Is the Hebrew Bible sexist?

One of the arguments of people to disregard the Hebrew Bible is that the Bible is sexist in nature. Clearly, there are many more prophets than prophetesses and as we have seen it has taken unique circumstances to even allow there to be female prophetesses in the first place. But it does not necessarily mean that the Bible is a sexist text. There is little likelihood that the biblical laws that reflect women's socially inferior status were relatively new, or even a particular Israelite development as it is paralleled in Mesopotamian legal codes going back to the third millenium BCE (Kugel 2008). The social roles played by women in biblical times are comparable to those found in traditional societies all across the globe (Kugel 2008). Many societies have worshiped a Great Mother goddess but it seems risky to jump from this religious way of conceptualizing fertility to any conclusions about social organization or gender-determined roles (Kugel 2008). There was also a prominent female goddess in ancient Palestine. This has suggested to some scholars that there was once a prominence in everyday lives of women, they may have once exercised a highly diverse and primary role in the economic and physical survival of ancient Palestine (Kugel 2008). The question then becomes, why did things change? There's an argument that it was brought about with a combination of plagues, wars, and famines late in the Bronze Age caused women's diverse social roles to primarily focus on child bearing and child rearing because rebuilding the population was a vital concern (Kugel 2008). Perhaps then dynamic female leaders such as Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah represent the last gasp of an ancient gender equality, perhaps remnants of a time when women were an integral part of the power structure (Kugel 2008). It's easy to merely dismiss the Bible as sexist without perhaps looking at the context of the text. Miriam seems to have been chosen as a prophetess because the male prophets, Moses and Aaron, were not leading the Israelites in a manner that they preferred. Instead of searching for another male leader, they chose Miriam. In the story of Deborah, it seems that Deborah was chosen because she was able to be a leader in a time when the social dynamics allowed her to be and led the Israelite army to victory. Huldah was chosen as a prophetess because she was able to take advantage of the dynamics to become one as well. It is possible that the Hebrew Bible is sexist, however, it seems more probable that it is trying to teach people that anyone can be a leader, especially if they take advantage of the social dynamics.

In the Hebrew Bible, most of the prophets who are mentioned are males. There are five women who get the distinction of prophet or the equivalent of prophet in the Hebrew Bible. They are Miriam, Deborah, the unnamed wife of Isaiah, Hulda, and Noadiah (Ackerman 2002). The title of prophet or the equivalence of such, was assigned to at least twenty-nine men (Ackerman 2002). This does not include the hundreds of prophets mention in II Kings or some prophets who were not given the title but wrote books that are included in the Hebrew Bible, including Joel, Amos, and Hosea (Ackerman 2002). Nevertheless, looking at prophetic literature one would have to come to the conclusion that the words and deeds of prophets are almost exclusively the words and deeds of men. However, there is a slight mention of the prophetesses so there must be an important reason for them to be included. I will be focusing on Miriam, Deborah, and Hulda. There are many reasons for each of the prophetesses to be mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. These reasons include some of the textual evidence, as well as some historical evidence.

Miriam was Moses' sister. After the crossing of the Sea of Reeds, her title was changed to Miriam the prophetess (Exodues 15:20). Her exact role as a prophetess is summed up in only a couple of verses. “Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took a timbrel in her hand, all the women went out after her in dance with timbrels. And Miriam chanted for them: Sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously' Horse and driver He has hurled into the sea” (Exodus 15:20-21). Moses was considered by the Israelites to be God and Aaron was considered to be Moses' prophet (Exodus 7:1). It is possible that Miriam was also considered to be a prophet in the same manner because like Aaron, she was close to Moses. However, there is no Biblical text to support this claim. However, there is a better explanation of why Miriam is considered a prophet that can be found in the text. There was a series of unusual circumstances that happened to allow Miriam to become a prophet. Normally, prophets will only be males. However, as the Exodus story begins the Pharaoh ordered that all the baby boys should be thrown into the Nile, but every girl should live (Exodus 1:22). So when Miriam is coming of age there are not that as many males coming of age, as well. The next circumstance is that after Moses and Aaron are denied by Pharaoh to go in the wilderness to sacrifice, the Israelites are ordered to make their bricks without straw without their quotas being reduced. When the Israelites did not meet their quotas the supervisors are then beaten. This leads to resentment for both Moses and Aaron. “As they [the Israelites] left Pharaoh's presence , they came upon Moses and Aaron standing in their path, and they said to them, 'May the LORD look upon you and punish you for making us loathsome to Pharaoh and his courtiers-- putting a sword in their hands to slay us'” (Exodus 5:20-21). It seems as if there is a growing resentment to both Moses and Aaron. The resentment towards Moses and Aaron grow while God hardens Pharaoh's heart which, in turn, leads to more suffering for the Israelites. Finally, the Israelites are allowed to leave Israel which also has quite a bit of strife for the Israelites. These factors led to a resentment to the prophets that were sent by the LORD and led to turning to a new person to be looked at as a new prophet. The Israelites may have at that point decided that Miriam could be a new prophet especially after she led them in song after crossing the Sea of Reeds.

