Women are featured more prominently in Judges than in any other book of the Bible. The book of Judges narrates six women who are and will be always remembered by their outstanding and remarkable work. They are Achsah, daughter of Joshua and wife of Othniel. When lands were divided for the 12 thrives through male leadership, she refused to settle for less. Challenging the patriarchal setting she claimed wealth and properties was her inheritance (1-3)
(4-5) The Courageous woman of T who fulfils the proto-evangelium by hurling a stone on the head of the enemy.
(6-9) Deborah, a Prophetess, Judge (Politician), Warrior and wife of and Jael, Warrior and wife of . Two women used by God as national Heroines and Saviours (Messianic role of deliverance from the enemy).
(10-12) The unnamed daughter of Jephthah whose exemplary faith and consecration begins a young women's holiness movement.
(13-16) The unnamed sacred mother of Samson and wife of Manoach, The Nazir, "Hazzelelponi"
(17-21) The unnamed mother of Michah who initiates a return to worship through her financial support ministry.
Thus one cannot read through the book of Judges without noticing that women appear at several strategic points in the narrative. As we have seen, they assume a variety of roles, including heroine, innocent victim, and even like Delilah as seductresses among others.
Their changing roles throughout the book contribute powerfully to the book’s portrayal of the disintegration of Israelite society.
The portrait culminates in 1 Samuel 1 with the oppressed figure of Hannah, through whom the Lord reverses the downward spiral detailed in Judges and brings to realization the leadership ideal presented at the beginning of the book.
It turns out that if you divide the book according to the roles of the women in the book, these divisions coincide fairly well with the introductory phrases.
1-3 A warrior wins a wife and a father blesses his daughter
4-5 A courageous woman lures a foreign warrior to his death
6-9 A woman delivers Israel from a power hungry oppressor
10-12 An Israelite warrior wins a battle but brings a curse upon his daughter
13-16 A foreign woman lures an Israelite warrior to his death
17-21 Israelite women oppressed by their countrymen.
CONCLUSION Contrary to the convention, the nameless, barren woman is the one who is alert and is the intelligent doer in the account. The unconventional behaviour is used by the narrator to create tension and uncertainty. This technique serves the purpose of his/her writing, namely to advocate a countercultural ideology (cf. van der Merwe & Coetzee 2009:683). Steinberg (1987:478–482) believes that the narrator uses the misplacement of conventional models in an attempt to create inequality and thus use rhetoric to communicate persuasively. The goal is to bring the reader/listener around to the writer or narrator’s own point of view. In other words, the writer or narrator of Judges 13 is attempting, by means of shifts in his/her countercultural rhetoric, to persuade the readers/listeners that the non-ideal body (or differently functioning body) is more beneficial than the dominant ideology suggests. “The woman”, not Samson, is the role model of faith and is the one who is in tune with God and his word (13:23; more so than most judges). The use of irony and the paradoxical way in which the writer composes his/her account shows that both the writer’s attitude and the text are polemical (LaCocque 1990:23, 28). Judges 13 serves as an illustration of a countercultural rhetoric that is used to replace the dominant ideology with an alternative ideology in which other and differently functioning bodies are not considered threatening, but as beneficial for society and culture (cf. van der Merwe & Coetzee 2009:680; cf. Achsah, le Roux 2015:503–521). Regarding the first criterion for a hidden polemic, there is no explicit indication in the text (of Judges 13) of an alternative ideology concerning the other and differently functioning bodies (cf. Amit 2000:94–97; le Roux 2015:515). Secondly, the writer uses various techniques in the text to draw the reader’s attention to the hidden polemic (cf. Amit 2000:95). This is done specifically in terms of the different bodies and the replacement of such bodies according to the dominant ideology. In Judges 13, the writer dismisses the dominant body ideology by using the technique of juxtaposition and replacement, thereby creating a paradox, uncertainty and irony (cf. le Roux 2015:515).
The wife of Manoah, the mother of Samson 569 The third criterion for the presence of a hidden polemic in the text is the existence of polemic on the same subject in other passages of the Bible. Despite the dominant cultural ideology, the roles of women in early Israelite households often extended beyond the boundaries of their household. Deborah served as a prophetess (Judges 4 and 5); Jephthah’s daughter instituted an annual commemoration; Hannah went alone to the house of the LORD to worship, to offer a sacrifice and to make a vow to the LORD (1 Sam 1:1–28); and the prophetess Huldah is well known for her actions in 2 Kings 22:14–22 (Meyers 1998:256; cf. Frymer-Kensky 2006). Fourthly, it was also not unusual in ancient Near Eastern texts for women to enjoy equal privileges, to be favoured by a higher Authority or to experience a divine appearance. On the contrary, this often happened to barren women. The theme of the goddess Anatu, who was barren, is well known in both Ugarit and in certain parts of Egypt (KTU 1.13, in te Velde 1967:28–29; cf. Marsman 2003:210) and motherhood was also highly esteemed. The aim of the technique, therefore, is to challenge or polemicise the existing cultural perception or ideology (cf. van der Merwe & Coetzee 2009:677–694). Therefore, the writer replaces the social status of the whole body in Judges 13 with a non-ideal body, namely “the wife of Manoah, the mother of Samson”.
Further Reading & Source: Cheryl You, The Historians Heroines: Women & Mornachy in Israel
