God of Our Mothers: Face to Face with Powerful Women of the Old Testament - Softcover

Ritley, M. R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 081922216X ISBN 13: 9780819222169

Publisher: Morehouse Publishing, 2006

Synopsis

A lively, deep, personal look at some of the Old Testament's most powerful and intriguing women.

From Sarah, who was unafraid to nudge God into action; to Hagar, whose courage and passion founded a nation; to Judith, a woman and warrior whose faith saved God's people, readers will examine the stories of biblical women up close and personal. As they to read between the lines, readers will learn to use Bible stories to throw light on the stories of their own lives.

Each chapter will include questions for discussion and reflection, making this an ideal parish study book, or the perfect volume for Lenten meditation.

About this title

About the Author

The late M. R. Ritley, was an Episcopal priest, a teacher, writer, and historian with a deep interest in spiritual narrative and the ways story shapes our inner lives.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

GOD OF OUR MOTHERS

Face to Face with the Powerful Women of the Old Testament

By M. R. RITLEY

Church Publishing Incorporated

Copyright © 2006 M. R. Ritley
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-8192-2216-9

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Goodbye to "Father Knows Best"
Chapter 1 Still Friends with God: The Eve No One Remembers
Chapter 2 Family Values in Abraham, or "... and Baby Makes Four"
Chapters 3 "The Mother of All Believers": Hagar's Journey to Freedom
Chapter 4 The Invisible Man and the Managing Woman, or "Mother Knows 
Best"
Chapter 5 "Sisters, Sisters ...": Sibling Rivalry to the Max
Chapter 6 Ruth and Naomi: "Getting by with a Little Help from Our 
Friends"
Chapter 7 Judith: The Woman and the Warrior
Chapter 8 Esther: Genocide, Faith, and the Whole Megillah
Chapter 9 Our Lives, Our Stories: Being God's Women Today
Appendix 1 Some Tips for Study Group Leaders
Appendix 2 Study Guide Materials.
Notes

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Still Friends with God:The Eve No One Remembers

The Patchwork Bible

There was a time when this part of the chapter probably wouldn't have beennecessary—or maybe even possible. If you were raised the way most of uswere, the Bible was simply the Bible, that book that sat on the shelf in theparlor, or on the lectern at the parish church. Your granddad (like mine) mayhave read a chapter of it aloud every morning, and the expert, whether priest orminister, preached about it on Sunday, but either way, it was simply the Bible,and that was that. Mostly, you were simply expected to listen up.

I do recall having to memorize large chunks of it in Sunday School, and earninga colorful little sticker for every verse I managed to recite back. Since thiswas in the days before most folks knew what the word "relevance" meant, and Ihad a pretty good memory, I can't recall being too upset at not understanding agreat deal of what I memorized. After all, kids are constantly up against thingsthey don't understand. In a bilingual family like mine, it's hard enough sortingout which words belong in what language, much less worrying about words nobodyever said in real life anyway. Like most of my classmates, I quickly tumbled tothe fact that John 11:35 was the shortest verse that would get you a sticker("Jesus wept."), and that you wanted to stay away from books like Nehemiah,which were just jammed full of unpronounceable names. Beyond memorizing, orhearing it preached about, most of us weren't encouraged to ask too manyquestions about the Bible. It was there. It was itself. It was IT. And that wasthat.

For some of us, it came as a great shock to discover that the Bible isn't simplyIT—a single book—but a whole collection of them, many decidedlyuser-unfriendly, and a number of them an editor's nightmare (or at least thework of some of the sloppiest editors in history). The fact is, the originalwriters had no idea they were creating Scripture, particularly since theidea of Scripture didn't yet exist. They wrote things down from a sincere andgenuine belief that it was important to preserve these stories, rules, andinsights for others, but they didn't figure what they were writing would becomeuntouchable. Their heirs didn't have that idea, either, and set about merrilyimproving the text (is there a writer or editor alive who doesn't believe theycan make it better?), or rewriting it to fit their own ideas of what wasimportant to preserve. It didn't becomeuntouchable—unrevisable—until it had been centuries in the revision,and there was no possible way on earth of reconstructing the original.

