| CODE | SHG3350 | |||||||||
| TITLE | Seminar: The Feminine in the Bible | |||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course | |||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 6 | |||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | |||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Sacred Scripture, Hebrew and Greek | |||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | An essential ingredient of Middle East and Mediterranean culture, the Bible depicts women in their role as wives and mothers in an essentially patriarchal environment. Although few women were protagonists on the leadership and administrative levels of their society, yet they definitely had fundamental roles on family, education and formation, household, and basic trades levels. These roles are verified in women鈥檚 say in their own marriage and its arrangements, wedding customs, and in the dowry settlements. The primary roles of wife and mother and child bearing and rearing run through both the Old and New Testaments. A concluding factor would emerge as the whole picture of the feminine in the Old and New Testaments is formed, namely the feminine roles at the roots of Jewish Society as it embraces more and more cultures from the Old to the New Testament and the Diaspora. Study-Unit Aims: The study-unit aims at examining the Bible as literature and offering a short introduction into the art of biblical narrative. It also aims at enabling students with little or no preparation in Bible reading to better appreciate Scriptural texts in their presentation of women and female roles during Iron Age II (1200-1000 BCE). It will identify the fundamental roles women had in the formation of society in general and of the family in particular through their productive and reproductive activities. To this aim, a good grounding in some methodological considerations is given, namely: the authorship of the Old Testament by a literate, urban elite of male religious specialists and that of the New Testament by a mixture of diaspora Christian disciples. Furthermore, the main sources for the study of the Feminine in the Bible will be delved into, namely, archaeology, Ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian texts, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, together with the Bible itself, iconography, and ethnography. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - describe the various aspects of Biblical narrative; - interpret Biblical narrative texts in their specific and particular contexts; - discuss the innumerable roles of women as indirectly reflected in Biblical narratives and underlying these narratives; - differentiate between preconceived female roles and factual ones in Biblical texts. - illustrate how specific women in the Bible are representative of the feminine figure in both the Old and the New Testaments. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - compare different Biblical texts according to their geographical, historical, sociological, political, literary contexts; - recognize concrete roles underlying narrative texts in the Bible with female protagonists; - formulate a more complete depiction of women's roles in the Bible; - objectively interpret particular Biblical texts that have women as their main focus. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - BRENNER, Athalia (1994), The Israelite Woman. Social Role and Literary Type in Biblical Narrative, Sheffield: University Press. - KROEGER, Catherine C, 鈥淲omen in Greco-Roman World and Judaism,鈥� in Dictionary of New Testament Background, edited by Craig A. Evans and Stanley E. Porter (Downers Grove, IL 鈥� Leicester: InterVarsity, 2000), 1276-1280. - MEYERS, Carol (1988), Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press [HQ1172 .M48]. - STAGER, Lawrence E. (1985), "The Archaeology of the Family in Ancient Israel". In Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 260: 1-35. Supplementary Readings: - BACH, Alice (ed.) (1999), Women in the Hebrew Bible. A Reader, New York - London: Routledge [BS1199.W7 W7]. - BRENNER, Athalia - Caroline FONTAINE (1997), A Feminist Companion to Reading the Bible. Approaches, Methods and Strategies, Sheffield: University Press [BS521.4 .F458]. - BAR-EFRAT, Shimon (1989), Narrative Art in the Bible, Sheffield: University Press [BS1178.H4 B3513]. - EBELING, Jennie R.E. (2010), Women鈥檚 Lives in Biblical Times, London: T&T Clark [DS112 .E217]. - RYKEN, Leland (1984), How to Read the Bible as Literature, Grand Rapids/MI: Zondervan [BS535 .R89 1984]. - SCHUESSLER FIORENZA, Elisabeth (2013), Transforming Vision: Explorations in Feminist The*logy, Minneapolis/MN:Fortress Press. - SIMONE, Tikva and Frymer KENSKY, Studies in Bible and Feminist Criticism (Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Scoiety, 2006) (online access). |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Seminar and Independent Study | |||||||||
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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