Week 2: Bible Women Reading Diary

For the Bible Women's reading homepage, click here.

Reading A: For this week, there were twenty different stories in the Bible Women's unit. Of the first ten, two stood out to me the most. Those were the stories of Jephthah's daughter and Hannah. Both of these stories involved loss of only children in one way or another. 

Okay, so first was Jephthah's daughter. Many elements of this story surprised me. One of those elements, in my opinion was the father's stupidity. I understand why he wanted to make a vow or deal with God to win the war. And it's obvious by his reaction when he sees his daughter he is distraught and regretful and expected to sacrifice some animal, but how he worded the vow led to that happening. 

This is a man who has been off to war for a while. So when he words the vow 'whatever greets me first at home'... does he think a sheep will walk up to him before his only child after he has been gone so long? He should have thought through his wording more and just promised God an animal or the 'first of my livestock that I see'. He could have been a tad more specific and everything would have worked out great for him.

Then there is his daughter, who seems scarily okay with her father killing and burning her. She agrees immediately and asks for time to more the loss of her virginity and life. I thought she wouldn't return after the two months and her dad would die or something. But she willingly returns and lets her father sacrifice her. I know this was a different time and I am not religious like these characters, but I feel like most children would not be okay with being killed for God. 

(By Debat-Ponsan, The Daughter of Jephthah )

 Now on to Hannah's story. This story I had more prior knowledge of but it brought up some similar questions to Jephthah's story although not nearly as extreme. Once again I understand where the vow came from. Hannah has been craving a child, and wanting to be a mother for years. But what I don’t understand is making a vow with God for a child, which will cause you to permanently lose that child from a young age.

Especially in the biblical time period, while children were loved, they were also needed to work, to carry on the family line, and to care for the parents in their old age. Promising to give a child up if you are given one seems counter intuitive for many of the desires for a child. To me it goes to a debate that have heard, is it better to have and to lose or to never have had at all. 

(By Van Den Eeckhout, Hannah Presents Her Son)

For Reading B: The two stories I'm going to discuss from the second half of the readings are of Susannah and Herodias. All of the other stories from this unit I had encountered at least once before, although some only briefly. However, the stories of Susannah and Herodias I had never heard or read before.

I'll talk about Susannah's story first.  I had never even heard of Susannah before this. Her story is one that I wish was still in the modern Bibles. The story was disturbing and thought provoking. The story itself, of attempted rape, is very applicable even today in modern society.

Susannah stood up for her principles even when it would have been easier to give in. And because of her morals, she is sentenced to death for a crime she didn't commit. Susannah is the type of woman that people should admire and look up to.

I also found it interesting that this story had a young Daniel in it. I had grown up hearing about the lion's den and such but I loved that the story included this well known biblical hero standing up for a girl who everyone else condemned.

by de Boulogne, "Daniel and the Elders" 

The story of Herodias just generally disturbed me. This woman was obsessed with having John the Baptist executed because he called her and her husband out about marrying when her previous husband had been brothers with her current husband.

But I think the most disturbing thing about her is that she used her daughter, Salome's request to have John executed. When her daughter came to her for advice on what to do with the request, she could have helped her make a wise decision that would have bettered her daughter's future. Or if she was intent on John dying, she could have just asked to have him killed. But instead she tells her daughter to ask for John's head at the feast they are attending.  This is just overall disturbing in so many ways.

(by Ansaldo,"Herodias and Salome". )