NES 3720 - [Women in Ancient Israel]

(crosslisted)
(also JWST 3720, RELST 3720)(GHB) (LA-AS)

Spring. 4 credits.

Next offered 2014-2015.

L. Monroe.

This course will employ a range of methods in approaching the subject of women in ancient Israel. We will use biblical, archaeological, and ancient Near Eastern textual evidence to reconstruct aspects of the lives of Israelite women, concentrating on their economic, religious, social, and political roles. We will analyze the portrayals of women in biblical prose and poetry and will consider the ways in which women function in biblical narrative, from a literary critical standpoint. In addition, this course will examine how the roles of women in ancient Israel have been understood and integrated in later Jewish and Christian thought, and it will address the strengths and weaknesses of so-called “feminist” approaches to the Hebrew Bible. (RS)