Welcome to Women of the Bible
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Featured
Miriam – sister, daughter, prophet
Miriam – how to approach her; given that we have already mentioned her (see Jochabed – the mother of Moses)? We glimpse Miriam’s first appearances in Exodus as the older sister of Moses, the Jewish boy whose very birth placed him in immediate danger in Egypt, and of Aaron. They lived with their parents Amram… Read more
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Featured
Jochabed – the mother whose cleverness preserved her baby’s life
Jochabed belonged to the tribe of Levi, one of the sons of Jacob and Leah. She was married to Amram, who was a grandson of Levi, via his son Kohath. We are told in Exodus 6v20 that she was the sister of Amram’s father, which would make him her nephew. It doesn’t seem right to… Read more
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Featured
Shiprah and Puah – the courageous midwives.
Exodus takes up the story of the descendants of Jacob, who are now living in Egypt. The descendants of the family invited by the Pharoah grateful to Joseph, are now numerous and the Pharoah now ruling has no memory of Joseph. As their numbers have increased, toleration has decreased and so they are now living… Read more
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Featured
Asenath – wife of Joseph
Most of the women, featured so far have had quite a bit (comparatively) written about them. About Joseph’s wife Asenath however, we know hardly anything, although we are at least told her name. It is safe to say that in the ongoing story of God’s people, her own role is not noted as particularly significant.… Read more
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Featured
Joseph – son of Jacob’s beloved wife Rachel
The story of Joseph is important in Genesis and is well-known in popular culture today, largely due to the musical “Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat”. His appearance in this blog “Women of the Bible” is to provide the context for how the descendants of Sarah and Abraham, who first see the working out of… Read more
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Featured
Bath-Shua – Judah’s Canaanite wife
I don’t wish to refer to any woman as a “footnote” but there are some about whom we know considerably less. Judah, the son of Leah and Jacob is noted to have had a wife – the daughter of Shua – a Canaanite woman (ie not from amongst his own family as his father and… Read more
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Featured
Tamar
Named in Matthew’s Gospel in the Geneaology of Jesus With Tamar, we reach the story of the first of the five ancestors of Jesus named in the Genealogy in the Gospel of Matthew. Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah, one of the sons of Jacob and Leah. Her story is recorded in Genesis 38v6-30. There… Read more
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Featured
Dinah – the fate of one girl among many brothers
So far all the women we have looked at have been at the centre of a nuclear or thereabout family, Sarah, who waited a long time for Isaac, Rebekah who left her home to marry Isaac and bore him twins, the workings out of the lives of those children, with Leah and Rachel, Rebekah’s nieces… Read more
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Featured
Rachel – the Beloved, but Barren Wife
Rachel’s world – ten boys, one girl but none of them hers by birth (although the two borne by her maidservant are technically and culturally hers). She, the beloved wife of Jacob, that he worked many long years for (twice over) has to stand by watching as the sister, who their father infiltrated into Jacob’s… Read more
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Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah – Daughters who refused to be disinherited.
The five named above are the daughters of Zelophehad, who belonged to the clan of Manasseh, the son of Joseph. When they come into focus, their father has died. The people of Israel have been journeying through the desert for a long time and thoughts are beginning to turn to what will happen when they… Read more
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Zipporah – wife of Moses
Moses who is such an important figure in the liberation of the people of God from their slavery in Egypt and their leader through the years in the desert wilderness, is a man saved by women. Previously – we saw how his mother and sister are instrumental in saving him from death at birth and… Read more
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