To say Hagar is remarkable because of her insight about God isn’t the first way we usually think of her. Is Hagar one of those Old Testament Biblical figures you know because she was exiled from a home where her child was fathered by the head of the household? That was largely the context I […]
Archive | Women in the Bible
A Trickster or Following the Lord’s Directive? (Founding Mothers – Part 2)
Rebekah’s reputation as a trickster who got her youngest son (Jacob) to pose as the older (Esau) in order to steal his birthright, deserves to be considered in new light. What if she did the Bible’s biggest bait-and-switch because she was following the Lord’s directive? Recall that we left Rebekah (in the last blog) when […]
Israel’s Founding Mothers: Rebekah (Part I)
Years ago I stayed in a Bed and Breakfast where an intriguing book lay on the bedside table: “Founding Mothers”. When I saw it was by one of my favorite radio commentators, Cokie Roberts of NPR, I plunged in and wasn’t disappointed. What a marvelous concept: telling the too-often forgotten stories of these passionate and […]
Mary and Hannah: Women On A Spiritual Journey
December has been a month of pouring over Luke’s Gospel. If you watched the Luke Webinar * then you already know how much the evangelist is responsible for grounding the birth of Jesus in history, as well as learning of his deep ties to the Hebrew Scriptures. One of the earliest examples of these Old Testament […]
Women in the Bible: Case of the Missing Names!
Women of the Old Testament – like *Sarah or Abigail, Esther or Hagar –are familiar enough through their stories that we probably have a sense of what they’d be like if we could sit down and talk over coffee. Some are testy (Sarah), others astoundingly courageous (Esther); some were put in life-threatening circumstances they brilliantly […]
