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Lot’s Wife and Daughters, Dinah, Tamar, and Potiphar’s Wife—The Other Women of Genesis
- Baylor University Press
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399 Part 6 1 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Woman’s Bible (New York: European Publishing Co., 1895), 67. 2 For a more detailed discussion of the sensibility of delicacy in the nineteenth century, see Noel Perrin, Dr. Bowdler’s Legacy: A History of Expurgated Books in England and America (New York: Atheneum, 1969), 7–15. Lot’s Wife and Daughters, Dinah, Tamar, and Potiphar’s Wife—The Other Women of Genesis Introduction Nineteenth-century women looked to Eve, Sarah, Hagar, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel for inspiration and self-understanding. They overlooked many of the less prominent and more controversial female figures like Lot’s wife and daughters, as well as Dinah, Tamar, and Potiphar’s wife. Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote: “The texts on Lot’s daughters and Tamar we omit altogether, as unworthy a place in the ‘Woman’s Bible.’”1 Other women writers shared Stanton’s opinion of the accounts of women involved in “unspeakable” acts. Many authors omitted these stories entirely from their writings; oth- ers referred to them briefly, with disdain; others used the negative examples of these women to admonish and preach to their readers. Only a few writ- ers moved beyond judgment to empathize with the plight of marginalized women like the rejected Tamar and the abused Dinah. The reaction of the nineteenth-century writers to the stories involving sexuality reflected the sensibilities of their culture. Women craved and cul- tivated “delicacy,” or an inner intuition that allowed them to distinguish between good and evil. Delicate women were supposed to be shocked at every encounter with evil; to maintain this sensibility, women avoided frequent contact with immoral behavior, so they did not write about these question- able stories in Genesis.2 400 Let Her Speak for Herself The sensibilities, prejudices, and presuppositions that nineteenth-century women brought to their reading of the stories of “other” women in Genesis prevented them from recognizing the potential of these stories as resources in the ongoing debate over woman’s nature, role, and place in society. Some women of faith did raise the sexual issues in debates over the woman’s ques- tion . Josephine Butler worked with prostitutes and then worked to change the laws of England to eliminate sexual double standards for men and women.3 Butler had a theological basis for her work; some of the stories discussed in this chapter might also have been helpful resources for her.4 It took another century for biblical scholars such as Phyllis Trible (b. 1932) to begin to see the value of stories involving female sexuality for addressing ongoing issues of abuse.5 Lot’s Wife and Daughters Lot’s unnamed wife is mentioned briefly in Genesis 19:26. While Lot’s family was fleeing from the destruction of Sodom, she looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. She is also mentioned in another cryptic verse in Luke 17:32 in which Jesus told hearers, “Remember Lot’s wife.” The eschatological context of the verse in the gospel, the mystery surrounding Lot’s wife’s meta- morphosis , and the brevity of both these accounts all provide interpreters with an opportunity for amplification and elucidation of this narrative. Many Christian interpreters began with the New Testament citation and preached to their readers. They saw Lot’s wife as typical of sinners of their own day and admonished their readers to learn from her negative example. Most of the women who wrote on Lot’s wife also engaged the issue of the historicity of this story. They used historical sources and travel books in their discussions. 3 For more information on Butler’s life, see Judith R. Walkowitz, “Butler, Josephine Elizabeth,” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, vol. 9 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 180–86. 4 See Lucretia A. Flammang, “And Your Sons and Daughters Will Prophesy,” “The Voice and Vision of Josephine Butler,” in Women’s Theology in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Transfiguring the Faith of their Fathers, ed. Julie Melnyk (New York: Garland, 1998), 151–64. 5 PhyllisTrible, Texts ofTerror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984). Also see: Anne Michele Tapp, “An Ideology of Expendability: Virgin Daughter Sacrifice in Genesis 19:1-11, Judges 11:30-39 and 19:22-26,” in Anti-Covenant: Counter-Reading Women’s Lives in the Hebrew Bible, ed. Mieke Bal (Sheffield: Almond Press, 1989), 157–74; Illona N. Rashkow, “The Rape of Dinah,” in Upon Dark Places: Anti...