The literary smorgasbord we call the Old Testament, which contains a littlesomething for everyone, ranges in age from oral traditions dating back at leastto 2000 B.C.E. to tightly crafted literary works written just a few hundredyears before Christ. It spans social, religious, and political developments fromthe traditions of families or clans of wandering herders and traders, to theroyal archives of typical late Iron Age kingdoms in the Middle East, to thecosmopolitan world of Hellenistic Alexandria. It's the work of familystorytellers, royal archivists, pious lawgivers, and rebellious visionaries. Forevery Isaiah, capable of poetry that lifts us to the breathtaking vision ofGod's awesome mercy, there's at least one earnest bureaucrat dithering overlanguage that's specific enough to hold up in court. How all of these writingsmanage to coexist in a single volume is possibly the greatest miracle since theparting of the Red Sea. But it's a very human miracle, the work of countlessscribes, retellers, editors, and preservers.

Eve: Shuffling—and Unshuffling—the Deck

You could say the Bible is sort of like a deck of cards, made up of differentsuits. The folks who put it together shuffled the cards up and called it a book.It's hard to tell what suit any Bible story comes from until you turn the cardsface up and unshuffle them. Let's begin with the story of the first of ourmothers, Eve. It isn't the work of a single storyteller, but at least two ofthem, and they tell two very different stories—neither of which isactually the one most of us expect to find when we turn to Eve's story.

Most of us think we know the story, whether we heard it in Sunday School, fromSister Mary Stanislaus, or from popular wisdom: God made Adam, and then took oneof Adam's ribs and made Eve. And everything was fine in Eden, until the Devilcame along, disguised as a snake, and talked Eve into sinning, which screwed upthe rest of the world for all time. That's the story most of us have heard.Sound familiar?

The interesting thing is, it's not the story we can actually find in Genesis. Orperhaps I should say, there's a story in black and white in your Bible that willprobably challenge what you think you know about Adam and Eve. Let me also sayin advance that, even when you discover that you can't find the story youthought was there, it's remarkably hard to shake its influence. I've hadstudents who have kept obstinately searching for the pieces they knowmust be there, long after it becomes apparent that they simply aren't.

So. Let me begin by pointing out that in the other two religions that share thisstory—Judaism and Islam—neither sees Eve as the source of evilin the world. Only in Christianity do you get that. In Islam, there's noidea of original sin. We're all born innocent, the thinking goes, and we sinonly when we're old enough to understand and choose to disobey God. We can'thang it on Eve, Adam, or anyone else. In some Islamic traditions, in fact, thefaithful believe that when a child is born, God and all the angels hold theirbreath in delight and awe: perhaps this will be the child who will never turnaway from God and will never sin. I love that picture of God and the angels allagog, hoping this will be the one. It sure beats the notion of being conceivedin sin and born in iniquity.

In Judaism it's the same: babies are born innocent, and children are justchildren. They have to learn what's good and bad, what's right and wrong, andthey're not morally responsible until they're old enough to understand. Onlythen can they be considered to break God's laws or be capable of doing evil.So in Judaism and Islam, Eve doesn't carry the burden of introducing sin intothe world. Each person is responsible for doing good or evil.

But in Christianity, something very different—and veryunfortunate—happened. When the Roman Empire in the West collapsedeconomically and politically, most of what we call civilization went with it.That included literacy, the making and reading of books, and the functions oflaw and education. What remained of those things was mainly preserved andcarried on in monasteries—a mixed blessing at best. It was decidedly agood thing that the literature and learning of the ancient world were preservedin some fashion. It was unfortunate that it happened to be in monasteries,because monasteries, after all, are all-male communities, and that had somepeculiar effects on the way Scripture was read and interpreted.

Up till the time of the Reformation, it was common for families to dedicateyoung boys to the religious life at ages as young as three and four. These childoblates, as they were called, were turned over to monasteries to be raised bythe monks. For the rest of their lives, they had little or no contact withwomen, or even ordinary family life. They may have glimpsed the village womenwho came to the parish mass, but these would have been mainly peasantwomen—illiterate, certainly not educated or refined. Or else they sawpristine images of the Virgin Mary in church, a woman who was always avirgin—as they were supposed to be, too.

