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“To the woman He said:
‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.’

“And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living” (Gen. 3:16, 20).

These words often bring to mind a scene of the wily serpent beguiling Eve with flattery, whispers, and innuendos, an event that changed the course of mankind. Ministers and laity draw life lessons from her story—from cautions about Satan’s bag of tricks to insights concerning the roles of husbands and wives. Rarely, it seems, does one focus on the phrase “the mother of all living,” or particularly on the word “mother.”

In the broader sense, since Eve was the first woman, and the first one to bear a child, she becomes the original mother for the human race. But tucked into the meaning of the Hebrew word for mother,[1] Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible includes a parenthetical note in its definition: “a mother (as the bond of the family).”

A couple of the nuances of the English word bond could serve to enlarge on Strong’s note. For instance:

• Adhesion: the way in which one surface sticks to another. Mothers were and are instrumental in making sure knowledge of proper conduct before God and man “sticks” to their children.

• A link that binds people together in a relationship. Wives model respect for their husbands, which in turn encourages children to respect and honor their father. Mothers spend endless hours ironing out sibling differences on a regular basis.

Motherhood (Photo credit: Wikipedia) While there are many joys associated with motherhood, every mother faces challenges. Some are straightforward: she must provide for the physical needs such as feeding and clothing children. Then there is the task of teaching everything from walking and talking, to safety issues, to life skills. A mother’s job is daunting and demanding!

In this week’s posts, WomenfromtheBook will investigate some maternal duties from a historical perspective. When considering physical needs, breastfeeding was at the top of the list; obviously a child’s survival depended on it. While there are some evidences of primitive baby bottles as early as 2000 BC, birth mothers, or, on occasion, wet nurses provided this vital nourishment. The Bible points us to some interesting cultural insights regarding this type of nurturing.

Teaching children consumed much of a mother’s time during their formative years—whether by rote, or by specific instruction and applications. Mary Hendren recently highlighted the joint activities of a mother and grandmother, Eunice and Lois, with regard to Timothy’s upbringing. This week we look forward to Mary’s insights on the life of Bathsheba and her influence on Solomon.

Finally there are mothers about whom little is known. By blending the dark brushstrokes of their social backdrop, a faint cameo gradually emerges—like Ichabod’s mother, for instance. Remember her? No? After this week, perhaps you will.

Here it is the last day of 2012. It has been an exciting year for Women from the Book Blog. WordPress sent a review of our activity during 2012, and I’d like to share some of the results. They are quite encouraging!

We posted eighty times since our beginning in mid-year, and included twenty-nine pictures. The blog had viewers from 70 countries, for a total of 4700 views. Fifty-eight of you are regular followers. Thank you!

Currently our production team (read, Mary and I) is brainstorming possibilities for 2013. Some topics under consideration are mothers, women from the Book of Proverbs, ancient beauty treatments, sorting out the Marys, and wives. We are discussing the Proverbs 31 woman, with an eye to placing her in her cultural context. Does she picture the wealthy woman of her day, perhaps even royalty or status? Or,  is she presented to be an idealized model for every woman down through time? Perhaps it’s both?

After a short time-out

Our first posts for the new year will start on January 7, 2013. If you have any suggestions for future topics, or how we might improve our blog, please feel free to contact me. Just post in the comments section, or I can give you a private email address upon request.

Thanks for stopping by. May your 2013 be a year filled with discovery. We certainly hope ours will be–especially concerning Women from the Book!

Prov 31 30 1280×800 (Photo credit: Peej’s Photos)

If you are like me, you probably found that the account of Michal and David poses some interesting questions. Did David love her? What is a teraphim, and why did Michal have one in her room? What was her fate? Next week we’ll complete her story, and  move on to the last personalities in our series, the mysterious wise women of Tekoa and Abel.

English: “Make them known unto thy children and thy children’s children.” Deuteronomy 4:9. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And then…what better way to start a new year than with a focus on education?

Education has always been a concern for parents—whether it be in the form of teaching a trade or skill in order to make a living, mentoring in areas of responsibility and decision-making, or, most importantly, instilling principles for living a successful, moral life.

The Bible gives guidelines for teaching children, particularly about God, and defines appropriate conduct. It also furnishes examples. We’ll visit two New Testament women who joined forces to provide a quality education for a boy they both loved. Their names are Lois and Eunice.

Thanks for stopping by!

