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SPRING 2008–ADAR 2 5768 • VOLUME VII, ISSUE 1

Named and Unnamed Women in the Bible

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It would seem that there is a biblical bias against naming women. Although in actual numbers, anonymous men outnumber anonymous women in the Bible, there are a larger proportion of female characters that are unnamed. It is clear that many biblical women are identified not by name but only as wives and mothers. 

Listings of named and unnamed women can be found in Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Umnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament, edited Carol Meyers et al. (2000).

The most detailed study of unnamed biblical characters is that of Adele Reinhartz in “Why Ask My Name?” Anonymity and Identity in Biblical Narrative (1998). Reinhartz challenges the view that anonymity is associated primarily with women characters. She explores the extent to which the individuality and personality of biblical characters are effaced by the absence of a proper name. She argues that there are many different cases of anonymity in the Bible and that in many of them, personal identity emerges in spite of anonymity and indeed in some cases because of it.

THEMES:
  • Jewish Learning, Women's Voices

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