Studies in Bible and Feminist Criticism

463 Pages·2006·2.033 MB·English

by  Tikva Frymer-Kensky

STUDIES IN BIBLE AND FEMINIST
CRITICISM
Support for the publication of this book
has been provided with admiration, respect, and affection
for
TIKVA FRYMER-KENSKY
by friends at
BETH HILLEL CONGREGATION B’NAI EMUNAH
Wilmette, Illinois
and
by a gift from
SAMUEL PANUSH FRIED
dedicated with love to
GIGI PANUSH FRIED
rus rus
JPS
SCHOLAR uharusu
OF DISTINCTION
SERIES
TIKVA FRYMER-KENSKY
STUDIES IN BIBLE AND
FEMINIST CRITICISM
THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Philadelphia 2006 • 5766
Copyright © 2006 by Tikva Frymer-Kensky
First edition. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording,
or any information storage or retrieval system, except for brief passages
in connection with a critical review, without permission in writing from
the publisher:
The Jewish Publication Society
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Philadelphia, PA 19103
Composition by Book Design Studio II
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Publisher’s Note:
With few exceptions, the articles in this anthology are as they
appeared in their original. As a result, there are variations in spelling
and language style from piece to piece.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Frymer-Kensky, Tikva Simone
Studies in Bible and feminist criticism/Tikva Frymer-Kensky.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“Bibliography of published writings of Tikva Frymer-Kensky”—P.
Includes bibliographic references.
ISBN 0-8276-0798-9
1. Bible. O.T.—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Bible. O.T.—Feminist criticism. 3.
Bible—Theology. 4. Middle Eastern literature—Relation to the Old Testament. I. Title
BS1171.3.F79 2006
220.6082—dc22
2005043538
Tikva Frymer-Kensky
To my husband, Rabbi Allan Kensky,
whose loving support nourishes me as much as food and drink;
to my daughter, Meira Kensky,
who has grown into my colleague and my friend;
and to my son, Eitan Kensky,
who is emerging as my friend and as an excellent scholar
who has much to teach me.
I am deeply blessed to have my close, loving family.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: A Retrospective xi
List of Abbreviations xxv
COMPARATIVE CULTURE I:
ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN RELIGIONS
Creation Myths
1 / Atrahasis: An Introduction 5
2 / The Planting of Man: A Study in Biblical Imagery 19
Flood Myths
3 / Israel and the Ancient Near East: New Perspectives
on the Flood 37
4 / The Atrahasis Epic and Its Significance for Our
Understanding of Genesis 1–9 51
Goddess Myths
5 / Goddesses: Biblical Echoes 69
6 / Lolita-Inanna 83
COMPARATIVE CULTURE II:
JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY
7 / The Image: Religious Anthropology in Judaism
and Christianity 91
8 / Biblical Voices on Chosenness 109
9 / Jesus and the Law 119
10 / Covenant: A Jewish Biblical Perspective 133
vii
viii Contents
FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES I: GENDER AND THE BIBLE
11 / The Bible and Women’s Studies 161
12 / The Ideology of Gender in the Bible and the
Ancient Near East 187
13 / Sanctifying Torah 197
14 / Reading Rahab 211
FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES II: GENDER AND THE LAW
15 / Patriarchal Family Relationships and Near Eastern Law 227
16 / Law and Philosophy: The Case of Sex in the Bible 241
17 / Halakhah, Law, and Feminism 257
18 / The Feminist Challenge to Halakhah 265
THEOLOGIES I: BIBLICAL THEOLOGY
19 / Revelation Revealed: The Doubt of Torah 287
20 / Moses and the Cults: The Question of Religious
Leadership 297
21 / The Theology of Catastrophe: A Question of
Historical Justice 309
22 / The End of the World and the Limits of Biblical Ecology 317
23 / Pollution, Purification, and Purgation in Biblical Israel 331
24 / Ecology in a Biblical Perspective 353
THEOLOGIES II: CONSTRUCTIVE THEOLOGY
25 / The Emergence of Jewish Biblical Theologies 367
26 / Constructing a Theology of Healing 383
27 / On Feminine God-Talk 395
28 / Woman Jews 405
29 / Like a Birthing Woman 427
30 / Shaddai 429
Bibliography of the Published Writings of Tikva Frymer-Kensky 431
Acknowledgments
It is hard to know whom to acknowledge and thank for help in work that has
spanned over thirty years. First, I would like to thank Judith Lawrence, my
secretary at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, and Manuel Cruz,
a Ph.D. candidate at the Divinity School, for their extensive efforts in prepar-
ing this manuscript and correcting the bibliography. I have been blessed over
the years with secretaries and librarians who have been eager to do whatever
was needed—and I thank them all for their assistance and encouragement. I
have been fortunate to have had the guidance of wonderful teachers, from my
undergraduate Bible professors H. L. Ginsberg, Yohanan Muffs, Shalom Paul,
Moshe Held, and A.S. Halkin, through my graduate professors in Semitics and
Assyriology Franz Rosenthal, Marvin Pope, J.J. Finklestein, and William Hallo.
My sincere thanks also to my “adopted” teachers Thorkild Jacobsen and Moshe
Greenberg, who have given of their time freely and generously over the years
to discuss their work and mine.
In the final analysis writing is a lonely business; but it is not done in a vac-
uum. I am conscious of my readers and their questions—a consciousness that
is not abstract. I would like to thank my students at Wayne State University,
the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and the University of Chicago, as
well as the many participants in adult education courses and lectures that I
have given over the years. Little by little their interests have become mine;
their questions have shaped the way I look at scripture; and their intellectual
needs have urged me to write—to go beyond the lecture or the class.
I would like to acknowledge my colleagues at the places where I have been
fortunate to teach and learn. The faculty at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical
College was eager to discuss all matters of Jewish learning, and I learned a
great deal from them during the years that I taught there. I have been fortu-
nate to have had two stays at the Center for Advanced Jewish Studies of the
University of Pennsylvania, a place wholly devoted to facilitating the work of
its professors. My sincere thanks to the Divinity School of the University of
ix