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Beyond Nurturing: Retrieving the Power of Childless Women in Biblical Texts

For the past half-century or so, many spiritual traditions, including Christianity and Judaism, have experienced a feminist reckoning. This reckoning involves a complicated dance of rejection, reclamation, negotiation, and (re)discovery, with a key concept arising from the fray: “the divine feminine.” A vague term, the divine feminine can be broadly understood as the feminine ways in which divinity is expressed, or the aspect of divinity contained within feminine figures. It cannot be denied that the reclamation of this concept is exciting and empowering for countless women, but the prevailing attitudes around the divine feminine continue to alienate many other women. Often, the divine feminine is spoken of as intimately linked with processes of fertilization, childbirth, and caregiving. The feminine aspect is tied to qualities like mercy, gentleness, emotionality, and nurturing, especially in Judeo-Christian frameworks. This should come as no surprise: female characters of the Bible most often reach their divine statuses through becoming mothers or fulfilling the duties of motherhood, whether it’s to children of their own, surrogate children, or even other adults. The most revered woman in Christianity, the Virgin Mary, is divine because she is the mother of Christ. Mary Magdalene, the focus of much interest in current conversations, is not a mother to children, but takes on a motherly role for Jesus Christ, providing for him and even washing him. Women unable to conceive are seen as suffering for their “lack,” and often their reward for their loyalty and faith is a miraculous conception of some kind.

These women are certainly worthy of reverence and appreciation, and seeing motherhood as divine is an important step that I would never want to ridicule, as the labors of the household have for so long been demeaned and devalued in our patriarchal culture. Still, this particular conceptualization of the divine feminine is extremely stifling, especially for those of us whose experience of our own femininity has nothing to do with our ability to carry life. On a personal note, I have found myself stifled by this attitude around the divine feminine as I explore my spirituality. I am a decidedly un-nurturing person; in all honesty, I’m repulsed by any child under the age of seven, and I have nearly phobic levels of fear around pregnancy and childbirth. I’m not all that gentle, and the so-called “caretaking instinct” that is supposedly innate to the feminine is completely absent in me. These are qualities I appreciate in others but which I do not hold close to myself, and I do not feel at all empowered by the expectation that I should have these virtues — and I know I’m not the only one. Given this, I think it’s pertinent to seek out alternative forms of the divine feminine within the Bible which exist outside of a mothering paradigm. Examples are hard to find, but there are a few key figures we can look toward as a starting point.

The first notable childless woman to appear in the Bible is Miriam, the older sister of Moses and Aaron. The Second Census lists the only sister of Moses as Miriam, so it can safely be assumed that her first big appearance is in Exodus 2, even though she is unnamed in this section (NIV Bible, Num. 26.59). Miriam watches “at a distance” as her mother plans to send her younger brother, Moses, down the Nile River. When the infant Moses is found in the river by the Pharaoh’s daughter, Miriam is (conveniently) present there, as well. She advises the Pharaoh's daughter to have Moses nursed by a “Hebrew woman” — Moses’ real mother, unbeknownst to the Pharaoh’s daughter (Ex. 2.4-10). Miriam proves herself to be observant, clever, and in possession of good judgment. She is practical and effective in her problem-solving, ensuring both the reunion of her family as well as a stable, safe upbringing for her little brother. She doesn’t bear the title yet in Exodus 2, but this is perhaps the first hint of Miriam’s prophetic powers. How else could she have ensured she was in the right place at the right time to oversee her brother’s adoption? Regardless of how she knew what to do, she clearly embodies the role of a guide and problem-solver.

Miriam grows into this role quite well by the time she and Moses lead the Israelites across the Red Sea in their escape from the Egyptians. She leads only a small portion of the Song of Moses and Miriam, but it’s enough to show that she possesses a leadership role in this community, particularly among the other women. She literally leads them through the parted sea, and in a ritual of song and dance thanking Yahweh for Their protection (Ex. 16.20). This is the first time she is referred to by name, and her name is derived from the Hebrew word “merayah,” which refers to Israelite priests of her era (Strong). Thus, her authority is enshrined into her very name. This is also the first time she is introduced as a prophetess. Prophecy and leadership are a family business for Miriam, Moses, and Aaron, not delineated along lines of gender.

