tuesday bible study: Old Testament Women
Also see: Psalms Study | 1 Thessalonians Bible Study | Ecclesiates Bible Study | Revelation Bible Study | Tobit Bible Study | The Bible & Homosexuality | Old Testament Women
Winter/Spring 2009
College Park Church Bible Study, Greensboro, NCWeek 9: Hannah
Read 1 Samuel 1.1—2.11, 18-21.
1. Why is Hannah’s pain so intense?
2. In what ways are Hannah & Peninnah contrasted?
3. What do Elkanah words reveal about his character? (cf. Ruth 4.15)
4. What does Hannah’s prayer reveal about her?
5. What is the nature of her vow?
6. To whom do you turn when you are disappointed, and why?
7. Silent prayer was uncommon in Ancient Israel. Which do you prefer—silent or spoken prayer—and why?
8. What does Hannah believe about God? List several.
1.
2.
3.
9. Which of Hannah’s beliefs about God go along with your own?
10. Does Hannah’s prayer sound like her and her situation? Why/why not?
11. Look up Sheol in a Bible Dictionary, and report what you find here.
12. What became of Samuel and Hannah? How does she continue to show her love for him?
13. How does Eli bless Hannah? Does this blessing exclude the other wife?
Week 6: Miriam
Read Exodus 15.20-21, & Numbers 12.
1. In Exodus, what do you think of Miriam’s song? How does it compare to Moses’ in Ex 15.1-19?
2. What two criticisms do Miriam and Aaron have about Moses? What do they imply about Moses’ attitude?
3. How does God’s evaluation of Moses differ from these two?
4. How important was Miriam’s role in the exodus from Egypt (see Ex 2.1-8, Micah 6.4)?
5. Miriam and Aaron may have been angry with Moses for appointing 70 elders over Israel (Numbers 11.16-17). How would this appointment affect their status and feelings?
6. Moses’ wife, Zipporah, is from Midian. Is this a second wife, or another way to refer to Zipporah?
7. How does God respond to their criticisms (12.4-10)?
8. Why does God summon all three before God?
9. Where else in our Bible is the image of God as anthropomorphic as here?
10. What do we learn about Aaron and Moses from their response to this event?
11. Why did God carry out a seven-day punishment for Miriam?
12. Why didn’t God punish Aaron in the same way?
13. How do we differentiate between criticism offered in a loving spirit and that offer with a critical spirit?
Week 5: Tamar
Read Genesis 38.
1. Why do you think this story is told? Why the interruption in the Joseph stories? (Hint: Ruth 4.18-22, Matt 1.1-6)
2. Where is Judah living when this story takes place? Is this significant?
2. Why was Onan killed? Does this story have anything to do with masturbation, in your opinion?
3. What did Judah to wrong Tamar initially? Why was this wrong?
4. What does Deut 25.5-10 say about this practice, called levirate marriage? Why did brothers resist this responsibility?
5. How does your translation render 38.21-22?
6. Does Judah consider Tamar’s feelings or his sons’ sins? What does he assume?
7. Is Judah lying to her when he sends her to stay with her father?
8. How does Tamar reveal who the father of her child is?
9. Is Tamar’s injustice completely rectified? Did Judah give Shelah to Tamar? Because she is pregnant, is she now provided for?
10. Who else uses a disguise to trick someone in Genesis?
11. According to 1 Chron 4.21, what did Shelah name his first son? What does this suggest?
12. There are two different word for prostitute used here: qedeshah or cult prostitute, and zonah or harlot, common prostitute. The first is used in 15-19, the second in 20-22. Is this significant?
Week 4: Dinah
Read Genesis 34.
1. How does 34.2 read in your translation? Is this act consensual?
2. See Deut 22.28-29. What does it say about rape of an unmarried woman? What does Deut 7.1-5 say about marrying a Hivite?
3. Contrast Jacob emotional torment when Joseph and Benjamin are missing with his response to Dinah’s rape.
4. In Hamor’s negotiations for Dinah, does he make any mention of the rape? Does any man in this story take responsibility for his actions?
5. When Hamor appeals to his townsmen to be circumcised, what does he and Shechem stress? What does he leave out?
6. After the killing we learn that Dinah is where? Is this a second violation, or was she a hostage, or she stayed in his house voluntarily?
