Today was our guest lecuture on women and the Bible. There is some information which I did know in some shape or form before(ie. that phallocentrism is central to patriarchal cultures), but that is unimportant given what I was not aware of before.

In this category falls the stories of the Prophets, which begin whith Amos in roughly 750 BCE. All of them are concerned with social conditons, meaning of course the state of the people's morality. Jeremiah(around 586 BCE) complains particularly about the woman, who are worshipping a Godess, and prepare special vulva-cookies in Her honor. Jeremiah insists to the men that they must control their wives. I wonder if this offers a key to why Harold Bloom continually places "the abominable" in front of his name whenever Jeremiah is mentioned?

And there is also the Prophet Hosea(coming between Amos and Jeremiah in 720 BCE)who is ordered by Yahweh to get a "wife of harlotry", with whom he has children who are named in such a way as represents everything which displeases Yahweh. Interpreting the situation metaphorically, it comes down to this: Hosea is Yaweh and his wife of harlotry is Isreal. How interesting.

There is also some scholarly opinion that the oldest piece of poetry in the Hebrew Bible is the Song of Deborah, which dates to roughly 1100 BCE. It can be broken down into three sections, which serve as a representation of the course of how women are defined.

1. Deborah as Judge, who knows what Yahweh wants, and who the general Barach(sp?) will only go to battle if accompanied by.
2. Jael, who nails the enemy general Sisrera through the head with a tent peg when he falls asleep in her tent.
3.Sisera's mother and the wise women, anticipating that he will bring home the spoils of victory: clothing and "wombs"(for the sake of being polite).

Whoa.