Directions in Jewish Feminist Bible Study

The article highlights various possible directions that Jewish feminist Bible scholarship can take. Even though this field has naturally been influenced by feminist scholarship in general, I believe that it does have a number of unique traits, with regard both to content (such as pointing out the Ch...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Shemesh, Yael (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage [2016]
In: Currents in biblical research
Year: 2016, Volume: 14, Issue: 3, Pages: 372-406
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Old Testament / Feminist theology / Judaism
IxTheo Classification:BH Judaism
FD Contextual theology
HB Old Testament
Further subjects:B Feminism
B Bible
B Judaism
B Feminists
B feminist studies
B Jewish feminist Bible studies
B Jewish Studies
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:The article highlights various possible directions that Jewish feminist Bible scholarship can take. Even though this field has naturally been influenced by feminist scholarship in general, I believe that it does have a number of unique traits, with regard both to content (such as pointing out the Christian source of certain misogynistic interpretations) and form (commentaries oriented to the weekly Torah portion). The first part of the article deals with these unique features of Jewish feminist Bible scholarship. In the second part I look at four goals shared by feminist Bible scholarship in general and the Jewish subgenre, while focusing on the latter: (1) Emphasizing that the Bible is a patriarchal and androcentric—some would say misogynistic—text; (2) highlighting the voices for equality that can be found in the Bible; (3) focusing on biblical women and recounting her-story rather than the traditional his-tory that has been dominant for generations; (4) discovering the female authors of biblical texts, or at least the women’s voices that emerge from it. In the third section I draw on several Jewish feminist Bible scholars’ treatment of three issues to exemplify how the same underlying data led different readers to different and even contradictory attitudes and assertions about the biblical text. Two of these issues relate to narrative—the characterization of Eve and that of Ruth and Naomi and their relationship. The third issue comes from the legal corpus—the laws of menstrual impurity (Lev. 15.19-24). Here we saw not only the different positions taken by different scholars, but also the change over time in the view of Rachel Adler, which corresponds with the change in her religious perspective and move from one religious denomination to another.
ISSN:1745-5200
Contains:Enthalten in: Currents in biblical research
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/1476993X16642737