Found this tonight at Think. Laugh. Weep. Worship. and thought it was awesome:
…in my reading of scripture, there is no one, timeless and inalterable standard "woman." I know this is going against the grain a little bit. No one calls into question the reality of so-called "biblical womanhood" without picking a fight.
But, I ask you, if there were a paradigm for biblical womanhood, which woman would we choose? Sarah, who bossed her husband around as much as he bossed her? Rebekah, whose scheming subverted the proper birth order of her sons and alienated them from one another? What about Tamar, the abandoned widow who took advantage of her father-in-law's lust to secure a place in the family? Or, perhaps we should look to Deborah, the wise prophet to whom the Israelites came for judgment and through whom God incited Barak to battle? Or, maybe Abigail whose intelligence and bravery caught the eye of King David? The list could go on, of course. What about Naomi, Ruth, Michal, Bathsheba, Huldah, Esther, Susanna, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Phoebe, Priscilla, Tabitha, Chloe, Junia, or the Elect Lady? Indeed, it would take a tortuous amount of historical wrangling to squeeze these diverse and complicated women into one "biblical" mold of "womanhood." As I see it, it is a fruitless endeavor.
The whole post is great—poking holes in some people’s definition of what it means to ascribe to “biblical" womanhood, and pointing out the complexities, as well.
Don't forget Yael, who drove a tent spike through an army captain's head. Extolled above women be Yael!
Posted by: Kevin | July 13, 2007 at 08:20 AM