Her status is complicated in Numbers 12, however. When she and Aaron speak out against Moses’ marriage to an Ethiopian woman, Yahweh punishes Miriam with leprosy, for which she is outcast and shamed for seven days (Num. 12.1-15). This could appear as an undermining of Miriam’s authority and Yahweh’s response seems unfairly targeted toward her as the sole woman involved, since Aaron receives no punishment. However, putting everything that is said about her in the Bible together shows that this event did not lose her much respect or honor in the long-run, and she quite possibly remained a leader up until her death. A close look at the vocabulary of this story illuminates some of the nuance which may have been lost over time. When she and Aaron “talk against” Moses, the Hebrew word “dabar” is used, which implies a forceful type of speech that is usually used elsewhere in the Bible only to refer to Yahweh speaking, or someone speaking on behalf of Yahweh (Strong). This suggests that Miriam and Aaron were attempting to criticize Moses with Yahweh’s authority; an authority which was not granted to them in this scenario. When Yahweh punishes Miriam for this, it is not to imply that she isn’t a prophet at all, but to remind her that she should not use her status disingenuously. Alternatively, some theorize that, because Yahweh had previously given Moses the ability to afflict leprosy and Aaron turns to Moses instead of Yahweh to beg for Miriam to be cured, it’s possible “that Moses is the one who inflicted Miriam with leprosy, making her impure and an outcast, [...] in order to attack Miriam as a political opponent” (Lederman-Daniely). Whether it was Yahweh’s punishment or Moses’, the Israelites choose not to move on without her, instead waiting out the seven days of her exile before continuing their journey (Num. 12.15-16). This implies a certain amount of reliance on Miriam in order to persist through the desert. Like any other leader, she is flawed and she stumbles, but ultimately still has the respect of her people and the ability to guide them. This is cemented by her death and burial at Kadesh, a place in the desert named for a Hebrew word meaning “sacred” (Num. 20.1; Strong). Whether this place was already sacred or was made sacred by her burial, this conveys Miriam’s honorable and divine legacy. The following section shows the struggle of the Israelites to access water, something which was not a problem while Miriam was alive; her death means “the water dries up, linking her life to God’s grace” (Harris). Her brothers have to reorient and figure out how to provide for this need in her absence. In modern times, we tend to think of men as the protectors and providers — the “breadwinners” — but in the desert, it was Miriam who protected and provided, offering quite a different view of how the divine feminine can manifest.

Biblical texts then provide definite proof that gender does not prevent one from speaking on behalf of Yahweh, as the Book of Judges introduces us to the prophetess Deborah. Deborah’s name is derived from the same “dabar” which refers to commanding speech, often handed down from Yahweh. Thus, Deborah is immediately asserted as not only a prophet, but, like Moses, a spokesperson for Yahweh. She is also a governing judge for the Israelites during their oppression by the Canaanites. She both advises Barak’s military efforts against Sisera’s army and goes into battle with him. There is no arguing Deborah’s leadership: she dwells on a hill, physically placed above her community (and closer to Yahweh), and her people come to her to receive judgment. She speaks directly with Yahweh’s voice when handing down the prophecy to Barak (Judg. 4.4-14). It’s her knowledge and wisdom which brings the Israelites out of oppression. In the Song of Deborah, she is praised as a hero, one of the few who “woke up” (rose up) to go against the Canaanites (Judg. 5.12). It also “suggests she is a female warrior,” since Barak won’t go into battle without her (Harris). In the song, she is called a “mother in Israel,” which is a metaphorical move that radically expands what it could mean to be a “mother” (Judg. 5.7).

Deborah certainly isn’t a literal mother, as a woman with a role as prominent as hers would have her child mentioned if she did have one. It’s even debatable whether she was a wife or not. The two words used to call her a wife — ishshah and eshet — can also just mean “woman.” And the name of her “husband,” Lappidoth, presents some problems, as it “appears nowhere else in the Bible, and it is a feminine noun meaning ‘torches’” (Skidmore-Hess). Many have interpreted this to mean she is a “fiery woman,” but I think it’s more enlightening to maintain this epithet as meaning “woman of the torch,” as it suggests not just the “potency of [Deborah’s] spiritual force,” but also her role as a guide, leading her people out of the darkness (ibid). In this way, she is like the Greek goddess Hekate, who led Demeter through Hades with her torch, leading her to her abducted daughter Persephone and resolving the endless winter wrought upon the world by Demeter’s grief (Homer). Given this, Deborah as “mother in Israel” is curiously subversive and seems to abstract motherhood from processes of reproduction, “defying many of the expected associations of motherhood” (Thelle). This title is instead associated with protection, counsel, command, judgment, inspiration, and leadership. Deborah exercises these qualities for 40 years after the overthrow of the Canaanites, and these are described as 40 years of peace — a tremendous accomplishment to emerge from such a tumultuous time. Deborah expresses the role of the “protector-guide” as a powerful aspect of the divine feminine.

