[1] The
Hebrew Bible: Feminist and Intersectional Perspectives offers a feminist introduction to the
Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. The book consists of an introduction (written by
editor Gale A. Yee) followed by four chapters, each addressing a different
section of the biblical text and written by a different contributor or
contributors. Thus Carolyn J. Sharp covers the Torah/Pentateuch, Vanessa
Lovelace focuses on the Deuteronomistic History, Corinne L. Carvalho takes up
the Latter Prophets and Lamentations, and Judy Fentress-Williams and Melody D.
Knowles respond to the Writings (including several non-canonical texts of
wisdom literature). All six scholars are well-established as feminist and
intersectional biblical scholars, and they bring a wealth of expertise to the
project.
[2] According to the preface, the volume
“is intended to be a supplement to standard introductions to the Hebrew
Bible/New Testament, highlighting key issues of interpretation from feminist
and intersectional perspectives” (p. vii). This aim is perhaps too modest: The Hebrew Bible: Feminist and Intersectional
Perspectives does not need the support of another textbook (especially one
of the many traditional or even lightly patriarchal textbooks that continue to
dominate in the field of Hebrew Bible). Instead, it stands on its own as a
concise and highly readable introduction to both the interpretation of the
Hebrew Bible and many of the key interpretive issues raised by traditional
interpretations. In the classroom, the volume would work well as a primary
textbook, perhaps supplemented by additional articles or lectures amplifying
the historical, archaeological, and comparative perspectives that are often a
part of introductory courses on the Bible. As the subtitle suggests, the focus
of the volume is on “feminist and intersectional” approaches; the amount of
attention to intersectional concerns beyond gender varies across the chapters
and contributors. Other contemporary approaches, including LGBTQ, postcolonial,
critical race, and disability perspectives, appear briefly but are not the
focus of this volume.
[3] The volume opens with a lengthy
(nearly 40 pages) introduction by Gale A. Yee. Yee’s
aim is not to introduce the specific content of the volume — this task is
already covered in a brief preface — but rather to introduce the feminist
movement and its relationship to feminist biblical criticism. In service of
this end, she ably guides the reader through the “waves” of the feminist
movement, from Mary Wollstonecraft’s A
Vindication of the Rights of Women and the suffrage movement to the “second
wave” of the 1960s, through radical feminism, Marxist feminism, standpoint
epistemology, postmodern feminism, and the emergence of queer theory (pp. 3-7).
This whirlwind overview is remarkably comprehensive without being overwhelming.
Yee also pays special notice to questions of race and ethnicity and (white)
feminism’s early struggles with race. In addition to Crenshaw and
intersectionality, Yee highlights the work of other Black, Chicana, Latinx,
Asian American, and postcolonial feminists, including the Combahee River
Collective, Patricia Hill Collins, June Jordan, Lisa Lowe, Gloria Anzaldúa, Cherríe Moraga, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, and Audre Lorde.
The second half of the Introduction, which turns from feminism as such to
feminist biblical interpretation, is equally intersectional, lifting
up work from a wide variety of feminist interpreters. Yee follows a
familiar path from Hildegard of Bingen and Christine
de Pizan through Elizabeth Cady Stanton and The Woman’s Bible to feminist biblical
scholarship from the 1970s to today. Womanist, black feminist, Asian American,
and Native American feminist perspectives are all discussed. While little that
Yee describes will come as a surprise to readers already familiar with the
contours of the field of feminist biblical interpretation, as an overview and
synthesis, the chapter is highly effective.
[4] The remainder of the book proceeds in
(Christian) canonical order, beginning with Carolyn J. Sharp on the
Torah/Pentateuch. After some brief comments on storytelling and ancient scribal
practices (pp. 40-43), Sharp sets forth three feminist principles that frame
her reading: (1) honoring “the lived experience of all beings, including
nonhuman creatures,” (2) acknowledging “that all relationships involve
power…and that power should be used with the intention to promote justice,” and
(3) asserting that “communities always stand in need of reform” (p. 44).
Together, these three justice-oriented principles constitute “the feminist work
for shalom,” a Hebrew word that means
“peace” but also “wholeness,” “prosperity,” and “wellbeing.” The reference to
“nonhuman creatures” is limited to Sharp’s analysis, and positions her reading
closer to an eco-feminist vein. Conversely, her readings are generally less
interested in questions of ethnicity and colonialism than the other chapters in
the volume, though there are exceptions (including a discussion of the
genocidal logic toward the Canaanites in the promise of land to Abraham, a
theme also discussed by Lovelace [p. 53]). After these introductory remarks,
Sharp proceeds through the Pentateuch largely chronologically, treating Genesis
in somewhat greater detail than the following four books (this is fitting,
given that many of the stories that foreground questions of gender are in
Genesis).
