The Biblical World of Gender

Book excerpt: What were the lives of women and men like in ancient Israel? How does it affect their thinking about gender? Recent discussions of “biblical womanhood and manhood” tend to reflect our current concepts of masculinity and femininity, and less so the lived world of the biblical authors. In fact, gender does not often appear to be a noteworthy issue in Scripture at all, except in practical matters. Nonetheless, Genesis 1 invests the image of God itself with “male and female,” making sex central to what it means to be human. Instead of working out gender through Genesis’s creation and Paul’s household codes, we want to ask: What was life like on an ancient Israelite farmstead, in a Second Temple synagogue, or in a Roman household in Ephesus? Who ran things in the home, in the village, in the cities? Who had influence and social power, and how did they employ it? Taking insights from anthropology and archaeology, the authors of this collection paint a dynamic portrait of gender in antiquity that has been put into conversation with the biblical texts. The Biblical World of Gender explores gender “backstage” in the daily lives and assumptions of the biblical authors and “on-stage” in their writings. Table of Contents Introduction Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch: The Context of Gender in the Bible Celina Durgin and Dru Johnson Surprising Gender Roles in the Ancient World 1. The Importance of Bread: Archaeology, the Bible, and Women’s Power in Ancient Israel Carol L. Meyers 2. The Material World of Women and Men in Scripture: Gender and the Ancient Israelite Household Cynthia Shafer-Elliott 3. What We Can Learn from Women’s Roles in Ancient Synagogues Jeffrey P. Garcia 4. The Agency of Women in Ancient Rome Lynn H. Cohick Gender in the Biblical Texts: i. The Good 5. Freedom Fighters of the Exodus Carmen Joy Imes 6. Heroic Women of the New Testament James F. McGrath 7. Finding Good Men in the Old and New Testaments Beth M. Stovell Gender in the Biblical Texts: ii. The Bad 8. The Roots of Violence: Male Violence against Women in Genesis Matthew J. Lynch 9. Did Early Christians Give Dignity and Honor to Female Slaves? Nijay K. Gupta 10. For All Have Sinned: Learning from Bad Women in the Bible Dru Johnson Gender in the Biblical Texts: iii. The Misunderstood 11. Does God Really Command Women to Marry Their Rapists? A Study of Deuteronomic Law Sandra L. Richter 12. Veiling in Corinth: A Surprising Sign of Equality Janelle Peters 13. Paul and the Women He Greeted Erin Heim