From Deborah to Esther
Subtitle: sexual politics in the Hebrew Bible
By: Lillian R. Klein.
Publisher: Fortress Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Minneapolis, MN
Language: eng
Number of pages: 154
Subjects: Bible. O.T. -- Feminist criticism.; Bible. O.T. -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Women in the Bible.
Other titles: Deborah to Esther
Description: The Hebrew Bible's fascinating narratives about women have occasioned some of the most important biblical scholarship of the last generation. Lillian Klein contributes to that wealth with her absorbing studies of key figures in the narrative material: Deborah, Jephtha's daughter, Delilah, Jael, the whore of Gaza, Kaleb's daughter Achsah, Hannah, Esther, the wife of Job, David's wife Michal, and Bathsheba. With a marvelous eye for the telling detail {u2013} or its absence {u2013} Klein examines the biblical portraits, often unfortunately brief, of these women and the dynamics of gender, power, and honor at work in their stories. A remarkably lucid and careful scholar, Klein has surfaced the underlying and ironic ideals of womanhood in a society that both honored and marginalized women in stories of seduction and rivalry, deviation and obedience, public shame and private power.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Wives and daughters in the Book of Judges; title: Deborah and Jael : audacious female role models?; title: Hannah : marginalized victim and social redeemer; title: Bathsheba revealed; title: Job and the womb; title: Michal, the barren wife; title: Honor and shame in the Book of Esther.