New Series – Women in the Old Testament

As we come to the end of the academic year here at Blackfriars, it’s time for us to introduce our summer series on Godzdogz. This year, we’ve decided to focus on the Old Testament, but from an angle that can often be overlooked. It is common to characterise the Old Testament as representative of a very patriarchal society, with women taking very much a secondary role. Of course, this claim does identify a real phenomenon, but it can risk being self-fulfilling. If we assume too quickly that it is true, then our reading of the Old Testament will be coloured accordingly, so that we end up discounting the stories of those women we do find as necessarily secondary.

On the other hand, if you go looking for the women who do feature in the Old Testament, it can be quite surprising (given the common opinion just mentioned) how many you find: indeed, focusing on their stories and their place in the wider context of the Old Testament can draw our attention to neglected corners of the Bible, as well as giving new insights to the parts we might know better.

That’s why, this summer, the Godzdogz team are going to take a look at the women in the Old Testament, from Eve to Susannah, taking in many others, less and better known, along the way. We hope it will be an opportunity not only for our readers, but also for those of us writing the posts, both to acquaint ourselves better with parts of the Old Testament and also to explore what the Word of God is saying to us in them.