Abstract

The stories of the women of the Hebrew bible was often used a secondary device used to promote both the destiny arc of assignation of land and promise of number and nationhood.The fulfillment of these desires were almost always emphatically complete by male heroes. This paper examines the roles and narratives of women biblical heroines and compares them with women from other Ancient Near Eastern cultures of the same time period such as Crete, Greece,Mesopotamia, and Egypt. Using legal and literary documents from these cultures, special attention will be given to women’s rights to justice, agency, and identity, in order to ascertain the placement of biblical women in the Ancient Near East.

Presenters

Deborah Gruber
Assistant Professor, Classical Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, CUNY Queens College, New York, United States

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

Narratives and Identity

KEYWORDS

IDENTITY, JUSTICE, FEMINISM

Digital Media

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