SPCK
The Women's Bible Commentary - A Dutiful Daughter for the Preservation of Male Honor?
The Women's Bible Commentary - A Dutiful Daughter for the Preservation of Male Honor?
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
A Dutiful Daughter for the Preservation of Male Honor? The Tale of Jephthah’s Daughter The scandal of a father killing his daughter did not make the frontlines of biblical commentaries until feminist scholars brought Judges 11:29–40 out of the exegetical shadows in the early 1980…
The Women's Bible Commentary - Religiously Inclusive Practice as Evilness?
The Women's Bible Commentary - Religiously Inclusive Practice as Evilness?
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Religiously Inclusive Practice as Evilness? Additional Demarcations of Israelite Identity in Canaan The second introduction in the book of Judges, also going back to the time of Joshua, depicts a faithful Israel that worships God exclusively…
The Women's Bible Commentary - Macho-like Destruction or Peaceful?
The Women's Bible Commentary - Macho-like Destruction or Peaceful?
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Macho-like Destruction or Peaceful? Two Introductions The book of Judges begins with two introductions that depict early life of the Israelites among the Canaanites. It presents both violent encounters with the local population and the cooperative sharing of the land, the latter …
The Women's Bible Commentary - Division of Property
The Women's Bible Commentary - Division of Property
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Division of Property These chapters of Joshua contain the continued efforts to drive out the remaining Canaanites and divide the land among the tribes. These chapters reflect the bureaucratic work of conquest: negotiating, maintaining, allotting, and defining boundaries…
The Women's Bible Commentary - Be Strong and Resolute!
The Women's Bible Commentary - Be Strong and Resolute!
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Be Strong and Resolute! That the reader enters a particular ideological and theological world in Joshua is evident from the first verses of chapter 1 (1:6–9), which introduce the voice of the Deuteronomistic editor…
The Women's Bible Commentary - Levirate Marriage
The Women's Bible Commentary - Levirate Marriage
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Levirate Marriage In numerous preindustrial societies, a male relative of a deceased man is expected to marry or to have sex with the dead man’s widow. Such relationships, called “levirate” from the Latin levir, “brother-in-law,” vary in form and purpose from culture to culture…
The Women's Bible Commentary - Sexual-Offense Laws
The Women's Bible Commentary - Sexual-Offense Laws
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Sexual-Offense Laws Deuteronomy 22:13–29, the most extensive biblical treatment of the topic of adultery, is a valuable if ambiguous source of at least one Judahite group’s assumptions and ideals about women’s sexuality; they have been the subject of much feminist and womanist sc…
The Women's Bible Commentary - Inadmissible Mixtures
The Women's Bible Commentary - Inadmissible Mixtures
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Inadmissible Mixtures Deuteronomy 22:1–12 interweaves cases expressing concern for the neighbor (22:1–3, 4, 6–7, 8) and prohibitions against inadmissible mixtures (22:5, 9, 10, 11). The first of these, verse 5, prohibits cross-dressing: “No warrior’s object shall be on a woman, n…
The Women's Bible Commentary - Relationships in the Family
The Women's Bible Commentary - Relationships in the Family
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Relationships in the Family Three laws in Deuteronomy 21:10–21 define relationships of authority between the male head of the household and certain dependent family members: a captive woman whom a warrior has chosen to marry, a firstborn son, and an incorrigible son…
The Women's Bible Commentary - Family and Civil Laws
The Women's Bible Commentary - Family and Civil Laws
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Family and Civil Laws The family laws of Deuteronomy 21–26 contain the greatest number of explicit references to women. Not surprisingly, they have garnered much attention from womanist and feminist Deuteronomic scholars…
The Women's Bible Commentary - Concern for the Poor
The Women's Bible Commentary - Concern for the Poor
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Concern for the Poor Deuteronomy is both inclusive (of those comprising “Israel”) and, at the same time, exclusive (of non-Israelites). It is composed by and addressed to urban elite and at the same time, expresses a much-noted concern for the poor. Deuteronomy 14 reframes the ti…
The Women's Bible Commentary - Construction of a Shared Story
The Women's Bible Commentary - Construction of a Shared Story
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Construction of a Shared Story The first of the Moses speeches, Deuteronomy 1:1–4:43, consists of two sections: a “historical review” (Deut. 1–3) and a sermonic interpretation of the commandment against idolatry…
The Women's Bible Commentary - Women Challenge Authority
The Women's Bible Commentary - Women Challenge Authority
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Part Two: The New Generation (Numbers 26-36) A second census (Num. 26) marks the opening of a new phase of God’s work with the people. By contrast to Part One, the final chapters include stories where disobedience may have been brewing but is averted. Sometimes communities that h…
The Women's Bible Commentary - The Journey from Sinai to the East Bank of the Jordan
The Women's Bible Commentary - The Journey from Sinai to the East Bank of the Jordan
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
The Journey from Sinai to the East Bank of the Jordan Once the journey is underway, the bulk of this section of Part One focuses on disputes about leadership. Wholesale disobedience (Num. 14) results in a thirty-eight-year pause in the journey…
The Women's Bible Commentary - Preparations for Leaving Sinai