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Date Posted: 08:21:18 04/06/04 Tue
Author: schwabra
Author Host/IP: dialup-4.225.149.99.Dial1.Cincinnati1.Level3.net / 4.225.149.99
Subject: Women Challenging Authority

Women Challenging Authority

In the books of Exodus and Numbers we find women challenging authority. These women include the Hebrew midwives, Moses’ mother, Moses’ sister, Pharaoh’s daughter, and the daughters of Zelophehad. The amount of courage it would take for a woman to stand up for herself in the male dominated society of ancient Israel can not be understated. The Bible allows for and even supports the chance the women took in all of these instances.
The first women we have identified as challenging authority are the Hebrew midwives. These courageous women are actually named in the text. They are Shiphrah and Puah. The circumstances in which these women came into their place in history was the culture of ancient Egypt. This was the time after the death of Joseph where a Pharaoh came to power that knew not Joseph. Because of this he had no loyalty to the contributions made be Joseph and saw Joseph’s people as a threat to his power. The Israelites were growing numerous and strong so he tried to limit their growth. He told his midwives to kill the sons of the Hebrew women when they came to them on the birthing stool.
The Hebrew midwives not wanting to do such an evil thing countered that they Hebrew women had always finished giving birth by the time they had arrived. This would prevent them from honoring the letter of Pharaoh’s command. So by using his own law they were able to allow the Hebrew boy children to live. While this may seem to be an airtight defense, it must be stressed that ultimately justice was dealt out by the Pharaoh so the loophole was only possible if he chose to see it. So they did take much risk by challenging his intention, if not challenging the law itself.
The second and third women to challenge the authority are Moses’ mother and sister. When the Pharaoh’s plan to reduce the number of Hebrews appeared to fail, he expanded it by telling the Hebrew women to throw their male children into the Nile. Again when Moses’ mother is no longer able to hide her child, she “throws him into the river” but has placed him in an ark to save him from drowning. He is then safe, temporarily, on the Nile. While she is following the letter of the law of Pharaoh, she is still flirting with his wrath also. We meet the next woman to defy authority while Moses in on the river. His mother unhappy to just abandon him to the water, she has his sister Miriam keep a watch over Moses. This too is dangerous because it would allow both sister and mother to be identified with the male child and then possibly killed.
Shortly afterwards, the daughter of Pharaoh sees the child on the water. She takes it in and from pity ignores its lineage. Here Miriam also defies authority by approaching Pharaoh’s daughter and asks if she can find a Hebrew woman to nurse the child. This too threatened to expose all involved, so was a daring thing to do. Further ignoring the spirit of Pharaoh’s decree, his own daughter takes Moses for her own child.
These women all come together in a very real way to eventually be responsible for the exodus from Egypt and the future of the Jewish people (as they come to be known). To further a theory postulated earlier, women have an equal part in the story of the Jews. From the beginning until the present time, they are said to be physically equal but sexually different. In Exodus, we can see their importance in the act, which will become the defining point in the history of the Jews. Moses may get the starring role in the story, but his life was saved many times by women, when he was powerless to do anything for himself.
Miriam, Moses’ sister, would continue to be a challenge to authority throughout the exodus saga. An interesting picture is painted of Miriam when she is called a prophet, the first person named as a prophet in the biblical text. She is also depicted as a musician when she sings a song of triumph over the Egyptians praising God.
Her role takes a more dramatic role of a woman challenging authority when she objects to Moses’ wife, who is not Hebrew but a Cushite. Although there are not many specific facts about the reasons Miriam objected to Zipporah, the idea of intermarriage with foreigners in still a hot debate today. There is speculation that she may have accused Zipporah of not being a worthy wife because her father was a priest.
Another challenge to authority came from Zipporah herself. When God himself has decided to kill Moses, for whatever reason, she intervenes by immediately circumcising either Moses or her son and putting the blood on Moses. Thwarting God’s plan of killing Moses. So she saves Moses too, just like all the other women in Moses life so far.
The daughters of Zelophehad stand up to Moses himself by petitioning that they be allowed to inherit their father’s property. Their father did not have sons, only five daughters. His daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. In the society they lived in, the lack of male heirs would prohibit the property from being passed along into the tribe. Female children would marry and their husbands would take the possession of them (the women) and leave the possessions with the tribe (minus any dowry that would be paid. In this specific case Moses ruled that the daughters could inherit their father’s belongings on the condition that they marry inside the tribe. This assured that the tribe would not lose the benefit of these possessions as dowry, and keep the daughters from marrying foreigners. Both of these were very real concerns for Moses. In this period it was more accepted that women would use men to intercede on their behalf, but this did not happen here. The daughters challenged not only Moses, but also the laws of the tribe at the time.
While the text of the Bible tries to portray the women as equal in importance to men, sometimes the facts of ancient societal life would interfere with these beliefs. It is for this reason that the women have been seen as able to stand up to men and authority. It is an example of women overcoming the vary prejudices that crept into belief in a patrilinear culture about women’s position. Many examples are given in the Bible of women, both Hebrew and not Hebrew, overcoming these obstacles to have a dramatic effect on the tribe’s survival. There is a message to men to not underestimate women, and there is a message to women not to underestimate themselves.

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