Revisiting Sexualized, Vilified, and Marginalized Women of the Bible
Part 2 of an
interview with Sandra Glahn,
Editor of Vindicating the Vixens
While many studies have been written about
the women of the Bible, Vindicating the Vixens: Revisiting
Sexualized, Vilified, and Marginalized Women of the Bible (Kregel Academic) takes
a different approach. The book has been on the heart and mind of editor Sandra Glahn for more than a decade.
“While serving as editor-in-chief of Dallas Theological Seminary’s magazine for
seventeen years, I became acquainted with the writing and research of men and
women from a cross-section of multiple societies who brought perspectives to
some biblical stories that seemed truer to the original than what is typically
taught in the West,” she explains. “Then, as I studied history and ancient
cultural backgrounds at the doctoral level, I ended up revisiting some of our western-influenced
interpretations of circumstances such as marriage practices in the ancient Near
East.”
Glahn and the international team of both male
and female scholars challenge these superficial treatments and contend we have
often missed what biblical authors intended to convey about notable women of
Scripture. While the tendency has been to sexualize (as in the case of
Bathsheba and Rahab), vilify (like Hagar and Tamar), and marginalize (the
Virgin Mary, for example) them, Scripture speaks to God’s concern for their
outsider status. The authors contend that by misinterpreting these women’s
stories, we also run the risk of adopting a faulty view of God and His mission
in the world. The writers hope to help recover God’s heart for the vulnerable,
the powerless, and the outsider.
In approaching scripture, the contributors
bring six questions to each text:
1.
What does the text actually say?
2.
What do I observe in and about the text?
3.
What did this text mean to the original
audience?
4.
What was the point?
5.
What truths in this text are timelessly
relevant?
6.
How does the part fit the whole?
Q: Would you share more about the
backgrounds of the writers and the different approaches they had for writing
about their respective woman from the Bible?
The
sixteen writers who contributed each hold a high view of scripture and have at
least one advanced degree in Bible and theology. They are a diverse group: men
and women, complementarian and egalitarian, black, white, and Arab, and authors
of books such as Discipleship for
Hispanic Introverts. Some are from Dallas Theological Seminary where I
teach, but we also have scholars from Biola, Wheaton, and Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary to name a few. One lives in Australia. One is in Scotland.
Not all are in the academy. They serve in a variety of roles. The authors’
varied backgrounds mean they each bring insights in the text that the majority
culture in North America has often wrongly interpreted—and exported. As a
result, the authors’ combined efforts provide a fresh look at the kindness of
God and His heart for the vulnerable.
Q: Why is it important to re-examine
what the Bible says about these women and challenge our traditional views of
them?
First,
because it’s time. There has been an explosion of information about
backgrounds. The influx of women into history departments in the past sixty
years added more of an emphasis on social history when political history had
been “the thing.” The historical women we knew about previously made for a
short list—such as Cleopatra or Livia. We certainly didn’t know much about
everyday people, but that has changed. Now instead of explorations limited to
empires and troop movements, social historians ask different questions. What
was the average life expectancy? What were people’s thoughts on divorce? Did
they cover their hair, and if so, when and why? Further, the internet and
translation software has made it possible for scholars across the world to have
access to each other and to sources living and dead.
Additionally,
the makeup of the scholarship pool is much more diverse, and that has aided our
understanding. Scholars from underrepresented groups looking at the Bible see
what many in privileged positions have missed. They have brought to the text
observations from a powerless perspective, which is the perspective of the
typical person to whom Jesus ministered. The body of Christ is made up of many
parts that need each other to function as a healthy whole, but we’ve missed out
on what some of those parts have to offer. Hopefully this book helps broaden
the conversation and deepen our understanding.
Q: Can you give examples of how some
people tie the evil committed by the Bible’s so-called bad girls to something
sexual when scripture states a different motivation?
In
addition to the Samaritan woman and Bathsheba, another example is Tamar. The
cultural gap between the modern West and her world is huge. In being
impregnated by her widowed father-in-law, she was probably within her legal
rights.
Centuries
later, in the wedding blessing of Boaz and Ruth, Tamar is honored: “Through the
offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that
of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah’” (Ruth 4:12). Both King David and his son
Absalom named daughters “Tamar,” and significantly the first Tamar’s actions
bring about a key change in Judah. Earlier he had sold his half-brother Joseph
into slavery, but when he sees Tamar’s righteousness and his own hypocrisy when
he seeks an honor killing for her immorality, something changes in him. The
next time we see him in the Genesis narrative, this man who sold Joseph into
slavery is offering his own life in exchange for that of Joseph’s little
brother. In vindicating Tamar, we also come to see in Judah a changed man,
too.
Q: From a cultural standpoint, as
modern Christians what do we misunderstand about the term “prostitute” as it
applied to Tamar and Rahab? Do we wrongly assume the same about Mary Magdalene?
In
the case of Tamar, the Gentile, she was not a prostitute. She posed as one once in an act of God’s
covenant love to her deceased husbands. As for Rahab, she was indeed a
professional sex worker before she believed and was spared. However, considering
what we know today about human trafficking, I think it’s safe to assume she did
not set out to aspire to harlotry as a career. Interestingly, Mary Magdalene is
never described in these terms. The text says only that she was healed of seven
demons, and if we study biblical references to “demons,” immorality is never
mentioned in association with them. That is not to say sexual sin could not be
included, but saying Mary Magdalene was immoral is embellishing the text.
Q: Were you surprised by anything you
learned or viewed differently as the chapters of the book came into you from
their respective writers?
Yes,
in fact, two things stand out. First, that often in vindicating women, men are
vindicated as well. Take the Tamar story, where we see a pivot point when Judah
sees his own hypocrisy before we see him again offering his life for that of
Benjamin, Joseph’s brother. In the story of Deborah, many—myself included—have
seen Barak as a wimp. A fresh look at that story demonstrates that he respected
Deborah and wanted her to accompany the army—no shame in that.
The
other thing that came as a wonderful surprise was that as the authors helped us
re-look at these select women, the writers did a good job of going one step
further and asking what we were missing in the narratives by “vixenizing” the
women found there. What emerged was a fresh look at the kindness of God and His
heart for the vulnerable. Our Lord lends His ear to the powerless Hagar fleeing
in the desert, the multi-widowed woman of Samaria, the multi-widowed Tamar, the
powerless Caananite woman in Jericho—all the Gentile outsiders grafted into the
genealogy of our Lord. His ear is bent to the humble, and that is a God I want
to worship and follow.
Q: Profits from the sales of the book
will go to benefit the work of the International Justice Mission. Could you
tell us more about the work they do?
In
much of the developing world, justice systems—police, prosecutors, judges,
social workers—that should protect people from violence don’t. When a justice
system doesn't work, people are more likely to become victims of crimes and
less likely to receive help when victimized. When laws are unenforced, violent
people abuse, exploit, and enslave others without consequence. Violence becomes
commonplace. The International Justice Mission (IJM) works to fight systemic
injustice and to assist the sexualized, vilified, and marginalized. The authors
contributing to this book may not be able to go with IJM to back alleys and
court rooms, but we can use our scholarship and our writing skills to support
IJM in their work. That’s why we have agreed that all profits from this book
will go to support the efforts of those who are vindicating the “vixens” in our
time.
Learn more at www.aspire2.com, and follow Dr. Glahn on Facebook (Aspire2) and Twitter (@sandraglahn).
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