In other words, real women were as unknown to them as the inhabitants of Tibet.Moreover, women represented something dangerous to the chaste monastic ideal.They were, after all, sexual (gasp!), a real threat to men who weretrying to maintain an ideal of chastity. No wonder they saw women as sinistersources of temptation and evil! This is not only the idea that permeates most oflater Western religious culture, but it forms the original lens through whichthe Church tended to read the story of Adam and Eve thereafter. Needless to say,in this crowd, Eve was operating under a distinct handicap.

Christianity had another problem with defining where sin started, and howcontagious it is. If people aren't born in sin, early Christians wondered, whatare the Incarnation and Crucifixion about? In other words, why was Jesus born asa human being in the first place, and why did he die on the cross? MostChristian theology starts with the assumption that Jesus was born into thisworld only because fallen humanity needed a savior. Suffice it to say, thisdidn't do Eve much good, either.

As we begin to read the text of Genesis carefully, we may notice that thistheological and monastic veil is still clouding our vision, making us think wesee things in the story that really aren't there. So pay attention, because muchof what you learned in Sunday School about Eve simply isn't in the Bible.

Let's begin by looking at the outline of how the story is put together from atleast two different sources.

God Creates the World—Twice

We begin with Genesis 1:1, where most of us are on familiar ground. "In thebeginning, God created the heavens and the earth," and so on. Whether we'reBible readers or not, it's a line most everybody knows.

This first version of the creation we encounter in Genesis is probably quitelate—it was written around the time of the Babylonian exile, only sixcenturies or so before the birth of Christ. During their long years ofexile— from about 597 till about 539 B.C.E., several generations ofHebrews were exposed to a powerful civilization and a sophisticated publicreligion with large temples and impressive ceremonies.

One of the things we may notice about the first creation story in Genesis isthat it almost seems written to be read in a ceremonious manner. It is not onlypoetic, but almost musical, like a hymn or anthem with a repeated refrain. Itrepeats and repeats and repeats. "God said, 'Let there be.... and there was....'God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light. And God saw that the lightwas good, and God separated the light from the darkness.... And there wasevening and there was morning, the first day" (Genesis 1:3–5).

Now comes the next repetition: "And God said, 'Let there be a dome in the midstof the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.... God called thedome Sky. And there was evening, and there was morning, the second day" (Genesis1:6–8).

This is pretty sophisticated imagery, not the work of a primitive storyteller.This is a poet at work. "Then God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation:plants.... And there was evening and there was morning, the third day." (Genesis1:11,13)

By this time, even if we've never heard this before, we know what toexpect—just like little kids listening to a bedtime story. By the secondrepetition of "... then I'll huff and I'll puff ..." the kids canalready shout, "... and I'll How your house down!" And how they lovedoing it, too! Because, in the simplest way, it means they own the story now.

In this creation story, something similar happens, and it's masterfulstorytelling. Most Hebrew people didn't have the written text in front of them,but after a few repetitions, they had a familiarity that assented to a line like"... and there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day." It's how wecome to own texts.

This isn't a primitive story. It's a theologically sophisticated literary work;God is bringing things into being by simply speaking, by the power of the wordalone: "Let there be!" "And there was!"

And God said, "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate theday from the night."... God made the two great lights—the greater light torule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.... Andthere was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. (Genesis1:14–9)

Keep in mind that the sun and the moon are the primary deities in Babylon, aboveall the others gods and goddesses. With a mere flick of the wrist, the writer ofGenesis has just made all those other gods subordinate to the God of Israel.It's remarkable to see a conquered culture asserting itself and saying, "But ourGod created the Babylonians' gods. Our God is above them."

So creation continues along in this way, all the plants and animals are broughtforth, until we get to Genesis 1:26:

Then God. said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to ourlikeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over thebirds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of theearth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; maleand female he created them. (Genesis 1:26–7)

Notice that there is no gap between the creation of male and female. The firsttime humankind is spoken of, it's as "them," not "him"—a simultaneouscreation of male and female, both in the image and likeness of God. Nomention of ribs at all.

So all is created, and on the seventh day, God rests, and there's a nice littlecoda. Look at Genesis 2:4: "These are the generations of the heavens and theearth when they were created."

