RT Article
T1 The Women of Asherah: Weaving Wickedness in 2 Kings 23:7
JF The catholic biblical quarterly
VO 83
IS 2
SP 208
OP 219
A1 Noegel, Scott B. 1962-
LA English
YR 2021
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1753286654
AB In this essay, I examine a long-standing crux interpretum in 2 Kgs 23:7 that reads, “And he tore down the homes of the male prostitutes, which were in the temple of Yhwh; where the women were weaving there בּתִָּים for the Asherah.” Though a number of proposals have been offered for understanding the crux, most have opted for an ad sensum interpretation that renders בָּתִּים as a curtain, tent, vestment, or other woven object that one might find in a sacred precinct. Nevertheless, I submit that, while the passage indeed describes the role that women played in producing textiles for the Asherah cult, the pervasive association of weaving with spiders also evokes a widespread androcentric stereotype that associates weaving women with female sexuality, deception, and entrapment. In turn, this enables us to understand בּתִָּים as idiomatic for “webs.”
K1 Deception
K1 double entendre
K1 Entrapment
K1 Sexuality
K1 spider
DO 10.1353/cbq.2021.0045