The Social Status of Woman in the Old Testament

Abstract

In consideration of the present movement of woman for equality and for freedom to work out her destiny in life, and in consideration of the fact that every serious movement finds its explanation in its historic connection with earlier forms of social life, it is fitting that the race whose customs are best known to us through our sacred books should yield some insight into the social and religious relations of the women of the Old Testament. The great contrast between the woman of the present day and her of primitive times lies in the increasingly direct and immediate relationship borne to the community itself. The great public service of woman in the spread of education among the masses, her influence in literature and art, and the larger civic interests for which higher education has trained her, together with her industrial exploitation on the one hand and the increased duration and extension of the care of the child on the other hand, have changed the status of woman from that of an unfree subject to that of membership in the community with rights and duties all her own. In early society, woman was always in a state of dependence. Even in the stage of development of family life known as motherright, when the man leaves his home and goes to live with his wife in the house of her father, marital power in the husband is not wholly lacking. It is only impaired by the presence of the woman's kinsfolk.' Woman in the Old Testament is subject to the Chinese rule of the three obediences. When young she must obey her father; when married, she must obey her husband; and when her husband