Human Creation in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur’an - Feminist Exegesis

Abstract

The foundations of Judaism and Islam are their holy books – the Hebrew Bible and the Qur’an – which believers regard as the eternal word of God. It is not surprising, therefore, that leading Islamic and Jewish religious feminists undertook to reinterpret problematic and even misogynist verses and narratives. One of the earliest narratives addressed by both Jewish and Islamic religious feminists in interpreting the Hebrew Bible and the Qur’an was the creation of man and woman. In both religious traditions, the creation of the first woman after the man, from the man, and for the man served as a foundation stone of patriarchy. The challenge that Jews and Muslims faced in this endeavor differed as a function of the dissimilarity of the texts of the Hebrew bible and the Qur’an. The task of feminist exegesis was similarly motivated, however, by the long-established interpretation of the texts by both Jewish and Muslim male scholars functioning in patriarchal societies, (and even the few women exegetes in the mid-twentieth century). There is a remarkable resemblance in the methodology and approach of Jewish and Islamic religious feminists to their sacred books, but there does not appear to have been any direct influence of one on the other. The point of convergence seems to be through the Christian Eve and efforts by western Christian feminists to defuse this Biblical tradition. The similarity and parallels between Jewish and Islamic feminist exegesis may be attributed to the similar backgrounds of the women as well as the similar sociologies of Judaism and Islam and language issues.