7. On his deathbed, Jacob disqualifies Simeon and Levi as heirs because of their violence (49.5-7). What does this imply about Jacob opinion of their actions?
8. Does this story take a stand on whether conflict should be resolved through diplomacy or violence?
9. Are Dinah’s feelings, perspective, voice, or wishes taken into account in this story? What is the implied point of view towards women?
10. Jacob breaks his silence at the end of this tragic tale by talking about what? Is any mention made of Dinah?
11. What were the marriage prospects of a raped woman according to 2 Sam 13.12-16?
12. What was the fate of the tribes of Simeon and Levi?
13. Where does the final chapter of Joshua take place? Is this significant?
Week 3: Rachel
Read Genesis 29.15-35; 30.22-24; 31.1-46.
1. What sort of woman is Rachel? How did it feel to be her?
2. Marriage to more than woman was permissible, but marriage to sisters was outlawed by the Torah. What might be the reason for this?
3. How does what Laban does to Jacob mirror what Jacob did to Easu?
4. Make a chart of who is born to which mother. How are all the Israelites related?
5. Look at 29.17 in several translations. Which version do you prefer, and why?
6. Write down the names of Jacob’s son and the meaning of each name.
7. What causes Rachel to become pregnant, besides the obvious? Do the mandrakes play a role?
8. What did Rachel steal, and why? How did she hide them?
9. How does the theme of stealing play out in Jacob’s life?
10. Rachel dies in chapter 35. How and why does she die?
11. Who would you pick to play Rachel in a movie, and why?
Week 2: Hagar & Rebekah
Read Genesis 16.7-16, 21.9-21.
1. What sort of woman is Hagar? How did it feel to be her?
2. Look up Proverbs 30.23 and paraphrase it here. What does it have to do with this story?
3. Why might have God told her to return to Abram and submit? How might this passage be misread now?
4. What does the name of God mean that Hagar uses in 16.13? What do you think of it?
5. Just how far did Abraham expect the water and bread to last in 21.14? Is he sending them to their deaths knowingly?
6. The narrator talks in terms of a small child in 21.15-16, but Ishmael was 13 before Isaac was conceived (17.25) and Isaac was weaned (usually at 3), so Ishmael is at least 16. Does this inconsistency bother you?
7. How is this story a reversal of the exodus story? How does this story portray God?
Read the following passages from Genesis: 24.1-67, 25.19-34, 27.5-29. These are long passages, so give yourself enough time to study.
8. Reading all of these passages what do you think of Rebekah?
9. What is the sign of the woman who is appropriate to marry into Abraham’s household? Why might it be appropriate, and is it more appropriate than beauty or virginity?
10. Laban is introduced in 24.30, and he notices what? What does this imply about his character?
11. Why does Rebekah and not Isaac get the message from the Lord in 25.23? What is the message?
12. How does the younger favored son play into the rest of the history of Israel?
Week 1: Sarah
Read the following passages from Genesis. Remember we will meet again in 2 weeks: 16:1-6, 17.15-22, 18.1-15, 21.1-14.
1. Reading all of these passages what do you think of Sarah?
2. Why does Sarai take Hagar and give her to her husband?
3. What kind of man is Abraham shown to be in these interactions between Sarah, Hagar, and himself?
4. Why is Sarai’s name changed to Sarah, and what do both mean? Why is Abraham’s name changed too?
5. What does the visit of the three men show about ancient Near Eastern customs of hospitality? How will this contrast with the hospitality not shown in Gen 19.1-29?
6. Why does Sarah laugh? What will her son’s name be?
7. Gen 18.14 is the central theological verse of the author; how does it compare with your theology?
8. How does this conception compare with the one in Gen 19.30-38? And the two stories form a what?
9. Compare verse 12 & 13 in chapter 18: Sarah says her husband is too old; the Lord says she implicates herself. What do you make of this difference?
10. In chapter 21, what happens to Sarah? Why might this reading be the Torah reading for the first day of Rosh Ha-Shanah?
11. Twice Abraham forced her to pretend she was her husband’s sister. What did it feel like to be Sarah?
12. God’s command to sacrifice Isaac comes to Abraham; Sarah isn’t mentioned. Imagine the conversation between them when her husband and son return from the mountain.
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