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    The female identity in the bible.

    Today I was considering how the female identity is portrayed in the Bible. I couldn't think of an example of a sacred story where the female was presented in any other way apart from her attachment to a male. For example, Esther was championed as a hero of her generation among preachers when I was a teenager. They would talk about an "Esther generation" who were willing to take risks for the sake of the gospel, but even she was simply taking orders from her Uncle Mordecai. Ruth is another one, though the success of her story depends on her becoming the bride of Boaz. Can anyone think of any tales where the female is celebrated out of her own right? It might be a theme too out of context of the culture.

    There may not be stories of particular individuals, but there might be attributes you can think of that are given a feminine pronoun. For example, Wisdom.

    #2
    Re: The female identity in the bible.

    I don't know about the Bible, Az, but in the Old Testament, women were very influential. In the good meaning of the word.
    There are many examples. I don't remember accurately, but Yael helped Kind David when he was chosen and later on chased by king Shaul, later on with David the king there was some kind of story when a woman helped the military general capture a traitor that was hiding in the city and she saved the city from starvation. The general wanted the city to starve and make the traitor come out.

    Plus, Tamar - king David's wife helped him escape when king Shaul came after him...

    - - - Updated - - -

    Oh and the Old Testament treats women with a lot of respect, I must say.
    "Fair means that everybody gets what they need. And the only way to get that is to make it happen yourself."



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      #3
      Re: The female identity in the bible.

      I always liked the story of Judith.
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        #4
        Re: The female identity in the bible.

        Originally posted by Gleb View Post
        I don't know about the Bible, Az, but in the Old Testament, women were very influential. In the good meaning of the word.
        There are many examples. I don't remember accurately, but Yael helped Kind David when he was chosen and later on chased by king Shaul, later on with David the king there was some kind of story when a woman helped the military general capture a traitor that was hiding in the city and she saved the city from starvation. The general wanted the city to starve and make the traitor come out.

        Plus, Tamar - king David's wife helped him escape when king Shaul came after him...

        - - - Updated - - -

        Oh and the Old Testament treats women with a lot of respect, I must say.
        You have given me a few names to look up. I don't remember Tamar being married to King David. There might be two, but the Tamar I know of was King David's daughter and the victim of savage rape who was never granted justice by her father. I will read further into her story. When I looked up Yael, she is connected to Deborah who is the only recorded female Judge of Israel.

        Originally posted by Tylluan Penry View Post
        I always liked the story of Judith.
        I'm not familiar with any books in the Apocrypha, but I'll read that book.

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          #5
          Re: The female identity in the bible.

          Maybe it wasn't Tamar. But the name is similar. Maybe Michal?

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          Yeah, I think it was Michal, the daughter of Shaul.
          "Fair means that everybody gets what they need. And the only way to get that is to make it happen yourself."



          Since I adore cats, I might write something strange or unusual in my comment.Cats are awesome!!! ^_^

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            #6
            Re: The female identity in the bible.

            From what I recall from a book called "The Bible As It Was", there was an interesting point made regarding various passages in Genesis. The book itself was an exploration into the centuries of word manipulation, mistranslation, and expungement of sections, and how if one were to go back and attempt to piece together from the most reliable sources, there would be quite a different set of stories. The one I'm referring to here is the passage that read "And we shall make man in our image". In later editions, the "we" and the "our" were eventually capitalized to indicate the Royal Plural, but in the original Hebrew, there were no instances of a plural used to indicate royalty. Therefore, it was actually meant to mean "we", as in more than one deity creating man.

            This becomes more and more interesting as either through removed passages or changes in translation (I forget which at this time, it's been a while), there was reference to God separating from Himself his Wisdom, followed by a few references to that Wisdom as being female. Now, while it still begotten from the masculine and acts in accordance to that male power for the most part, there are numerous instances of mention of this Wisdom as a separate, influential, and very female divine entity. If you wanted to make a few great stretches, this duality can be applied to the veneration of the Virgin Mary in Roman Catholicism.

            Also, one could cast Mary Magdalene as the strong, rebellious female figure in the Bible who has been later venerated as a saint. In fact Augustine gave her the honorific as the "Apostle to the Apostles", creating a prominent and powerful role of a woman in a male dominated world. She was also the first person to have seen Jesus after the Resurrection, and became the messenger of such.

            That's about all I've got. I may be Northern Trad, but I was raised Roman Catholic and have always found religions in general fascinating and so did a lot of reading.

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              #7
              Re: The female identity in the bible.

