The Israelite Woman

A wonderful book - concise, thoughtful, and as much an introduction to the Hebrew Bible as a whole as a reflection of the place of women within it. Athalya is very attentive to detail, and comprehensive - she provides a rich spectrum of the social roles of women, and a survey of literary schemata concerning women e.g. as temptresses, or as mothers of heroes. The book concludes with a brilliantly insightful consideration of the pros and cons of the story of the Garden of Eden, and womans place in it. As Athalya writes in her final reflection, she intended in writing the book to fill in the gaps in Israelite history and the study of women in its literature. It succeeds beautifully. * Francis Landy, University of Alberta, Canada * The Israelite Woman represents the first book-length treatment of the appearance of female characters in the Hebrew Bible. Mainstream male scholars routinely assumed that the portrayal of women characters in the text corresponds fairly accurately to the lives and activities of real women. Brenners solution was to use a broad swathe of methods drawn from folklore, literary criticism, classics, anthropology, and archaeology to begin to sort through the relationship between literary character and lived reality. The resulting work is no less than a methodological revolution that brought female scholars into relevance, gathering together voices and work that had never appeared together previously, and transforming existing practices and conclusions. * Carole Fontaine, Andover Newton Theological School, USA * The depth of scholarship is unassailableThe book is highly recommended. * The Bible Today *

Athalya Brenner-Idan is Professor Emerita of the HB\OT Chair at the Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and currently Professor in Biblical Studies at the Department of Hebrew Culture Studies, Tel Aviv University, Israel, and Research Associate at the Biblia Arabica Project there. In addition, she is Extraordinary Professor at the Department of OT/NT, Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Her website is http://athalya-morah-letorah.com.

Abbreviations Preface Preface [1985] 1. Introduction Part 1: Women, Professions and Social Institutions 2. Queens 3. Wise Women 4. Women Poets and Authors 5. Prophetesses 6. Magicians 7. Female Prostitution Part 2: Literary Paradigms of Female Types and Behaviour 8. General Considerations 9. Mothers of Great Men (The Heros Mother) 10. The Two Sides of the Temptress 11. Foreign Women 12. The Ancestress- an extended female metaphor 13. Conclusion Afterword: A Personal Note Notes Bibliography