sharpsburg, MD)

This review is from: Reading the Women of the Bible: A New Interpretation of Their Stories (Hardcover)
If you're like me, here's your problem: you're a self-respecting woman, but you're struggling with your faith, whether Jewish or Christian. Why? The Biblical stories at first appear incredibly chauvinistic, and you just don't know if you can handle serving a God who apparently thinks you as a woman should be subservient. You tried going to the local Christian bookstore, but the stuff you found was weak and insulted your intelligence, either making no reference to your equality or advising you to indulge in your own subordination. Worse, some even labeled feminists misguided or even down right witches.
Here's your solution: Rivka and her book. Excuse me while I gush, there aren't enough adjectives to describe the woman's brilliance. Firstly, you need not worry that you're reading a book by some housewife who attends church but never picked up a Bible herself and would like to expound on the joys of degradation. This is a professor, a woman who makes her living on biblical studies, having a deep understanding of the original language, the cultural surroundings of the time and what should be labled "context".
Secondly, you will neither be left behind nor will your hand be held. Even if you've never read the Bible, Rivka will help to describe the stories she's making reference to, and helpfully provide the actual text, and she never makes an assumption that you know more than you actually do. At the same time, she will not emotionally pamper you with feel-good mush, she'll only throw facts at you, hard and fast, and even old-school students will walk away with many new pieces of information. She will not get up on a soap box with moralistic, abstract declarations, she'll hand you the information and make a few suggestions, leaving you to make your own decisions.
Thirdly, she goes off of the beaten path. She's not afraid to stray from conventional interpretations of the texts. You'll see what I mean.
By the way, the cover is gorgeous. It just looks pretty on your bookshelf.
Most importantly, my faith, which may have been teetering, is now firmly grounded. Besides the Bible, this is the single most important religious book in my library, and there are many.
My only two gripes: I wasn't sure if Rivka herself believed in God or the sanctity of the Bible. Also I very much wish she'd approached the women of the New Testament. She also skipped over a great many other women in the old testament and seemed to specifically focus on the Torah, I assume because she's Hebrew.
Overall beautiful. I put my recommendation all over it.

[Ruth Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book and have re-read it at least once. Frymer-Kensky's thesis is that women in the Hebrew scriptures represent the people of Israel themselves. Their powerlessness represents Israel's situation throughout its history as a small nation surrounded by much larger empires and civilizations: Egypt, the Babylonians, the Roman empire. Her readings of women's stories are all fascinating and her translations are more literal than literary, which allows us to notice and reflect on many details obscured by traditional versions.

[Frank R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pondering my idea of a Biblical TV series, I realized that while I could easily envision how to portray the characters of Abraham, Jacob, or other male figures, I had very little idea how to envision Sarah, Tamar, or other female figures. This book served me very well in presenting the women of the Bible--all of them! Highly recommended.

[Margie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found that I couldn’t read it straight through. It wasn’t really about the women at all…instead it was about men and their response to and their treatment of their women as objects. The women seemingly had no voice or agency regarding their own lives. Often they were reduced to little more than excuses for, what I personally perceive to be, some very bad behavior.

For example in The Bad Old Days: The concubine left her husband to return to the home of her father…my conclusion would be that perhaps she was in a bad relationship and wished to escape from her husband’s house. That he came and got her was more of a face saving gesture on his part, as well there was the intention of retrieving his lost property. Before the husband has even returned to his own home…it transpires that he gives her up to be raped to death. This callous act seems to bear out that he was an uncaring man who gave no consideration to her or her well-being. He was clearly not her husband protector. Given that, while she lay dead on the threshold after a night of torture and rape…her husband doesn’t even take a few moments to care about whether or not she’s okay…instead, even though she could not possibly have looked okay, he commands her to, “get up.” Only when she doesn’t do as commanded, does he even notice that she’s dead.

At this point the author seems to think that the husband is expressing his love by wanting her to come with him, even though she was raped and spoiled by an enemy???? That seems awfully charitable of her towards the husband.

The husband doesn’t appear to mourn. He doesn’t cry out or pull his hair or express any sadness or guilt for having given up her life to spare himself disgrace. This behavior clearly makes him the worst kind of human being…but then to throw her dead body over an ass only to carry her home where he desecrates her further by bloodily and gruesomely carving her into pieces is psychopathic behavior. She is not a person to him, she is just a means to an end. She was used by him as a justification for war.

It’s just too sad that she had to go back with him…since having done so was her death.

The author doesn’t speak to the lack of humanity in the husband and the ill use he has shown his wife. If anything, she justifies it with by allowing the husband’s behavior to stand without comment. There didn’t seem to be any sympathy by the author towards the Women of the Bible. They were little more than stage props for the Men of the Bible.

