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How Sexuality played a big role in the Bible

Alexandria Alexis

Professor French

Women in the Bible

March 17, 2017

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Women’s Roles in the Old and New Testament.

Constantly we are being bombarded with feminist role models that have
little resemblance to what is revealed in the Bible or even to the civilization, we
knew as children. We face the temptation of being conformed to this world with
respect to the role of women. Differences in culture are factors that must be
considered when trying to extract biblical principles from the text for an
application today. Not everything that has been done in the Bible has a universal,
timeless, or useful application.
The stories about women in the Bible illustrate the importance of their role
and contribution to society. Women were slaves, concubines, and child bearers;
they were also wives, matriarchs, and prophets. Although, some women had less
important titles than others each served a purpose. Even if the Bible does not
explain God’s relationship with women as with Moses and other prophets, it
illustrates the love and dedication women had for Him. The scriptures describe
brave, nurturing, and God-fearing women whose decisions impacted the
existence of the Israelites
There are plenty of stories in the bible where woman sexuality has come
into play. The common stories are Tamar from Genesis, Mary from New
Testament and Dinah from Genesis. Their stories are something unique. They
are not every day stories especially for those times. They are stories coming from
having sex with a family member to virgin births.
Tamar was first told in the book of Genesis. Her beauty was a blessing
and a curse. Her father could not say ‘no’ to his children, especially the sons, and
they grew up unruly, lawless. When they hurt other people or did great damage,
he let them get away with it.
She was raped by her half-brother Amnon because she was “too
beautiful”. His lust for her turned into an obsession, one day he claimed to fall ill
and required that Tamar was the only one who was allowed to tend to him. Once
he made all the servants leave Tamar was alone with him not being able to
defend herself. Tamar tried her best to fight him off and a plea to him that what
he is doing is wrong. She begged him that if he wished they can marry because
rape would ruin them both.
Tamar was struggling for her life at this point. If she was no longer a virgin
no-one would want her, no-one would marry her, even though she was the king’s
daughter. After the rape, Tamar, could not get married because she was no
longer a virgin. She begged Amnon to marry her, but he refused. Now he was
revolted by the sight of her, could not bear to look at her, was filled with a
loathing far stronger than the lust he had previously felt.
He shouted at her to get out of his room, get out of his sight, but she
pleaded with him, trying to retrieve something from this desperate situation. They
might still marry, she argued. To cast her out now, a violated woman, was worse
than raping her, since it meant the crime continued. She could never marry or
have children, never have a normal life. As far as the people around her were
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concerned, she would be a user object, unwanted, an outcast. Eventually,

