Women In The Biblical Tradition

The majority of essays in this collection discuss biblical narratives that mention particular women: Hannah, Martha, Mary, Mary of Clopas, Michal, Susanna, the Syrophenician Woman, the Samaritan Woman, Tamar, and others. In each case the discussion takes a different aspect: for example, the chauvinism of recent Bible translations, the place of Cynic philosophy in first century Palestine, the problem of the work ethic, the questioning of Jesus' attitude to women, and early Christian missionary activity. Other essays discuss methodological issues: the inheritance of the daughters of Zelophehad is assessed from the perspective of social anthropology; the significance of the femininity of wisdom is analyzed with historical critical rigour; the parables of the lost are examined from the point of view of post-modernist feminism; and the logic of the passages about women in Paul's correpondence with Corinth is reconsidered.