Why Is Miriam Also among the Prophets? (And Is Zipporah among the Priests?)

Abstract

(ProQuest Information and Learning: Foreign text omitted.)... I. The Bible's Women Prophets Without doubt, the feminist revolution that has swept through the academic world at large has had an enormous impact Hebrew Bible studies, with questions regarding the roles and status of women in ancient having assumed a dominant place within the biblical field during the past twenty-five years.1 Yet equally without doubt is the fact that, for biblical scholars who have sought to uncover indications of positive roles and an elevated status for women within ancient Israelite society, the results of the past twenty-five years of research have been somewhat mixed.2 Certainly, this is true for scholars whose primary interest is the place of women within ancient Israelite religion. On the one hand, such scholars have been able to bring to the fore evidence of women's religious observances that were basically equivalent to those of men and have even been able to isolate certain cult functions that seem to have been exclusively or at least principally the responsibility of Israelite women. Women, for example, seem to have held the exclusive responsibility for singing victory songs after an Israelite triumph in holy war and appear to have assumed a principal position as ritual musicians upon occasions of lament.3 On the other hand, our examinations have revealed manifold ways in which Israelite religion excluded or marginalized women. For example, while a woman, like a man, could dedicate herself as a Nazirite to God (Num 6:2), her vow could be nullified by her father (if she was yet unmarried) or by her husband (if she had wed [Num 30:2-15]). Likewise, although a woman, like a man, could participate in the great pilgrimage festivals of Passover, Shavuot, and Succoth (as does Hannah, for example, in 1 Sam 1),4 it was only men, according to Exod 23:17; 34:23; and Dent 16:16, who were required to make these pilgrimages central to the Israelite festal calendar. Another manifestation of this same on the one hand/on the other hand phenomenon is the role women could play as prophets within Israelite religion. Five women bear the title ..., the feminine form of... prophet, in the Hebrew Bible: (1) Miriam, the sister of Moses, in Exod 15:20; (2) Deborah, said also to be judging Israel (...), in Judg 4:4; (3) the unnamed wife of the Isaiah in Isa 8:3; (4) Hulda, the who verified the validity of the recently discovered Book of the Law for King Josiah, in 2 Kgs 22:14 (paralleled in 2 Chr 34:22); and (5) Noadiah, who seems to have opposed the restoration projects of Nehemiah in some way, in Neh 6:14. In many respects, this register provides important evidence for modern scholars who seek attestations of positive roles and positions of elevated status for women within Israelite religion. Indeed, a positive role and an elevated status seem especially indicated given how dominant a place prophetic narratives and the prophetic books hold in the biblical tradition as it has come down to us. Still, we should express reservations. First, we must resist characterizing Isaiah's wife as a in the vein of Miriam, Deborah, Hulda, and Noadiah. Unlike these women, Isaiah's wife did not engage in a typical prophetic ministry, making proclamations about matters of public interest and participating directly in public affairs. Rather, the sole action attributed to Isaiah's wife is a domestically based enterprise in which almost all ancient Israelite women engaged: conceiving by her husband and bearing their child. It is also important to note that, alone of the Bible's five women prophets, Isaiah's wife is not given a name. This is significant, for the giving of names in the Bible-especially the giving of names to women-is often an important marker of those women's autonomy and authority.5 The nameless status of Isaiah's wife, conversely, suggests relative powerlessness. In fact, I would argue that Isaiah's wife is assigned the title prophet only as an honorific by virtue of her marriage to the male Isaiah, in much the same way, say, that Esther is assigned the title queen by virtue of her marriage to Ahasuerus, despite the fact that Esther is not of royal birth. …