The Deuteronomic Concern for Women

Part 1: The Status of Women in Israelite Society
Part 2: The Deuteronomic Concern for Women

In Part 1 of my study on the plight of women in Israelite society, I wrote that “the status of women as persons of worth and dignity at times [is] betrayed by the social realities present in Israelite society.” In Part 2 of my study, I want to introduce how the reforms of Josiah and the book of Deuteronomy made an attempt at improving the status of women in Israelite society during the seventh century B.C.E.

The best effort to deal with the religious and social problems confronting Israelite society in the late monarchic period is found in the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy was an attempt at developing a special sense of social responsibility in the life of every Israelite for the poor, slaves, women, and for those in society who were underprivileged and did not enjoy the whole benefit of the law.

The book of Deuteronomy is considered by the majority of scholars to be a revision of the Book of the Covenant. The book of Deuteronomy revises old laws and introduces new ones in order to meet the needs of Israelite society in the latter half of the seventh century B.C.E.

The book of Deuteronomy is presented as an exposition of the Mosaic law revealed by Yahweh at Mount Sinai. According to the book, Moses introduced the laws of God to the new generation of Israelites in preparation for their entrance into the Promised Land. This exposition of the law was also an invitation to the people of Israel to dedicate themselves to the demands of the covenant Yahweh had established with them.

The degeneration of the religious and social life in the Northern Kingdom in the days of Amos and Hosea and the religious syncretism in Judah in the days of Manasseh promoted an abandonment of moral values and a neglect of the demands of the covenant and the ancient traditions of the nation.

In 622 B.C.E., during the renovation of the temple in the days of Josiah, king of Judah (640-609), the book of the law was found by the workers in the temple. The book found in the temple probably was an earlier version of Deuteronomy. The reading of the book affected Josiah immensely.

In a ceremony in the temple, the king invited the people to renew the covenant and to abide by the demands of the Torah of Moses. In addition to the religious reforms of the Israelite cult, there was also a reformulation of several laws to improve the plight of the destitute and the oppressed in Israelite society.

The book of Deuteronomy reflects the rise of humanism in Israel. Deuteronomy contains several new laws and many revisions of old ones dealing with the oppressed in Israel. These laws became necessary because of the changes brought by the monarchy and by the deterioration of the social structures in Israelite society.

Several aspects of the Deuteronomic reform affected women for the better. The reformulation of Mosaic laws in the days of Josiah also served to call the people who lived in the seventh century B.C.E. to hear the words of Yahweh again and to renew their commitment to the God of Israel.

The book of Deuteronomy emphasizes Israel's experience in Egypt. Deuteronomy reintroduces the laws and demands of the God who had redeemed a people from the house of servitude in Egypt to make them a special people with a universal mission. Israel was called to be a religious community where the justice of God would be manifested to the whole world.

Among the many theological emphases of the book, three deserve attention. The first was that Yahweh, the God of Israel, loved Israel with a special love, even when the nation did not deserve his love. Now Israel had to love God with their whole being (Deuteronomy 6:5).

Second, Israel had served other gods, but now Israel had to serve Yahweh exclusively (Deuteronomy 6:4). Deuteronomy emphasizes the singularity of Yahweh in the life of Israel. Finally, the book of Deuteronomy relates obedience to God to the daily life of each member of the community. Because Israel was united to God by the demands of the covenant, each member of the community had to treat another Israelite with justice.

Israel, as God's people, was a special people, a people separated from the other nations and as such, the daily life and the moral conduct among the members of the community had to reflect this relationship with God.

The demands of the covenant required personal integrity and social justice of each Israelite. The poor, the slaves, the orphans, the widows, and the other destitute persons in Israel became the beneficiaries of the changes introduced by the social reforms of Deuteronomy. In addition, there was a real effort to improve the status of women in Israelite society by emphasizing the dignity of women and by bringing them relief from some of the injustices allowed by older laws. This improvement of the status of Israelite women came by revision of older laws found in the Book of the Covenant and by the enactment of new laws directly affecting the lives of women in Israelite society.

In upcoming posts, I will demonstrate how the book of Deuteronomy is concerned with the oppressive situation of women in Israelite society. I will examine several laws and study how Deuteronomic laws revise and improve the laws in the book of Exodus to address some social injustices in Israelite society, especially injustices against women.