Ammon will be killed by Tamar brother for what he did to his sister.
Tamar, the daughter of Maacah and David, and heroine of all the untold
stories of the community of faith. Even though she told her father what had
happened to her, King David still did nothing. Amnon was his favorite son. She
suffered terribly, but she is much more than a victim; Tamar is a survivor, a
woman of wise speech and courageous action.
Rape was neither covered up nor ignored. Instead, it was answered and
take vengeance. It was such a cultural fit that it was answered with outrage and
further violence. The cases of rape in Scripture tell us something about the cases
of rape we are hearing today: These women must be heard and they must be
protected.
Some look at these laws and claim that the Bible permits, even legalizes
sexual assault; therefore, the Bible is oppressive to women. Yet, in each of these
circumstances, the victim is protected and the violator is punished. Where the
woman was not at fault, she never received blame. In fact, she was justified.
None of these situations were supposed to happen. God never intended for
women to be violated.
In The New Testament, women are portrayed positively. Mary the mother
of Jesus is portrayed willing to believe God and to be the mother of the Messiah.
Even though she could be divorced, publicly humiliated, and even stoned for
becoming pregnant before marriage. When the angel Gabriel visited Mary, she
was betrothed to a carpenter from Bethlehem named Joseph. In Jerusalem, if
you were pregnant before you were married and the baby did not belong to the
person the woman was betrothed to, the women were stoned to death by the
village. The Holy Spirit (Delaney pg.390) married Joseph and Mary after an angel
in a dream that she conceived a child assured Joseph.
In the story of the Gospel of Luke, a decree of the Roman Emperor
Augustus required that Joseph returns to his hometown of Bethlehem to register
for a Roman census. While he was there with Mary, she gave birth to Jesus; but
because there was no place for them in the inn, she used a manger as a cradle.
After eight days, he was circumcised because of Jewish law and named "Jesus”
After Mary continued in the "blood of her purifying" another 33 days for a
total of 40 days, she brought her burnt offering and sin offering to the Temple in
Jerusalem, (Luke2:22) so the priest could make atonement for her sins, being
cleansed from her blood. (Leviticus 12:1-8) They also presented Jesus – "As it is
written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called
holy to the Lord" (Luke 2:23other verses). After the prophecies of Simeon and the
prophetess Anna in Luke 2:25-38 concluded, Joseph and Mary took Jesus and
"returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth". (Luke 2:39)
According to the author of the gospel according to Matthew, the Magi
arrived at Bethlehem where Jesus and his family were living. Joseph was warned
in a dream that King Herod wanted to murder the infant, and the Holy Family fled
by night to Egypt and stayed there for some time. After Herod's death in 4 BC,
they returned to the land of Israel. Because Herod's son Archelaus was the ruler
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of Judaea, they did not return to Bethlehem but took up residence in Nazareth in
Galilee instead (Mat.2)
The Virgin Mary plays a big role in the new testament. She is known as
the Mother of God. Mary gave birth to the Son of God, so although she was
human and could not create God, she gave birth to Jesus, who is God, which
makes her the Mother of God. She is known as the mother of the church. This
title can only be properly understood as a metaphor. Christians are children of
God and brothers and sisters in Christ by adoption.
By extension, Christians inherit Christ’s mother Mary. Mary is called the
Mother of the Church, because she’s the Mother of Christ, and the Church is the
Mystical Body of Christ. Therefore the Mother of Christ can also be called the
Mother of his Mystical Body. This mystical title means that the Church is more
than an external organization, structure, and institution, but also and more
primarily, it’s a union of all the members forming one body. Her immaculate
conception, her immaculate heart.
Mary is also present, along with the apostles, at the descent of the Holy
Spirit 50 days after the Resurrection of Jesus, an event called Pentecost. She is
the only one who already “knows” the Holy Spirit because it was by this power
that she conceived a child without the biological cooperation of any human
father. The one biological connection to Jesus is his mother, Mary, and the
apostles stay close to her at least from the death, burial, resurrection, and
ascension of Jesus until the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Remember,
the apostles didn’t have any photos of Jesus to help them remember him, but
they had his mom, who reminded them of her son.
Even after her death, Mary’s influence in the early and medieval church is
enormous. No other woman is the subject of as many poems, hymns, sculptures,
paintings, and other artistic works. She influenced thousands of artists, poets,
musicians, and theologians over the past two millennia. Medieval and
Renaissance artists did more than simply depict or represent the Virgin Mary as
the subject in their works. They often sought to also honor her as sons and
daughters might try to honor their own earthly mother.
In Genesis 34:1-4, it tells the story of the rape of Dinah and how the
criticism of Shechem for his rape is moderated by the description of his love:
“Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to
see the daughters of the land. And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite,
prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her, and violated her. His
soul was strongly attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the
young woman and spoke kindly to the young woman. So Shechem spoke to his
father Hamor, saying, “Get me this young woman as a wife.”
Genesis 34:5-12 shows how Shechem, despite the severity of his crime,
tries to make things right with the girl’s family, showing his honor and his
willingness to openly own up to his mistakes: “And Jacob heard that he had
defiled Dinah his daughter. Now his sons were with his livestock in the field; so,
Jacob held his peace until they came. Then Hamor the father of Shechem went
out to Jacob to speak with him. And the sons of Jacob came in from the field
when they heard it; the men were grieved and very angry because he had done a
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disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, a thing which ought not
to be done.
But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs
for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. And make marriages with us;
give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to yourselves. So, you shall
dwell with us, and the land shall be before you. Dwell and trade in it, and acquire
possessions for yourself in it.” Then Shechem said to her father and her brothers,
“Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. Ask me
ever so much dowry and gift, and I will give according to what you say to me, but
give me the young woman as a wife.”
He and Dinah had sex without first having a marriage ceremony, and so
Shechem has treated her as a harlot. He should have first approached her family
and asked for her hand in marriage. Because this has not been done, the girl and
her family have been humbled, dishonored.
Even though Dinah father accepts Shechem to marry his daughter his
sons do not. They were very angry. Shechem agrees. He is the eldest son of his
family, next in line to rule the city of Shechem, so all the men the city agree to be
circumcised. He does not have to explain the reason for this uncomfortable
operation: the story is common knowledge.
Three days later, when all the recently circumcised men are still in pain,
two of Dinah’s brothers, Simeon and Levi, enter the unguarded city and attack
the newly-circumcised men. They know this is the opportune time, since the third
day after circumcision is the most painful, and is also the time when a fever is
likely. The men of the city will be unable to retaliate. Simeon and Levi kill every
able-bodied man in the city, including Shechem and his father Hamor.
Now the other brothers of Dinah join in, plundering the city. They steal the
flocks and herds, donkey, and whatever produce they can carry. They then take
all the women and children in the city and make them slaves. Simeon and Levi
murder the Sichemites; Jacob forces Dinah to watch.
At the beginning of the story, Dinah is seized and dishonored. Now at the
end, all the enemy’s belongings are seized and dishonored. It is over-retaliation,
and it prompts the Bible’s command to limit retribution to ‘an eye for an eye, a
tooth for a tooth’. Only retribution in kind may be taken if an injury has been
suffered.
However, by reading these stories deeper and not just taking them at face
value people get a look at the role women played in ancient times. Women have
struggled for equality with men since the beginning as these stories show. Many
women in places all over the world are still not seen as equal men and even in
this country many times women are looked at as lower than men. The struggle
for women to be seen intelligent multitalented individuals is documented through
these stories in The Bible. but beneath everything in these stories, one can see
that there is this underlying issue of women s roles. Women slowly assume
greater roles and this is an underlying theme in many other stories as well.
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Citations

