Heroines are not lacking in Scripture. In addition to others whom we meet in the various texts, whole books of the Old Testament are devoted to Ruth, Judith and Esther. Eve too is a heroine in her own way, as of course is Mary. In this series on the books of the Bible, it is time for a look at the two women highlighted during the post-exilic (Second Temple) period, Judith and Esther. They are thought to be largely fictional exemplars set against a historical background of serious danger to Israel.
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If this is indeed the case, then we may read both books as teaching valuable spiritual lessons, just as in my reading of the previous Book of Tobit. But it would seem to be a mistake to take them as mere pious legends; they have a kind of muscle to them which suggests they were intended to give real encouragement to a nation under duress. Interest in both books today is surely increased by our own attitude toward women, for in our culture there is a great deal of confusion about feminine and masculine roles—the assumption too often being that, for a woman to be heroic, she must act rather like a man.
Judith and Esther, though both women of extraordinary trust in God and personal courage, most emphatically do not act like men.
Both books survive mainly through the Greek, and we know that they differ markedly in some respects from the Hebrew versions which are mostly lost But what is lost is not so much the lessons and virtues they exemplify as varying historical settings and varying degrees of detail. If there is a Providential character to the preservation of Sacred Scripture (as surely there must be), this in itself is an argument against the attempt to read these books strictly as history.
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Answer:
Heroines are not lacking in Scripture. In addition to others whom we meet in the various texts, whole books of the Old Testament are devoted to Ruth, Judith and Esther. Eve too is a heroine in her own way, as of course is Mary. In this series on the books of the Bible, it is time for a look at the two women highlighted during the post-exilic (Second Temple) period, Judith and Esther. They are thought to be largely fictional exemplars set against a historical background of serious danger to Israel.
Vision Book Cover Prints
If this is indeed the case, then we may read both books as teaching valuable spiritual lessons, just as in my reading of the previous Book of Tobit. But it would seem to be a mistake to take them as mere pious legends; they have a kind of muscle to them which suggests they were intended to give real encouragement to a nation under duress. Interest in both books today is surely increased by our own attitude toward women, for in our culture there is a great deal of confusion about feminine and masculine roles—the assumption too often being that, for a woman to be heroic, she must act rather like a man.
Judith and Esther, though both women of extraordinary trust in God and personal courage, most emphatically do not act like men.
Both books survive mainly through the Greek, and we know that they differ markedly in some respects from the Hebrew versions which are mostly lost But what is lost is not so much the lessons and virtues they exemplify as varying historical settings and varying degrees of detail. If there is a Providential character to the preservation of Sacred Scripture (as surely there must be), this in itself is an argument against the attempt to read these books strictly as history.
Answer:
Judith and Esther, though both women of extraordinary trust in God and personal courage, most emphatically do not act like men.