To be continued.

Next: "The Tenth Commandment (Deuteronomy 5:21)"

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Covenant Code, Deuteronomic Laws, Deuteronomy, Israelite Laws, Women

The Status of Women in Israelite Society

The status of women in Israelite society is a highly debated subject in biblical scholarship. In some texts of the Old Testament women are presented as property of their fathers and husbands. The husband was a woman's "baal.” This Hebrew word was translated sometimes as "husband,” "owner" or "master.”

In the Old Testament, as well as in the Ancient Near East, a man could have many wives; multiple marriage was the evidence of a man's wealth and power. Few women were independent, for they needed their fathers and husbands to provide for them. In other texts women are portrayed as victims of men's brutality and inhumanity: women were bought and sold, raped, enslaved, murdered, and abandoned. Daughters were sold as slaves by their fathers (Exodus 21:7-11). A law in Leviticus 19:29 was enacted, forbidding a man from selling his daughter as a prostitute. The implication of this law was that some men had no reservation about selling their daughters when forced by poverty or when compelled by greed.

In other Old Testament texts, women are portrayed as persons with dignity. In Genesis 1:26-27 the woman was created in the image of God, although this passage reflects a much developed theology. This theology of womanhood, woman as a person equal to the man, created in the image of God, developed gradually in Israel and finds full expression in the priestly theology of the postexilic time.

In Genesis 2:18 , the woman is portrayed as companion to her husband, his ‘ēzer kenegdô, a helper to the man. The Hebrew expression, ‘ēzer kenegdô, does not carry the connotation of inferiority or subordination. The creation of the woman is the climax of the Yahwistic creation story in Genesis 2. The woman was created to be a companion to a lonely man, thus giving to both of them the possibility of community, commonality, and wholeness.

These two theological views of the status of women as persons of worth and dignity at times are betrayed by the social realities present in Israelite society. The status of women probably became more difficult as a result of a misinterpretation of Genesis 3:16, a text in which God says that the man is to rule over his wife as a consequence of her disobedience. If this was so, then men in Israelite society understood the text to describe the life of a woman as a person "under the curse." Phyllis Trible (God and the Rethoric of Sexuality [Overture to Biblical Theology; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978) has said that as a result of the shared transgression of both man and woman, "oppression resulting from transgression is actualized by a design that emphasizes the man and minimizes the woman” (p. 128). Because of the social limitations imposed upon women, most women in Israel found their sense of worth, fulfillment, and personhood in being a mother and a wife.

In spite of the limitations imposed upon women, some women forged important places in Israelite society. Some, women, like Deborah served as a judge, others, like Huldah served as prophets. Some women served as queens and queen-mothers, thus exercising much power and authority in Israelite society. Centralization of wealth in the hands of a few families elevated the status of some women and enabled them to live a life of luxury and to exert power over men.

Over the centuries, Israelite society suffered many transformations. From a tribal community, in which people had much in common and where few inequalities existed, Israel became a state, with a monarchy and a royal family that consumed a large portion of the goods produced by the average Israelite. The growing number of civil servants forced the state to enact a system of taxation that served to create a class of rich citizens at the expense of Israelite farmers and villagers. These social, economic, and political changes in Israelite society served as a catalyst to impact the status of women in society and greatly affect their lives.

Over the years, many laws were enacted to provide some relief to the plight of women in Israelite society. The Book of the Covenant, also known as the Covenant Code (Exodus 20:22-23:33), is the oldest code of law in Israel. The Book of the Covenant is a codification of ancient laws and traditions that attained its final form either at the end of the tribal confederacy or at the beginning of the monarchy in the days of David or Solomon. There are many laws in the Book of the Covenant that deal with social injustice and the plight of the destitute and the oppressed in Israel.

In a future post I will study some of these laws and how Israel made an attempt at dealing with the religious and social problems of Israelite society. Israelite laws reveal that there was an attempt to develop a special sense of social responsibility in the life of every Israelite for the poor, women, and for those in society who were underprivileged and did not enjoy the whole benefit of the law.

To be continued.

Next: "The Deuteronomic Concern for Women"


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Covenant Code, Israelite Laws, Poor, Women