Monday, September 9, 2019

Reading Notes: Bible Women, Part A

Growing up I only ever read the NIV Bible version, so this reading from the King James Bible is a new take on Bible women for me. The writing is definitely something to get used to, with all of the ye's, doth's, and hath's. It might be something I would like to copy in my writing this week, although it will be difficult understanding exactly when to use what.

One thing I have noticed at the beginning of the reading is how much the stories about women are focused on bearing children. This is to be expected, but the women seem to only be valued for what they can produce. For example, Rebekah had "two nations" in her womb and was valued for creating them. In my own writing I think I might ignore this aspect and instead write a story in which the women desire more than a child. Not to throw feminism into it, but it would be interesting to write a Bible woman's perspective on being just as equal as the men. That is, if she would even want that considering many Bible women seem to have desired to have children without the world telling her she had to. A story possibility could entail Rebekah or another Bible woman having an internal struggle about whether or not she truly wants children. Something to think about for my story!

An idea that might be interesting is to take one of the Bible women mentioned in this unit and have them tell their story to their child. For example, Hannah might tell her young son Samuel the story of how he came to be. Her perspective would feel very different from the way the KJB tells it because it would be filled with more details and emotions.

Finally, while reading I also had the idea to take the general trend of the Bible women stories and create my own "Bible woman." The general trend for a few of them seems to be this:

  1. Woman is upset and insecure that she can't bear children. 
  2. Woman prays to God for the ability to have children and endures many struggles, but shows kindness to people even still. 
  3. Woman finds a man to conceive with.
  4. Woman miraculously has the ability to conceive and has a really important child. 

Following that general trend could make for an interesting story.


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Bibliography: Bible Women Unit from King James Bible

Image information: Hagar and Ishmael, by Jean-Charles Cazin. I thought this picture was so beautiful that I had to add it in here!

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