              Lilith was pretty cool.
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                #8
                Re: The female identity in the bible.

                Shiprah and Puah in Exodus 15 saved baby boys from death by lying to the Pharaoh. .

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                  #9
                  Re: The female identity in the bible.

                  Originally posted by Medusa View Post
                  Lilith was pretty cool.
                  I second this, though for some reason some verions take her out entirely
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                    #10
                    Re: The female identity in the bible.

                    Originally posted by Wenny View Post
                    Shiprah and Puah in Exodus 15 saved baby boys from death by lying to the Pharaoh. .
                    I am not sure of why it isn't showing up but Shiprah and Puah saved baby boys in Exodus .

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                      #11
                      Re: The female identity in the bible.



                      Is actually a pretty good article on the subject of the feminine aspects of the Judeo-Christian God, known by most Christians as the Holy Spirit

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                        #12
                        Re: The female identity in the bible.

                        Originally posted by Nue View Post
                        I second this, though for some reason some verions take her out entirely
                        In the oldest of the Tanakh Scrolls, the only mention of the Lilitu is found in the Book of Isaiah making reference to the dwellings of the Lilitu, which were demons who would kill children and harm pregnant mothers. Tess Dawson on her website canaanitepath.com(for some reason I am not allowed to post links yet) makes some great point from many scholars in regards to Lilith from a Canaanite perspective on the topic of the recent Lilith explosion happening in the last 40+years.

                        Tess Dawson wrote "In popular thought today, Lilith is often viewed as a misunderstood dark goddess of sexuality, but this simply is not true in ancient lore. There was no male conspiracy that demonized a poor, misunderstood Lilith just because she was a strong female. She is not a poster-child for sexual discrimination, women's rights, or sexuality. She does not hearken back to a fictitious era when matriarchy was the rule, and she is not a part of a secret, forgotten mythology that patriarchy distorted.
                        Lilith is best known now from Jewish lore in the Talmud as the woman who refused to lie beneath Adam. Before she was cast as this character, she was known in Jewish lore as a demon--not as a liberated woman. The only "male conspiracy" here is not a smear on Lilith's character since she was evil from the beginning, but that she--known earlier as a demon--was deliberately cast in the role of Adam's rebellious first wife.

                        Before she was known as Adam's first wife, she may first appear as the demon Lilitu in Sumerian lore around 2400 BCE. A Bronze Age fragment of a text written in Akkadian was found in Ugarit: this text mentions Lamashtu, and describes her as a wolf. The characters of Assyrian Lilitu and Babylonian Lamashtu or Lamashshu may have been absorbed into each other to become known as the same entity by the Middle Babylonian period (circa 1150-900 BCE). Lamashtu, a daughter of Anu, was thought to cause illness in babies and small children; Lilitu was also thought to harm babies and children. (Anu is a Sumerian god of the heavens and the king of his pantheon.)

                        Later ideas of Lilith may also have been influenced by images of the Greek lamiae and the Roman striga."
                        There is beauty in darkness for those who dare enter the shadows to embrace it. - John Coughlin

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                          #13
                          Re: The female identity in the bible.

                          As an anti-spam measure links are restricted till after you've made 15 non-game, non-intro posts (game and intro are defined by subforum in this case). Under normal conditions, I'd probably kill off the quasi-link in your post but it sounds relevant to the topic and historically I've allowed exceptions there. Plus you've gone on a posting spree and if you haven't passed the threshold by the time I'm done typing, you will soon.
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                          "But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."

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                          "You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."

                          Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis


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                            #14
                            Re: The female identity in the bible.

                            Thank you for the information, MaskedOne.

                            On another note to topic, the name of Mary/Miryam/Miriam, as they are all the same name in Hebrew all translate to mean "Rebellion."
                            So, the Christian Theotokos, the Mother of God Mary, and the woman who was considered the thirteenth Apostle Mary of Magdala are all named "Rebellion."
                            There is beauty in darkness for those who dare enter the shadows to embrace it. - John Coughlin

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                              #15
                              Re: The female identity in the bible.

                              Originally posted by AntonBRaxas View Post
                              Thank you for the information, MaskedOne.

                              On another note to topic, the name of Mary/Miryam/Miriam, as they are all the same name in Hebrew all translate to mean "Rebellion."
                              So, the Christian Theotokos, the Mother of God Mary, and the woman who was considered the thirteenth Apostle Mary of Magdala are all named "Rebellion."
                              The etymology of the name Miriam is fairly ambiguous.
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