[5] Vanessa Lovelace’s analysis of the
Deuteronomistic History (focused on Joshua-Kings) foregrounds a more explicitly
intersectional approach than Sharp’s. Lovelace stresses, in
particular, the importance of ethnicity and nationalism, and their
complex intersections with gender and sexuality. Drawing on feminist
postcolonial theory and sociology, she emphasizes the ways in which gender is
used to differentiate between nations and others: thus “all nationalisms are
gendered,” (p. 77). Women thus often play the role of “symbolic borders” — as
is the case with the Canaanite women in the book of Joshua and Judges (pp. 79,
86-87). Lovelace discusses the entanglements of gender and violence in stories
such as Jael’s murder of Sisera (Judg. 4, 5; see pp.
88-89) and the story of Samson (Judg. 16; p. 92). She also engages the category
of masculinity and how masculinity is performed across the Deuteronomistic
History, connecting her reading here to the recent explosion of interest in
biblical masculinities.
[6] The
prophetic books (also known as the Latter Prophets) are the focus of Corrine L.
Carvalho’s contribution. After a brief and helpful introduction to the
prophetic material and its specific challenges (poetry, unfamiliar rhetorical forms, etc.), Carvalho
treats the material largely thematically — a wise choice, given the uneven
distribution of passages emphasizing
gender and/or sexuality across the prophetic literature. The chapter offers a
helpful discussion of the common prophetic motif of “women as metaphors” (109),
including the notorious Marriage Metaphor, in which the nation of Israel is
represented as the adulterous wife of Yhwh and
subjected to intense violence and abuse (e.g. Hos. 2; Ezek. 16, 23). In addition to metaphor, Carvalho
considers the lives of “real women” — elided but not wholly absent from the
biblical text — and the historical reality of the Exile and Restoration, along
with their consequences for gender. The treatment of intersectional concerns is
largely confined to a section with that title (126-130), but within it,
Carvalho includes womanist, mujerista, Chinese American, and Jewish feminist
perspectives, along with discussions of trauma theory and disability
approaches. She also goes furthest in discussing how the complex and often
troubling representations of gender we find in the prophets intersect with
“preaching and teaching” (pp. 130-132), speaking especially to the concerns of
seminarians and people of faith.
[7] The final chapter, on the Wisdom
Literature, is seamlessly co-authored by Judy Fentress-Williams and Melody D.
Knowles. Confronted with the broadest and most varied selection of texts
(including Ruth, Esther, the Song of Songs, Ben Sira, Proverbs, Job, the Wisdom
of Solomon, the Psalms, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1-2 Maccabees), they offer
an admirable overview, highlighting feminist concerns across this diversity of
biblical texts. The readings of the books of Ruth, Esther, and Maccabees are
especially rich, but it is equally impressive to see Fentress-Williams and
Knowles draw out feminist wisdom from a text seemingly uninterested in gender
or women, such as Psalms (pp. 151-157). Here the history of interpretation,
including the use of the Psalms in convent contexts, offers a rich and engaging
supplement to the biblical material. The discussion of intermarriage and
foreign women and children in Ezra and Nehemiah is also sensitively and
insightfully handled.
[8] All four chapters are filled with
rich feminist insights and complement each other well; Yee’s capable and
informative introduction also plays an important role in equipping the reader
for the analyses that follow. There are, however, some differences across
chapters that merit mention. Lovelace and Fentress-Williams and Knowles cite
significantly more secondary scholarship than Sharp and Carvalho, including
work by a new generation of feminist scholars. While all of
the chapters include a bibliography, only Carvalho’s is annotated, providing a
helpful supplementary resource for students and other readers. On the level of
content, intersectionality is engaged somewhat variably across the chapters;
Yee’s introduction and Lovelace’s chapter offer the most explicit
intersectional work (in both framing and content).
[9] The Hebrew Bible: Feminist and Intersectional Perspectives is a valuable addition to feminist biblical scholarship, especially as an introductory level text. Scholars, students, seminarians, clergy, and lay people will all find much of value here.
Rhiannon Graybill is W.J. Professor of Religion and Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. She is the author of Are We Not Men?: Unstable Masculinity in the Hebrew Prophets (Oxford 2016).
Articles published in the journal reflect the perspectives and thoughts of their authors and not necessarily the theological, ethical, or social stances of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.