For anyone outside the king’s court to see Rizpah was rare. Closely protected by eunuchs, she was a royal concubine and lived in separate quarters. She belonged to King Saul and may have been his only concubine. Her story begins, “Now Saul had a concubine named Rizpah daughter of Aiah” and continues with the reason she was out in public (2 Samuel 3:7, 21:10-14).

A mother’s vigil

After Saul died, Rizpah became part of King David’s harem. In the normal course of events, Rizpah would have lived in the seclusion of his court. But Gibeonites had killed the two sons she had borne to Saul and impaled them on a hilltop for public scrutiny. There they hung as restitution for something they hadn’t done. Rizpah watched over them.

Painting of a Biblical scene (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rizpah…took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest till the rain poured down from the heavens on the bodies, she did not let the birds of the air touch them by day or the wild animals by night.

Sackcloth symbolized mourning and penance (Gen. 37:34). Considering her gruesome vigil, I wonder if Rizpah could have had any thoughts of some greater purpose being worked out through her slain sons? Her sad efforts to defend the dead from scavengers would have been enough thought.

The backstory

Some years before, King Saul had gone after Canaanite tribes northwest of Jerusalem. Among the people he killed were Gibeonites. Putting to death any Gibeonites violated a treaty of protection Joshua had made with them four hundred years earlier. Because Saul broke the treaty Joshua had made, he triggered divine punishment—a three-year famine that commenced in the reign of David. As the famine intensified, David inquired of the LORD about the meaning of it (2 Samuel 21:1).

It is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house, because he killed the Gibeonites.

Atonement

When David learned that the famine resulted from a broken treaty, he asked the Gibeonites what he could do to atone for Saul’s infraction.  To settle accounts, they required that seven of Saul’s sons be turned over to them for execution and public exposure. David agreed and handed over five sons of Merob (Saul’s daughter) and the two sons of Rizpah.

Did God approve of the Gibeonites’ request and David’s handling of the matter? Commentators disagree. Noted Bible scholar Herbert Lockyer states, “Vengeance was taken out of God’s hands and executed by revengeful men in God’s name on seven innocent men.”[1] Adam Clarke states, “It is very strange that a choice of this kind should be left to such people. Why not ask this of God himself?”[2]

The Expositor’s commentary states that because “the famine was due to the breaking of the covenant between Gibeon and Israel…propitiation could only be effected by the death of the sons of Saul at the hands of the Gibeonites.”[3] Other commentators conclude that because the rains commenced, God was satisfied.

How long?

How long did Rizpah remain on watch? The Expositor’s Commentary says she stayed until the rains came that ended the drought, and these rains “were probably an unseasonable late-spring or early summer shower.”[4] Josephus states, “So when the Gibeonites had received the men, they punished them as they pleased; upon which God began to send rain.” [5] However, the Bible does not say that God brought an immediate rain, a late spring rain or an early summer rain. Edersheim believes the rains were the periodic ones that began in October, meaning that Rizpah continued her sad duties for five months.[6]

A proper burial

When David was told about what Rizpah had done, he was moved to bring back the bones of Saul and Jonathan from where they had been buried in Jabesh Gilead. He took the bones of the seven sons from the hill and buried them with Saul and Jonathon in tomb of Kish, Saul’s father. What happened to Rizpah after the interment is not known. Perhaps she was comforted that Saul and his sons had a decent burial.

Did God approve?

A post-script to her tragic story is the question of whether God approved of concubines and multiple wives. Many notable men had several wives and/or concubines (Abraham, Jacob, Gideon, Saul, David, Solomon). Jesus said that from the beginning of creation, marriage was an institution uniting one man and one woman (Matt.19:4-5, Gen.1:27, 2:21-24). Because people strayed from God’s pattern, by the time of Abraham having another wife or a concubine was not considered “evil.” Taking additional wives and concubines became a “regular custom among the Jews” so some of the laws God gave Moses for Israel “were directed to prevent excess and abuse”[7] of the practice. The allowances made for divorce, multiple marriages and concubines are laws and procedures made necessary because men have departed from God’s will.

Life as a concubine

Royal concubines were kept under close supervision and enjoyed privileges in food, clothing, and living quarters. They entered a king’s harem through a political alliance, from the slave market or as a requisition from among the beautiful women in the kingdom. Customarily they were well cared for because they added to a king’s prestige. A Queen Mother or head eunuch managed the harem and each concubine’s access to the king. The wives and concubines of a king that died or was deposed became the property of his successor.♦ Mary Hendren

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