Women in the Old Testament, 1

In case you haven't thought of it before, you read it here first. Women were apparently not considered to be as important as men in the culture of the patriarchs.
Why do I say that? Well, for one thing, Genesis 5 gives a genealogy, beginning with Adam, and going through Noah's sons. In all that list, no woman is listed, only men.
Here's another piece of evidence. Genesis 46 says there were 66 people who went with Jacob into Egypt, and lists them, but there is only one of Jacob's daughters, and one granddaughter, who are listed. It seems unlikely that all of Jacob’s descendants, save these two, were male, especially since verse 5 says that there were daughters and granddaughters, both plural. No wives are mentioned by name at all, except Rachel, Leah, Zilpah and Bilhah, who were the mothers of Jacob's twelve sons and one daughter, all four of whom were presumably dead by this time. (verse 5 says that Jacob's sons did take their wives.) So men are listed, but not women.

I expect to post more about this topic later. (Addendum, Jan 17, 2006: I now have done so, here.)

Addendum, Jan 26, 2007: There are now more posts about women in the Old Testament, including some about specific women. Click on the "Women of the bible" tag at the end of this post to see these.


The latest Christian Carnival (links to about sixty posts) is here.