Table Of ContentWomen’s Lives in Biblical Times
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Women’s Lives in
Biblical Times
Jennie R. Ebeling
Published by T&T Clark International
A Continuum Imprint
The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane
11 York Road Suite 704
London SE1 7NX New York, NY 10038
www.continuumbooks.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Copyright © Jennie R. Ebeling, 2010
Jennie R. Ebeling has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identifi ed as the Author of this work.
British Library Cataloguing-i n-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 9 78-0-567-39830-7 (Hardback)
978-0-567-19644-6 (Paperback)
Typeset by Pindar NZ, Auckland, New Zealand
Printed and bound in the United States of America by Thomson-Shore, Inc
Contents
Preface vii
Abbreviations xi
List of Figures xiii
Introduction 1
Existing Studies of Women in Iron Age/Biblical Israel 1
How This Book is Different 3
The Sources 6
The Historical Context 12
Why the Iron Age I? 17
Summary of Chapters 18
1 Birth and Background 23
Orah’s Story 23
Introduction 25
Bet ’Ab and Bet ’Em 27
Four- Room House and Women’s Space 29
Diet and Economy 33
Agricultural Cycle 37
2 Childhod 43
Orah’s Story 43
Introduction 45
Education and Literacy 47
Baking and Brewing 48
Pottery Production 53
Spinning and Weaving 56
3 Womanhod 61
Orah’s Story 61
Introduction 63
Grape Harvest and Wine Making 64
v
Contents
Menstruation and Purity 67
Perfume and Incense 71
Household Religion 74
4 Mariage 79
Orah’s Story 79
Introduction 81
Marriage Arrangements 83
Wedding Customs 85
Music and Dancing 87
Clothing 90
5 Childbirth 95
Orah’s Story 95
Introduction 97
Midwives 98
Childbirth 101
Amulets and Jewelry 105
Basketry 108
6 Motherhod 13
Orah’s Story 113
Introduction 15
Breastfeeding and Weaning 116
Olive Harvest and Olive Oil Production 120
Hide Working 122
Pilgrimage to Shiloh 124
7 Old Age and Death 129
Orah’s Story 129
Introduction 132
Widowhod 13
Health and Medicine 136
Funerary Rituals 139
Mortuary Cult 142
Conclusion 147
Bibliography 153
Index 165
vi
Preface
This book was conceived in the fi ction section of my local Barnes and Noble.
As I strolled through the aisles, reading titles, I was surprised to see a number
of recent works of historical fi ction that focused on female biblical characters,
much like Anita Diamant’s successful novel The Red Tent (St. Martin’s Press,
1997). After collecting a stack of these books and skimming through them,
I was frustrated by the authors’ lack of attempt to present a reasonable
reconstruction of women’s lives in ancient Israel, and I felt a bit sorry for the
biblical women — among them Sarah, Rebekah, Miriam and Deborah —
whose imagined lives were so full of romanticized drama. Then and there I
began to sketch an outline of this book that integrated a narrative account
of one woman’s life in ancient Israel into an academic discussion of what
we really know about the lives of biblical women based on recent research
in biblical studies, archaeology, iconography and ethnography. Although
I knew I would not create a story as dramatic — and thus as potentially
best-selling — as those published by the fi ction writers, I felt that I could
convey the reality of women’s everyday experiences in ancient Israel, which
is infi nitely more interesting (to me, anyway).
However, I was aware that those with a similar perspective to mine — the
archaeologists and biblical scholars with years of experience in their fi elds —
had not done an adequate job of translating what we know of women’s lives
in ancient Israel to the student and lay reader. Several recent books on daily
life in ancient Israel meant to be accessible to a broad audience, for example,
did not systematically consider women’s lives, and the authors — several of
them archaeologists — still looked to the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) as
a primary source or the only source of information. This approach results in
an incomplete and inaccurate portrayal of Israelite women that allows for an
elitist and androcentric view of life in ancient Israel to persist. Other recent
works on women in ancient Israel, which are written primarily by biblical
scholars, do not always take the vast non-t extual sources into consideration
and tend to focus on women’s religious lives. Although I discuss women’s
religious experiences in this book, they are not my primary focus; instead, I
examine the complexity of women’s everyday experiences using a variety of
vii
Preface
sources of information and not confi ning myself to the incomplete biblical
descriptions.
My interest in women in ancient Israel stems from my expertise in food
preparation technology, specifi cally the analysis of the ground stone tools
used to process grain and other foodstuffs for consumption in antiquity.
In addition to participating in archaeological excavations in Israel, I have
served as a ground stone artifact specialist for over a dozen excavation and
publication projects in Israel for more than a decade. Cross- culturally, women
are most closely associated with ground stone tools in traditional societies,
and these seemingly mundane tools found in large quantities in Bronze and
Iron Age sites in Israel can reveal much about the lives of the women who
used them for up to several hours per day. My interest in “women’s work”
in the sphere of cooking led me to further investigate women’s involvement
in other ancient technologies and their resulting economic contributions
to the Israelite household. In this book, I discuss women’s control of such
diverse crafts and technologies as pottery production, spinning, weaving,
basketry and hide working, along with women’s essential contributions in
the realms of midwifery, birth, breastfeeding, childrearing and household
ritual, and their participation in supposedly male activities like harvesting
and processing grain, grapes, olives and other crops. These and many other
activities occupied the daily lives of women living in the central highland
villages of early Israel during the Iron Age I (c. 1200–1000 bce).
This book was written while teaching for the Department of Archaeology
and Art History at the University of Evansville in the 2007–8 academic year
and during a sabbatical semester spent in Evansville in fall 2008. I thank the
students enrolled in my “Daily Life in Biblical Times” class in spring 2008
for their feedback on a draft of one chapter and their perspectives on the
presentation of daily life in ancient Israel in recent popular and academic
publications. Thanks go to several colleagues who also read drafts, and to
Mollie Erickson, who not only drew the map and reinterpreted the images
used in this book from the originals but also read and took notes on a
number of the recent novels about biblical women, a large and sometimes
frustrating task for which I am grateful. The unparalleled contributions of
Carol Meyers to the study of Israelite women have provided much inspira-
tion for my own recent research, and I thank her for her enthusiasm for
this project. I also thank Beth Alpert Nakhai for her support, advice and
friendship over the years and Bill Dever for championing me since my fi rst
semester as a graduate student at the University of Arizona. Thanks also go
to Burke Gerstenschlager and Dominic Mattos for working with me on this
project, and offering advice and enthusiasm during the process. This book is
viii
Preface
dedicated to my parents, Ginny Ebeling and Bill Ebeling, my brother Todd
and sister Ashly, as well as the members of my bet ’em (or bet ’ab, depending
on the day): Menachem, Lilah and Aviva Rogel.
ix