Mowczko, Marg. "25 Biblical Roles for Biblical Women." Http://newlife.id.au.

Word Press, 7 Sept. 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2017.

Cosner, Lita. "The Bible’s High View of Women Grounded in the Creation
Account." Creation.com/biblical-view-women. Creation.com, 5 Dec. 2010. Web.
23 Mar. 2017.

Matthews, K., Genesis 1–11:26, The New American Commentary, Broadman

and Holman, Nashville, TN, p. 173, 1996

Cole, D., Numbers, The New American Commentary, Broadman and Holman,
Nashville, TN, p. 121, 2000

Collins, Sandra Ladick. Weapons upon Her Body: The Female Heroic in the
Hebrew Bible. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2012. Print.

Gnuse, Robert Karl. “Women’s Rights in the Old Testament.” Trajectories of

Justice: What the Bible Says about Slaves, Women, and Homosexuality,
Lutterworth Press, Cambridge, 2015, pp. 77–91,
www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1ffjnkq.10.

McCoy, Katie. "What Does the Bible Say about Sexual Assault?" ERLC. N.p., 10
Mar. 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.

Delaney, John J. Dictionary of saints. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc.,
1980.Print.
Difiore, Kathy. The Blessed Virgin and Her Examples of Faith in God. The Silent
Scream. Several Sources Shelters. April 2007.Web.23Mar 2017.
Mary, Saint Mary, Virgin Mary.Saint Mary. N.p n.d Web. 1 April 2017
Sasson, Jack M.. “Absalom’s Daughter: An Essay in Vestige Historiography.” in
The Land that I will Show You: Essays on the History and Archaeology of the
Ancient Near East in Honour of J. Maxwell Miller.”, J. Andrew Dearman and M.
Patrick Graham, eds. Sheffield Academic Press: Sheffield, UK, 2001.

"Genesis 34: The Rape Of Dinah." Edge Induced Cohesion. N.p., 24 July 2012.
Web. 04 Apr. 2017.
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