Sexual Inequality in the Old Testament
In today's society women are looked upon ignorantly by the male gender. This attitude derived from the naive men of the Old Testament. They did not see women as being an important part of history and therefore hardly spoke of them. When women were mentioned it was usually in a condescending fashion. Even with genealogies in the Old Testament women were not listed as if to show that they were not important and of no concern. Women in the Old Testament our viewed as being inferior to men, sexual predators, and an item of property. In the first creation story (Genesis 1:27) God is described as creating man, both male and female at the same time. This might be interpreted as implying equality between the two genders. But in the second creation story, (Genesis 2:7) God formed only a man. Realizing that he needed a helper (Genesis 2:18), God marched all of the animals past Adam (Genesis 2:19-20) looking for a suitable animal. Finding none suitable, God created Eve out of one of Adam's ribs. The term "helper" has historically been interpreted as implying an inferior role for Eve. ("The Hebrew translated word helper is used twenty-one times in the Old Testament: twenty of these cases refer to help from a superior.")(Coogan 813)Ada
A man who committed adultery did not commit a wrongful act against his wife, but rather against his male neighbor implying that a woman did not matter. This ultimately led to Samson's death. Another example of where the Bible insists that men are more important than women is in Leviticus 27:6. In 1 Kings 11 it once again described women as sexual predators. It also required that a virgin woman who had been raped must marry her attacker, no matter what her feelings were towards the rapist (22:28-29). There was no indication that women were consulted during this type of transaction. The money would be in compensation for the damage to the father's property - his daughter. Joshua 2:1-16 describes how Rahab, a prostitute, hid two Israelite spies and saved their lives by misdirecting the soldiers. Females were not considered worthy of being included. Deuteronomy 22:23 extends this prohibition to a man sleeping with a woman who is engaged to be married. This instance portrayed women as sexual aggressors and made them look very distasteful and worthy of no respect. Also in Numbers chapter 30 it described that a vow taken by a man was binding.
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Acceptance Essays
