2001-04-17 - 5:22 p.m.
he said, "oh yes, you did laugh"

Things that kinda suck about Diaryland (illustrating the maxim that you get what you pay for), #17: Diaryland did some kind of reworking update thingy which for some reason finally set my automated entry times to the correct time zone, but also changed the format to Stupid American Time (which I can only assume is the default). And I can not for the life of me figure out how to return it to Sensible European/Military Time (other than changing it by hand with every entry).

So, I said I'd say a few words about the things I'm working on right now. One is the last essay I'll be writing this semester in Humanities 110, which is due this Saturday, and for which I finally chose my topic at about 10:00 last night. I'm doing something that a) really interests me and b) will really annoy my conference teacher, though, so it'll be easy to write. Heh.

I'm going to be exploring the role of women in the Book of Genesis, basically arguing that some of the important episodes in Genesis represent God and his prophets as giving women significant freedom and agency as well as historical importance. If you want to follow along, take out your Bible and turn to--hey, you kids, stop laughing or I'll turn this diary around and go straight home--::sigh:: oh, fine, I'll just link to the electronic text. Anyway, I have three particular episodes I'm working with so far (and a couple other possibilities). The one that caught my eye and inspired this line of thought in the first place is the one that comes chronologically last, Genesis 24, in which Abraham sends his servant to go find a wife for his son Isaac. He tells him where he should go to find this woman, but stipulates, "if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine" (24.8).

The servant mangles this requirement a little (24.41) when he does find the woman, Rebekah, and consults her family, but the family themselves carry it out when they ask her for her consent (24.58). Now, the fact that a real family might consult with their daughter while arranging their marriage was perhaps not the most remarkable thing in the world, but the fact that it was *reported*--twice--in the narrative speaks to its importance. Our Humanities course has been concentrated on Ancient Greece and Rome, and this is the first text in which we really encountered the direct implication that even if God picks out a woman for you, you have to make sure she's cool with the arrangement, or no deal. (If you've ever read, say, the Iliad, you'll have a good idea of what's involved here.)

Then there's the story of Abraham and Sarah, mentioned in a lecture a while back by a professor who was trying real hard to find something to be a self-righteous feminist about--the "tension" between patrilineage and matrilineage in the Bible, or something. Basically, though, it's God making it very clear that while Abraham's going to be the father of a great nation, his wife has to be the mother of that nation, never mind that she's 90 and he already has a son by another woman (long story short) (too late). The tie of the family line to the mother is no passing fancy of the Lord's, of course--the majority of my readers are probably already aware of the fact that Judaism remains matrilineal[1] to this day. Anywho, the only tension is between Abraham, who does plenty of silly crap (often to Sarah--see 12.10-20 and all of 20), and God. Doesn't take much to see where the authorial bias might be.

I have to wrap this up for now, but some words on Adam and Eve will be forthcoming...

[1] i.e., officially, if your mom is Jewish, you are born Jewish, and if she isn't, you're not.[2]

[2] In the interest of accuracy, tho', as I've just been reminded, if you convert to Judaism, you are considered just as Jewish as if you had been born Jewish. Just to clarify the implications of the original footnote.

edited on 4/17/01 at 23:48