Women's Lives in Biblical Times
A delightful book!  InWomen's Lives in Biblical Times,Jennie Ebeling creatively combines an imaginative sketch of the life of an ancient Israelite woman with a rich array of biblical, archaeological, and comparative evidence, both compellingly to describe and convincingly to document the nature of everyday existence for the typical Israelite woman of the late second millennium BCE. The result is a study that is simultaneously learned and fun, a wonderful contribution to our understanding of Israelite women and tradition.---Susan Ackerman, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA.There have been a few attempts by biblical scholars to tell us about daily life in ancient Israel. But up to now there has been no full-scale account by anyone and none specifically about women, none by archaeologists who are now the best qualified to write about how it really was ordinary folk. This book, by a woman who is a professional field archaeologist working in Israel, and who also has sound training in biblical studies, is the book we have been waiting for. It is conceived in a partly fictional setting; the story of Orah; but it is based on the most recent and best archaeological information. Orah comes to life and speaks to us dramatically about her varied roles in her small world, her hardships and hopes. The story is riveting.--- William G. Dever, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA."An explosion of fiction focusing on female biblical characters (most notably, Anita Diamant's 1997 novel "The Red Tent") spurred archeologist and scholar Jennie R. Ebeling to writer her own book, one that would be less dramatic but perhaps present a more realistic, complex picture of women's everyday lives in ancient Israel. While the core ofWomen's Lives in Biblical Timesis nonfictional, Ebeling brings the subject to life in the person of 'Orah', a hypothetical woman living in a small village of the central highlands in the Iron Age 1 (circa 1200-1000 B.C.)...While we marvel at the stark differences between Orah's life and that of a modern Western woman, Ebeling connects the reader to this imagined woman's humanity, bringing the past to life in fascinating detail.---Teresa Malcolm, National Catholic Reporter, July 9, 2010The unique contribution of this work is Ebeling's creative approach...Women's Lives in Biblical Timeswill be a valuable tool not only in college and seminary classrooms, but also within congregations.---Interpretation