عنوان

Women at the Window: A Feminist Reading of Sisera's Mother (Judg 5:28- 30), Michal (2 Sam 6:16-23), and Jezebel (2 Kgs 9:30-37)

Number

TL50759

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

Women at the Window: A Feminist Reading of Sisera's Mother (Judg 5:28- 30), Michal (2 Sam 6:16-23), and Jezebel (2 Kgs 9:30-37)

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Kohles, Sarah

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

Hens-Piazza, Gina

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Graduate Theological Union

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2019

Text of Note

238 p.

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

Graduate Theological Union

Text preceding or following the note

2019

Text of Note

The woman at the is an ancient Near Eastern motif found in eighth century BCE ivory artifacts and the Holy Bible. The figure of the woman at the window is associated with fertility goddesses and the potential for life and death. As such. the woman at the window appears in places associated with succession. However, the biblical figures or Sisera's mother. Michal. and Jezebel are each woman witnessing the ends of their households from their windows. As such. they are more strongly associated with the death-side of the motif A feminist close reading of Sisera's mother. Michal, Jezebel, allows for them to be read as positively featured rather than framed and confined witnessing their endings. Although Sisera's mother waits for her son who will never appear. her character serves to end division among \\Omen. Sisera's mother and all the women drawn into her window highlight the necessity of breaking down the need for enemies. In the case of Michal. even though she is constrained by the patriarchal forces that manipulate her life and a narrator who silences her by declaring she has no children, she lives on through her resistance. She defies and stands against David. encouraging others to join her. Finally. Jezebel faces certain death. but controls the manner and way in which she is represented even in her death. Despite the usurper Jehu, Jezebel survives in the memory of people roughly three thousand years later. As a woman who has made into an "other" and resists all that is death-dealing, she becomes a source of inspiration for those who share her courage and defiance. By focusing on the challenge embedded in Sisera's mother's narrative to resist the making of enemies by dwelling on the clarity of vision of Michal in the midst of power plays, and embracing the undiminished courage of Jezebel, readers can allow these women to be interpreted as positively featured in their windows. Therefore. they each are able to gesture toward Iife and the larger ancient Near Eastern motif of the, woman at the window.

Subject Term

Biblical studies

Kohles, Sarah

Hens-Piazza, Gina

Graduate Theological Union

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y