Claiming Her Dignity: Female Resistance in the Old Testament by L. Juliana M. Claassens

Abstract

Reviewed by: Claiming Her Dignity: Female Resistance in the Old Testament by L. Juliana M. Claassens Brandon Grafius l. juliana m. claassens Claiming Her Dignity: Female Resistance in the Old Testament (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2016). Pp. xxvi + 165. The last several decades have seen an increasing interest in biblical texts that depict violence against women, what Phyllis Trible famously labeled the "texts of terror." Claassens's most recent monograph offers a contribution to this area of study, dealing with the methods that biblical females use to resist the violence that is perpetrated against them. By focusing on these acts of resistance, C. hopes to transform these texts from texts of terror into texts of hope. In addition to the introduction and conclusion, C.'s book is divided into four main chapters, each covering a different type of textual violence. Each chapter follows the format of introducing the form of violence (with some theoretical background), discussing two texts that exemplify this form of violence, and offering concluding remarks. Claassens groups Rizpah and Abigail together under the violence of war and sees their resistance as, respectively, lamenting and offering hospitality. In her discussion of Rizpah, C. uses the brief note in 2 Sam 21:10 regarding Rizpah's lament in 2 Sam 21:10 as a starting point and argues that lament is a powerful tool for women across a variety of cultures. As evidence that this is true also in the biblical text, C. points to this lament's "profoundly transformative effect on King David" (p. 15). She then uses the story of Abigail in 1 Samuel 25 to discuss how "nourishing food and wise words" can become "powerful tools" that, at least temporarily, halt potential violence (p. 29). In the second chapter, C. moves to the violence of rape, as depicted in the stories of Tamar (2 Samuel 13) and Susanna (from the Old Greek additions to Daniel). C. finds specifics in the text indicating that Tamar attempted to resist her brother's rape in the midst of the act, and she also argues that Tamar continued this resistance afterwards through her acts of mourning. This section, in particular, would have benefited from more dialogue with C.'s earlier section on mourning; instead, the two are constructed as largely independent essays. In her essay on Susanna, C. finds admirable "Susanna's ability to take a stand" (p. 64), in spite of the fact that it is actually Daniel who saves the day. For the third chapter, C. adopts Carol Meyers's term "heterarchy" as an analytical tool [End Page 115] for exploring multiple layers of power structures that may be present simultaneously, moving beyond the more limiting concept of "patriarchy" (pp. 69-70). C. returns again to the lament as an act of resistance in her reading of Jephthah's daughter but finds the primary power of the story to lie in its ability to name the "tragic reality" of Jephthah's socio historical circumstances. In a similar manner, C. sees the daughters of Zelophehad (Numbers 27) as victims of a repressive social environment, but one that they successfully change (at least in a limited sense). Even though the daughters' case is successful, C. engages with the troubling reality that this narrative provides an image of "a God that hands out land grants to the chosen people as God pleases," ignoring the land rights of prior inhabitants (p. 90). In the final chapter, C. explores the violence of "precarity," using the stories of Sarah/Hagar and Ruth/Naomi as test cases. C. reads Hagar's tears and Sarah's laughter both as causing God to transform their situations. In the final section, C. discusses the story of Ruth and Naomi in conjunction with that of Tamar (Genesis 38), as stories that involve foreign women in dehumanizing situations who "resist the persons and forces that seek to diminish their worth as human beings" (p. 125). She sees both Ruth and Tamar as trickster figures. While much of this ground has been trod before, C.'s collection of essays is still a helpful resource. It would be best suited for an audience of advanced undergraduate or beginning seminary students. Brandon Grafius...