Barren Women in the Old Testament - Essay Example

No and the Barren Women in the Old Testament (Biblical Literature) 21 November (Estimatedword count – 1,363) Introduction We often come across personal stories of women who failed to produce an offspring in the Old Testament of the Bible. Why is this so? This is a legitimate question to ask because this motif comes out almost on a regular basis and keeps repeating itself. Some of the women may have bore children already at an old or advanced age, despite questions on menopause as it can be said women of yore lived to a ripe old age and may still be fertile or productive at an age most would consider to be medically or physiologically impossible to bear children at all. Rightly or wrongly, this apocrypha (the word means “hidden things”) is a puzzle to most of us but it serves a very useful purpose when inculcating biblical lessons and truths. The answer to this conundrum is that ultimately, nothing is impossible with the power of God. The Bible can be alternatively considered as a collection of stories, metaphors, other literary allusions, fables, simile and figures of speech but all of them have a singular purpose: to teach a biblical lesson to readers and emphasize the power of God to amend things thought as impossible by mere mortals. This biblical literary version of a leitmotif points to a higher Being whose power is sometimes beyond our very limited understanding. The holy book is full of these stories, usually in the form of parables and allegories. The idea is to comprehend the moral lessons contained in these stories and see all the deeper meanings implied when supposedly barren women suddenly and sometimes inexplicably gave birth to much sought-after offspring as answer to their prayers and heart-felt importuning. The reader is pointed towards the direction of the power of God to make the impossible possible. Discussion There are several women mentioned in the Bible who had remained barren for many years until they found favor with God. The message of these stories is that motherhood is one of God's most precious gifts to mankind in general and to all women in particular. To be one of those gifted with children was once one of the most desired gifts ever because back then, it (pregnancy and childbirth) was one of the most chancy and risky undertakings of any couple. The lack of modern medical technology and scientific knowledge precluded people during the biblical times to ascertain with a high probability their chances of conception. Pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood all symbolize the gift of life from God. This is why barren women in the bible were suddenly favored with this precious gift even later in life which would have precluded most women of today from having childbirth absent any of those artificial means of fertilization (IVF or in-vitro fertilization and perhaps also, future cloning). A good number of notable or prominent women mentioned in the bible were childless at one time or another; these women included Sarah, Rachel, Hannah and the mother of Samson. The women all struggled with infertility and this issue is closely linked to God's power. Besides the four mentioned above, three other women of note in the Bible were also barren, namely: Elizabeth (wife of Zacharia) who in old age bore a son who became a cousin to Jesus; Michal who was the first wife of David (she was the daughter of Saul) and lastly, the woman named Rebekah who was the wife of Saul (and the mother of Jacob and Esau). All the seven women were initially barren but six of them eventually bore children. In biblical times, the concept of infertility was thought to be confined to women only (men were thought fertile always and so the burden to produce an heir falls on the woman or wife). There is also another significance to barrenness and that as form of punishment, a nation without next generations. Significance – the seven barren women represent some completed meaning, because seven signifies a completed number. This is why we have seven days in a week and God had completed his work of creation within seven days and He rested on the eight day. Among the seven women, it was only Michal who truly did not produce a child and died childless; all the remaining six women somehow produced a child but a further significance can be attached to their childbearing, all six women produced sons only and no daughters. Moreover, each son had some important role to play in the bible. Each son represented a tribe, namely: Israel and Esau (considered as one tribe), Joseph, Ephraim, Dan, Levi and lastly, Benjamin. The important message of having children (a son was considered more significant) in the biblical context was that who God favors will see their tribe grow and multiply in keeping of the injunction “go forth and multiply.” People who were barren were somehow condemned to see their tribe perish since in those olden times, the failure to produce children or heirs was to bring bad luck where that tribe will gradually diminish and cannot protect itself from those sworn enemies of other tribes. The idea of women only as the infertile ones (and not the men) gave some credence and tolerance to the practice of polygamy, exemplified by Bilhah. Biblical scholars think that when God opens a womb, there is a very special reason. Although all six sons performed some crucial spiritual or symbolic function in their lives as depicted in the Bible, it is perhaps the son of Hannah who made the greatest contribution. Her son was Samuel and it was him who anointed the two greatest kings that Israel had ever had, namely Saul and David. Their reigns spanned some of the most critical moments in the annals of Israel. The ultimate message of the motif behind all these barren women is that God has the power to overturn even those considered impossible, rewards those who follow His teachings and firm or obedient in their beliefs in Him (Walton & Walton 331). For each child (or son) given to a barren woman in the bible, God had intended for a special purpose for that child to fulfill some prophecy. This motif is not only to show how the woman's patience and belief had been tested to the limit but also to show that the command to procreate is something held sacred. The issue of infertility can be a ground for a divorce in the bible; if the man is suspected to be the cause of infertility (he is sterile), then the woman also was allowed to remarry twice, stay married to the new man for a period of ten years each until such time her infertility is proven beyond reasonable doubt (Ilan 112). This idea considers the possibility of the man being to blame for her barrenness instead of being her exclusively. Conclusion Back in biblical times when population growth was much desired, it was important for any married couple to beget children to enhance their tribe and as protection against their enemies. The issue or motif of barren women in the bible should be viewed in the context of those times, when God punishes not only the people for disobedience by making them barren; and this punishment can even extend to their farm animals, depriving these people of a major source of livelihood when cattle raising was a significant economic activity for them. An issue is to see barrenness not as punishment for individuals but as punishment for an entire nation. On the reverse and more positive side, the stories of barren women are used to show how powerful God can be when everything had seemed hopeless to these women and many of them had gotten resigned to not having children, when God answered their prayers to have a child. Each of them were given a son and that son has serve some very special purpose. These stories are included in the canons to illustrate that prayers and faith can be answered despite a long period of being barren. God can intervene whenever He wants in a more positive manner to reward those who believed in Him by making the miracle of birth happen (Friedmann 50). Works Cited Friedmann, Daniel. To Kill and Take Possession: Law, Morality and Society in Biblical Stories. Peabody, MA, USA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2002. Print. Ilan, Tal. Jewish Women in Greco-Roman Palestine: An Inquiry into Image and Status. Tubingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 1995. Print. Walton, John H. and Kim E. Walton. The Bible Story Handbook: A Resource for Teaching. Wheaton, IL, USA: Crossway, 2010. Print. Read More