The next prophetess mentioned in the Hebrew Bible is Deborah. She was also mentioned as one of the judges of Israel. She is the only judge to be mentioned as a prophet, as well. “Deborah, wife of Lappidoth, was a prophetess; she led Israel at that time” (Judges 4:4). There can be a few reasons to why Deborah may have been considered a prophet as well as a judge. Some historians argue that the time when Deborah was alive would have been an ideal time for a woman to get elevated to a higher status (Hackett 1985). The archaeological evidence suggests that the Israelite community was rural or village-based (Hackett 1985). There are no remains of palaces or large residences, no public or administrative structures, and no sanctuaries or temples (Ackerman 2003). Because of this, it is safe to assume that there was a “relatively undifferentiated and unstratified social order, with no political or religious elite and no civil bureaucracy” (Ackerman 2003). It's likely, according to the archaeological evidence, that Deborah was able to rise to some type of power in the Israelite community. Was Deborah actually a prophet though? James L. Kugel argues that the prose of the narrative of Deborah was written after the song of Deborah (Kugel 2008). It's obvious that the narrative and the song were written at different times. As the two of them have inconsistencies. Most scholars think that the song of Deborah was written before the prose was actually written, so I will agree. Kugel argues that the prophetic traits that Deborah is said to have had could have easily been placed at a much later date (Kugel 2008). In the song of Deborah, she is called by the LORD with “Awake, awake, strike up the chant! Arise, O, Barak, Take your captives, O son of Abinoam!” (Judges 5:12). This is important because most other prophets are called by the LORD in some way, which is usually recorded. There are other ideas that perhaps the battle that Deborah led the Israelites in was a holy war (Meyers 1994). If it was a holy war then that is also a role of prophets, it can be found in both I and II Kings. Some scholars even point to her being mentioned as the mother of Israel in Judges 5:7, as a sign that she was called to be a prophet much like Elijah (II Kings 2:12) and Elisha (II Kings 13:14) (Meyers 1994). This seems like a stretch to me, as they are not technically called father of Israel but are just referred to as Father in those verses. This may very easily be a translation error as I am reading it in English and not in the original Hebrew. Other scholars have indicated that the prose narrative is entirely dependent on the song of Deborah. So the indication of Deborah as a prophet in Judges 4:4 could be from the different markers in Judges chapter five (Hackett 1985). It seems likely that Deborah's role of prophetess was assigned after looking over the song of Deborah. Kugel's definition of a prophet includes a role as a divine messenger or at the very least messengers sent by God (Kugel 2008). In the song of Deborah she does not declare that she is from the LORD like most other prophets do, with their prophetic speech. This does not necessarily mean that she is not a prophet, just that she does not seem to be a divine messenger of the LORD. The only traits of a prophet that Deborah had seemed to be that she led the Israelites in the holy war, was called the mother of Israel, and she was called by the LORD. The qualifications of a prophet seem to be different when applied to Miriam and Deborah then with other male prophets.

Huldah is barely mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. Her appearance is only mentioned in a few verses. “So the priest Hilkiah, and Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah—the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah son of Harhas, the keeper of the wardrobe—who was living in Jerusalem in the Mishneh and they spoke to her” (II Kings 22:14). However, she finds herself mentioned as one of the few prophetesses in the Hebrew Bible. Like Miriam and Deborah, there were other factors that may have been at work that caused her to be mentioned as a prophetess. There are some scholars who seem to suggest that Huldah was mentioned as a prophetess here because of the other things that happened in Judah around the same time. During the reigns of Manasseh and Amon, the kings before Josiah, Judah must have at some point found themselves of Assyrian hegemony (Ackerman 2002). The result of this certainly could have caused some disruption of Judah's traditional religious regimes (Ackerman 2002). As we saw with Deborah and Miriam if there was any disruption of normalcy, there stands to arise a prophetess as compared to a prophet. There might be another explanation, as well. Huldah is the wife of Shallum, the keeper of the king's wardrobe (Bible cite). However, this role and Shallum, himself, are not mentioned anywhere else in the Hebrew Bible, so there is some type of mystery surrounding him. There is a notion among scholars that since she was the wife of an upper-class husband she may have been able to exert some type of individual power even though she lived in a time where females typically did not show much on their own (Ackerman 2002). It is mentioned in the text that King Josiah's subjects meet with her in the home, it is possible to suggest that because they were able to meet her there that she was able to exert even more power. If Huldah was so important, though, why is she gone from the rest of the text fairly quickly? One idea is that even though there are a few prophetesses mentioned in the Hebrew Bible none of them have much room in the text that actually talks about their roles. Deborah has the longest one but it is only a couple of chapters long and that is not even long compared to the long tomes of such male prophets like Jeremiah or Isaiah. A second idea is that this is purely coincidental. Huldah had a small role to play which was to verify the scroll  was actually the book of the law and once that was done there was no real need for her. Another idea is that the very forces that led Huldah to be mentioned as a prophet were swept away quite quickly. The reforms that King Josiah undertakes seems to be in the manner of centralizing the political and religious power. Certainly bringing the priests back to Jerusalem would be cause enough for Huldah to be able to dissappear (Ackerman 2002). As normalcy is restored, the notion of a female prophet is taken away. It seems that only when there is some type of disarray or confusion that a female prophet can emerge.

Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah were three of the very few prophetesses mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. They were able to take advantage of the different social dynamics and became prophetesses however brief their appearances in the text were. It may not prove that the Bible is not sexist; it certainly gives the idea that anybody can become a leader regardless of sex or gender.