Just like today…women then had lives that mattered. She didn’t bring their lives to us. We didn’t learn anything about how they lived or who they were. They were like dry leaves burning in a fire, reduced to ash.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author uses the Hebrew Bible and commentaries thereon (Midrash) to show their stories were/are used to explain cultural ideas. By doing so she posits a Patriarchal 'nation' uses its 'faith' to justify anything. The stories reveal the early patriarchies thought women were disposable. Biblical males offered their wives, daughters, and concubines to save their own lives. After all females were property and husbands/fathers could do with them what they wished.
The stories are formulaic and change over time becoming more and more misogynistic. The original stories are incomplete portraits. As new interpretations were written they 'fleshed' our the characters usually by making them more sexual and debasing.
The interpretation of stories in ways that dramatically illustrate agendas.
Reading this work leads one to realize the Bible can be seen as a book of folktales used by a culture to keep its people in line.

[Richard Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tikva Frymer-Kensky’s book takes on many of the women of the Bible. She writes as a Jewish feminist who believes the Bible’s stories of women do not necessarily promote a patriarchal structure though the text was written in the context of patriarchalism. She views many of the stories of women as critiques of the treatment of women, and her arguments are persuasive. I found some of her short comments on New Testament treatments of women misguided and not treated with the same care or grace as she did with the Old Testament. I suppose this is to be expected from someone writing from a Jewish perspective with more familiarity in the Hebrew Scriptures. All in all, this is a book worthy of engagement.

[Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Invaluable scholarship on divorcing the misogyny and patriarchy of Biblical authors/interpreters from the intention of the stories themselves. I was touched by Frymer-Kensky’s empathy as a contemporary feminist and deeply interested in her wealth of knowledge as scholar and assyriologist/historian.

I recommend for anyone who left the church due to its patriarchy, any believer looking to expand their knowledge where traditional academics conveniently left holes, or anyone interested in pursuing biblical studies. Thank you Professor Ellsberg for putting this on my bookshelf for the rest of my life.

[Wes Pue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkable book about women in the Old Testament. Carefully attentive to original languages, with great care in interpretation. Points to ambiguity, allusions, ironies in the original or early texts that are lost in translation. Careful attention to cultural expectations of ancient Jews and their world. Intriguing but brief bit at the end of the book demonstrates that texts revered by Jews and Christians have been differently interpreted over the millennia. Fascinating stuff.

[Natalie Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot about women in the Old Testament from this book and was able to get more historical background information from it too. In that respect the book was wonderfully done; however, I also feel that it was a bit biased at points in its portrayal of women.

[Susan C Lance · Rating 3 out of 5]

For Christian/Hebrew Logos Study

[Faiqa Mansab · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dull compared to Alice Bach. None of the women come to life for the reader. Disappointing.

[Natasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, enlightening. A rich deep dive into a feminist Jewish contextualization of key women in the Old Testament.

[Jessica Stefick · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I was to ever just recommend one book on the Hebrew Bible- this would be it! Excellent, interesting, well researched!

[Kaitlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

a few things to take with a grain of salt, but overall blew my mind. this would be a great piece for group discussion.

[Kara Vyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good!!

[Reeds]

I like how she drew comparisons between how similar things happened to different Bible characters.
There is quite a bit of repetitiveness like telling you something on one page and then repeating it on the very next page. Maybe the deaf have influenced me not to repeat something you just said.
I was searching for a book that would take female characters from the Bible and give examples from their decisions that would be applicable to me making better decisions today. I also wanted to see the Jewish perspective on the Bible stories. I had seen a write-up on the Jewish perspective of Proverbs 31 and had thought it was so terrific, and was hoping to find more things like that about other things in the OT. I didn’t find this book to be as riveting as that article.

[Sophi Zimmerman]

I really liked reading the Women of the Bible: A New Interpretation of Their Stories. It's wonderful to read about women I didn't know were even mentioned. Especially interesting to me was Hulda the prophet who made an extraordinary impact our Bible. She was both a leader of exilic Jews and a principal author of Hebrew Scripture. I also admired the Shunamite woman who is so independent.
"I live among my people" she tells the prophet which indicates that she dominates in her marriage.
When she realizes that Elisha the prophet will be visiting Shunem often, she has her husband build a small room on the roof their house. When the woman saw that Elisha had come back to Shunem, she suggested to her husband (v. 10): “Let us make a small enclosed upper chamber [aliyat kir ketanah] and place a bed, a table, a chair, and a lampstead there for him, so that he can stop there whenever he comes to us.” When Elisha gives her a child and the boy becomes ill and dies, she refuses to see anyone but Elisha, for she knows he has the power to resurrect the child. The Shunamite woman clearly lives life on her own terms.

Read this book and learn about all the women of the Bible.