Rediscovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context

This groundbreaking study looks beyond biblical texts, which have had a powerful influence over our views of women's roles and worth, in order to reconstruct the typical everyday lives of women in ancient Israel. Carol Meyers argues that biblical sources alone do not give a true picture of ancient Israelite women because urban elite males wrote the vast majority of the scriptural texts and the stories of women in the Bible concern exceptional individuals rather than ordinary Israelite women. Drawing on archaeological discoveries and ethnographic information as well as biblical texts, Meyers depicts Israelite women not as submissive chattel in an oppressive patriarchy, but rather as strong and significant actors within their families and society. In so doing, she challenges the very notion of patriarchy as an appropriate designation for Israelite society.

Carol Meyers holds the Mary Grace Wilson Professorship in Religion at Duke University. A specialist in biblical studies and archaeology, she is a prominent scholar in the study of women in the biblical world and a trustee of the American Schools of Oriental Research and of the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research. She also serves on the board of directors of the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation and is president-elect of the Society of Biblical Literature.

Preface

Notes on Translations, Transcriptions, and Documentation

1. Eve and Israelite Women: Understanding the Task

2. Resources for the Task

3. Setting the Scene: The Ancient Environment

4. Eve in Eden: Genesis 2-3

5. Eve out of Eden: Genesis 3:16

6. Eve's World: The Household

7. Women and Household Maintenance, Part I: Economic, Reproductive, and Socio-Political Activities

8. Women and Household Maintenance, Part II: Religious Activities

9. Excursus: Professional Women

10. Gender and Society: Reconstructing Relationships, Rethinking Systems

Epilogue: Beyond the Hebrew Bible

Notes