Rediscovering Eve : ancient Israelite women in context

Summary: Overview: This groundbreaking study looks beyond biblical texts, which have had a powerful influence over our views of women's roles and worth, in order to reconstruct the typical everyday lives of women in ancient Israel. Carol Meyers argues that biblical sources alone do not give a true picture of ancient Israelite women because urban elite males wrote the vast majority of the scriptural texts. Also, the stories of women in the Bible concern exceptional individuals rather than ordinary Israelite women. Drawing on archaeological discoveries and ethnographic information as well as biblical texts, Meyers depicts Israelite women not as submissive chattel in an oppressive patriarchy, but rather as strong and significant actors within their families and in their communities. In so doing, she challenges the very notion of patriarchy as an appropriate designation for Israelite society.

Record details

ISBN: 0199734623
ISBN: 9780199734627
ISBN: 0199734550
ISBN: 9780199734559
Physical Description: xi, 295 pages ; 25 cm
print
Publisher: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, ©2013.

Content descriptions

General Note:	This work was published in 1988 under "Discovering Eve : ancient Israelite women in context."
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-274) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	1. Eve and Israelite women: understanding the task -- 2. Resources for the task -- 3. Setting the scene: the ancient environment -- 4. Eve in Eden: Genesis 2-3 -- 5. Eve out of Eden: Genesis 3:16 -- 6. Eve's world: the household -- 7. Women and household maintenance, part I: economic, reproductive, and socio-political activities -- 8. Women and household maintenance, part II: religious activities excursus: professional women -- 9. Gender and society: reconstructing relationships, rethinking systems -- Epilogue: Beyond the Hebrew Bible.