It's right there, at the end of that phrase, "when they were created," that theeditor of Genesis changes from one version of the creation to another version.The editor doesn't pick up this first strand again until Genesis 5:1. If youskip ahead to it, you'll see that it's simply a continuation:

This is the list of the descendants of Adam. When God created humankind, hemade them in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and heblessed them and named them "humankind" when they were created. (Genesis5:1—2)

What intervenes between Genesis 2:4 and Genesis 5:1 is the second version ofcreation. You can see at once how much more primitive it is.

The Mud-Pie Version of Creation

Creation: The Sequel begins at the second part of verse 4, "in the daythat the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field wasyet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up" (Genesis2:4—5). We've already skipped over some of the days of creation, where Godmade the plants and fields, and gone back to a more primitive version.

... [F]or the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and therewas no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and waterthe whole face of the ground—then the LORD God formed Man from the dust ofthe ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the manbecame a living being. (Genesis 2:5–7)

It's not only much more primitive than the earlier part of Genesis, it's muchmore typically Middle Eastern. Humanity is created as a kind of little mud pie.That's where the name Adam comes from—the root word adamah, meansearth, making the first man the "Earthly One"—Dirt-Man, if you like. Hedoesn't really have a name yet when God creates a garden and puts the EarthlyOne in it.

Now at last all the plants spring up, and the river comes out of Eden. "TheLord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it andkeep it," as if God has just created the first maintenance staff (Genesis 2:15).

Nothing here about the image and likeness of God. This account is simpler andmore direct: "Here's your hoe and rake—get to work" This version ofcreation is pretty much the same as the Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonianversions of creation.

In the Sumerian version, for example, the younger gods and older gods are havingfamily problems—the noisy younger gods give the elder gods a headache. Sothey create the earth as a kind of getaway—a place where they can partywithout upsetting the older folks. And when they get there, they create humanbeings to take care of it for them, like a janitorial staff. Not so differentfrom the second version of creation in the Hebrew Bible.

Meanwhile, back to Genesis.

And the Lord God commanded the man, "You may freely eat of every tree of thegarden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, forin the day that you eat of it you shall die." (Genesis 2:16–7)

Notice that God doesn't give that command to Eve—she didn't even exist yetin this story. God has some other business to take care of first

Then the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should lie alone; Iwill make him a helper as his partner" So out of the ground the Lord God formedevery animal of the field and every bird of the air. (Genesis 2:18–9)

Notice that God doesn't just create woman. He starts out making giraffes andaardvarks and platypuses and warthogs and ducks, "and brought them to the man tosee what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature,that was its name" (Genesis 2:19).

So God makes a cow, and takes it to Adam, and, playing the good matchmaker,says, "Here, Adam! Just look at her! Isn't she beautiful? Isn't she great? Isshe the one?" And Adam says, "Oh, yeah, that's a cow. And yeah, it's a verynice cow, God, but I don't know, somehow she just doesn't turn me on."So then God creates a kangaroo, and comes to Adam to see what he'll call her,"Honey-Sweetie-Chickie-Poochie-Pie" or "Maxine," and he says, "Now, this one isreally special. Isn't she wonderful—what do you think of her?' AndAdam says, "Oh, yeah, sure, Boss, that's a kangaroo, but ... well, gee, I'mafraid she's just not my type."

"The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to everyanimal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as hispartner" (Genesis 2:20). This goes on and on through all the animals—noneof whom suit Adam. (In this version, God's learning curve appears to be a bit onthe steep side, too.)

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; thenhe took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman andbrought her to the man. Then the man said,"This at last is bone of my bonesand flesh of my flesh;this one shall be called Woman,for out of Man this one was taken" (Genesis 2:21—23)

This story is close to Middle Eastern creation myths, too. Among theBabylonians, a war breaks out between the elder and younger gods. The youngergods axe led by Marduk, the elder gods by Tiamat (Chaos), who leads an allianceof gods and dwarfs. When Marduk defeats Tiamat, he takes her body and cuts it inhalf, making the upper half the heavens, and the lower half the earth. He thentakes a bone of his defeated enemy—Mummu the Dwarf, as I recall—andencases it in a coating of mud, which he then breathes on to give it life. Itbecomes the first human being. Sound familiar?

(Continues...)

Excerpted from GOD OF OUR MOTHERS by M. R. RITLEY. Copyright © 2006 by M. R. Ritley. Excerpted by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Morehouse Publishing
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 081922216X
• ISBN 13: 9780819222169
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176