For the Ladies

One of the readings for one of my upcoming graduate courses is an article by Phyllis Tribble that discusses the concept of "feminist hermeneutics" (fancy phrase that means "the ways women interpret the Bible).  I read that article yesterday afternoon before taking on the first 28 chapters of Exodus as my reading.  I am glad that I did.

As a result of that article, I was more attuned to notice the role that women played in the story of the Exodus.  Often I think we point to Moses as the key character in the Old Testament story and then ignore the circumstances of Moses' birth.

It is certainly correct to say that Moses plays a crucial role in the Old Testament, perhaps even the crucial role.  But apart from the actions of his mother, who refused to obey an order by Pharaoh to kill her son, there would have been no Moses.  Apart from the actions of his sister Miriam, who stood on the side of the river and watched hopefully over the basket in which the infant Moses floated, there would be no Moses.  And apart from the actions of Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted a Hebrew child as her own, there would be no Moses.

Think about that for a minute.  Apart from the actions of three women, the whole story of the Old Testament would be different.  Put a different way, when it came to the crucial moments of human involvement in the story, God chose to use women.  And to drive the point home, the same can be said of the New Testament and its main character - the crucial moment of human involvement was given to a woman.

This is a far cry from the usual way that women are viewed in the Old and (to some extent) New Testaments.  It is woman who is blamed for sin and who is treated poorly and given no status.

Yet God is no respecter of our assumptions about gender.  God defies our expectations and roles...and that is awesome.

jB