Walking into Religion 375 on the first day, I thought I knew what to expect. I was both right and wrong.
I was right in the sense that I knew we were going to discuss women of the Bible, but I had no idea that we were going to focus in such detail on some of them.
I was wrong in the sense that I knew what women we were going to discuss. Several of the women were new to me, and I did not know that some of them were even in the common Bible, such as Jael, and I had no clue about the apocryphal texts, where the stories of Susanna and Judith are found.
What amazed me is how little information there is in the Bible on some of the female characters. Jephthah's daughter, for example, doesn't even have a name and there is so much we do not know about her. On the other hand, some women, such as Ruth, have a whole book dedicated to them.
Being raised in a Christian church, I have noticed that a lot of these women get overlooked, and many that are held in high regard have flaws that get overlooked. For example, Ruth is known for her modesty, but what does going into where Boaz was sleeping and uncovering his "feet" say about her modesty? We never discussed that in Sunday School.
Jael was never discussed in Sunday School either. She is only in a few verses in Judges, and there is no mention of her background, but she is responsible for saving the Israelites. We were taught about Deborah and how she was a judge and a great woman, but I think Jael takes the cake in that story.
Overall, this class was a great class and really opened my mind to the possibilities of the Bible. I learned that the Bible cannot be taken word-for-word, it will be always subject to interpretation, and that there is so much that gets overlooked. I do not regret taking this class at all, and am very glad it got offered as a general education course. If I had to do it all over again, I would still would take it, and perhaps post longer blogs and be better about posting them on time. :)
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