No telling of Deborah’s story is complete without speaking also of Jael, the woman who enacts Deborah’s prophecy and kills Sisera. Little is known about Jael; her entire story consists only of her integral role in ending the rule of the Canaanites over the Israelites. What little we know for certain about her is that her job within her community is to pitch tents, meaning she is likely very physically strong and capable. When Sisera comes to her, he expects her to take on a mothering and nurturing role, seeking rest, safety, and water from her. When she gives him milk (easily symbolic of the connection between mother and child), this likely appears to Sisera as her going above and beyond — as a woman, she is meant to be caring and safe, and Sisera expects nothing less. However, once Sisera falls asleep, Jael subverts this mothering expectation and instead uses the tools of her trade — tent peg and hammer — to kill Sisera (Judg. 4.17-21). Her motives are never explained, but the results of her action cause her to be “the most blessed of women” (Judg. 5.24). Yahweh set up the circumstances for it to happen, but Jael ultimately made the decision to act and deliver the Israelites from their oppression. The mystery of Jael’s character may be intentional; as she approaches Sisera to kill him, her approach is amended by the word “lat,” which means secret or mystery (Strong). Often translated as “softly” or “silently,” this phrasing may possess a double meaning: she both physically “approaches in secret” and “approaches mysteriously” in that her motivations are shrouded. This exemplifies, even playfully, the disastrous ignorance of Sisera, who “too readily stereotype[s] the woman as seducer or nurturer [and] fail[s] to consider the woman's wider social/political interest” (Mandolfo). Jael points to other possibilities of the feminine, using her body to end a life rather than bringing one into the world. Her motive doesn’t even really matter; what matters is that she did it out of her own interests. Deborah’s wisdom and Jael’s physical strength combine to bring victory to the Israelites. Each woman shows the depth and multifacetedness of the divine feminine by defying conventional expectations of women.

The tradition of female prophets continues throughout the rest of the Bible in the relatively diminished, but still enlightening, figures of Huldah and Anna. Huldah, like Deborah, is sought out by powerful men seeking counsel in desperate circumstances and she conveys a message to them from Yahweh. One of the men in this group is a priest, signaling that Huldah’s authority is valued even by male religious leaders. She is “the sole prophet approached when the Book of Law is found,” suggesting that “her prophetic leadership was well established before this incident” (Harris). In the case of both Deborah and Huldah, nobody challenges the prophetesses’ abilities, hinting that perhaps it wasn’t entirely uncommon for women to take on these kinds of advisory roles. This continues into the Christian Scriptures, with the elderly widow Anna. Anna is a prophetess who arrives soon after the purification rites of Jesus, along with her male counterpart Simeon, to deliver a public-facing prophecy, promising the “redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2.37-38). Simeon, by contrast, delivers a more personal prophecy only to Joseph and Mary, making Anna “the first of the witnesses who speak the word of God to the people” — a considerable honor, to be certain (Harris). From the little written about her, we know she is a woman who dwells in a temple, fasting and praying (Luke 2.37). A life of such dedication requires not only physical and mental strength and discipline, but a certain degree of self-determination and abstention from bodily desires and needs. Though few words are dedicated to Huldah and Anna, they are rich sources of alternative incarnations of the divine feminine which allow for a femininity that is commanding and cerebral instead of nurturing and bodily.

When taking Miriam, Deborah, Jael, Huldah, and Anna altogether, we can begin forming aspects of the divine feminine outside of the divine or holy mother. The divine feminine can mean fertility or motherhood, and it can also mean: confident leadership, a stalwart spirit, authoritative speech, the deliverance of knowledge, fearless warriorship, or wise guidance. The divine feminine can and does have public, governing aspects in addition to personal, familial ones; it can deliver mercy or punishment; it can nurture or command; it can emote passionately or think critically. Within Biblical texts and religions, the divine masculine is given the full range of potential avenues for expression, with the “father” archetype being just one of them. Why not the same for the divine feminine, wherein “mother” is just one archetype among countless others? With some close reading, we can find the seeds for a radical and expansive divine feminine within the Bible, but this quest requires much more than that. We must search out lost and apocryphal texts which show more female involvement; we must consider the ways in which the Bible may have been changed over time to bolster the patriarchy and what may have originally been written there; we must engage in midrash that expands upon the divine feminine in meaningful and inclusive ways. Through an intentional and considerate approach to the divine feminine in the Bible, we can uncover the infinite range of divine expressions for people of all genders.

Works Cited