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Gyöngyi Varga Women’s Dignity and the Book of Ezechiel I. The female face of theology Through its 2000-year history, Christian theology basically avoided real confrontation with the fundamental questions of women’s existence. From a sociological and political question and from an issue concerning human rights, the status and position of women in the church turned to a real theological question primarily in the 60-70’s of the last century. Although the feminist biblical criticism and interpretation already have a century-old tradition, they have not managed to win an academic status among biblical studies until the last two decades. Feminist biblical interpretation / exegesis succeeds primarily in our days being a natural concomitant of biblical interpretation, by researching female roles reflected in biblical texts and maintaining female considerations of interpretation. In general, we can say that the female aspect – female face - of theology originates from the circle of liberation theologies. For this reason, in the background of female theological reflections and approaches, the serious criticism of the existing domination-systems and structures remained till the last. Concerning the research of the Holy Scripture the aim of the feminist exegesis is to release and liberate female thoughts and approaches from the fortress of „male-power-theology”, which is well fortified by the canonical authority of biblical texts. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza writes in her excellent book’s Elisabeth Schüssler FIORENZA, Bread Not Stone. The Challenge of Feminist Biblical Interpretation, Boston, Beacon Press, 1984, pp. xi, 8 introduction: „The Bible is not only written in the words of men but also serves to legitimate patriarchal power and oppression insofar as it ’renders’ God male and determines ultimate reality in male terms, which make women invisible or marginal.” A few pages later she continues: „Taking as our hermeneutical criterion the authority of women’s experience struggling for liberation, we must ask whether the Bible as the product of a patriarchal culture can also be the Sacred Scripture for the church of women. This is a difficult question since the Bible has been used to halt the emancipation of women, slaves and colonized peoples.” II. The „Texts of Terror” in the Old Testament The Bible is written in an androcentric / male language, which mirrors the main values, ideas and guiding thoughts of a patriarchal society, culture and religion. The Bible contains many oppressive, even aggressive and violent texts and symbols that cannot have the same theological authority as other biblical texts for today’s Christians. Phyllis Trible in her book Phyllis TRIBLE, Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives, Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1984, - which counts as one of the standard works of feminist theology-, finds an appropriate term for those Old Testament texts, mainly from the prophetic corpus, which are infected and pervaded by themes of violence. These are the „Texts of Terror”. In these texts of the OT – says Trible – YHWH / Adonai, the Lord is portrayed as somebody, who is not intend to intervene in the violence-actions (mostly) against women. God is mainly a passive observer, an outsider in the events; but sometimes in the theological conception of the prophets YHWH / Adonai himself can play an active role too, as a perpetrator of violence and terror against the weak, the sinners, the women. See for example Hos 2,5.11-12; Jer 13,26 Many feminist theologians have reached the point during their researches, where the main question arose: is the Bible as a whole really an authoritative and normative canon for us? A feminist critical hermeneutics enables us to make choices between oppressive and liberating traditions of the Bible without having to reject or accept it as a whole. Fiorenza describes the theological approach of the Bible in two different terms: it can be seen as a mythical archetype or as a historical prototype: „As mythical archetype the Bible can be either accepted or rejected, but not critically evaluated. A mythical archetype takes historically limited experiences and texts and posits them as universals, which then become authoritative and normative for all times and cultures.” E. S. FIORENZA, Bread Not Stone, p. 10. By ascribing universal validity and implications to specific historical texts and cultural situations, the mythical archetype establishes an ideal and valid form for all times, an unchanging – ontological - pattern of behaviour and theological structure for the community in which it serves as Sacred Scripture. Whereas the Bible is seen as a historical prototype, that means not a binding timeless pattern or principle. On the contrary: it can be open to feminist theological interpretation too, and to its own transformation. In sum: a theological understanding of the Bible as prototype cannot identify biblical revelation with those androcentric texts, which comprise destructive contents and oppressive thoughts. Feminist theology therefore challenges biblical theological scholarship to develop a paradigm for biblical revelation that does not understand the Bible as archetype but as prototype. Fiorenza also remarks: „A feminist hermeneutical understanding that is oriented not simply toward an actualizing continuation of biblical Tradition or of a particular biblical tradition but toward a critical evaluation of it, must uncover and reject those elements within all biblical traditions and texts that perpetuate, in the name of God, violence, alienation and patriarchal subordination, and eradicate women from historical-theological consciousness.” Elisabeth Schüssler FIORENZA, In Memory of Her. A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins, London, SCM Press, 1983, pp. 32-33. The basic insight and methodological starting point of liberation-theologies is that all theology knowingly or not is by definition always engaged for or against the oppressed. It must come out – and it will come out sooner or later - whether it stands on the side of the weak or not. E. S. FIORENZA, Bread Not Stone, p. 45. Therefore, all the theological views crystallized in the OT tradition need a profound examination: whether they contribute to strengthening the attitude of solidarity with the weak, oppressed, humiliated or give green light to violence? III. Women and the prophetic terror In the ironical and scornful formulations of the prophetic speeches, the female character is presented as a symbol of weakness, helplessness and as a sign of defeated position. The woman’s life signifies the opposite side of military virtue of man in the patriarchal social structures of the Ancient East. Men are soldiers, warriors, standing on the winner’s side: that means on the side of violence. Women win very seldom: barren women and widows count among the most vulnerable between weak women. They have no dignity, and seldom a possibility for feeling themselves integrated in the society, in communities of settlements, clans and families. If a man is weak: he becomes similar to a woman. If a woman is strong: it is her chance for survival or rather it is her duty. If a woman is weak: she loses her human dignity – and basically dies… The prophetic tradition links negative contents and connotations to female existence, female forms of behaviour and attributes. It seems that female qualities have no own values; their positive contents are hidden, or turned to the opposite by the patriarchal way of thinking, which grasps the female character as a danger and as a threatening temptation. The virtue of beauty stands in contrast to the temptation of the seductress, the inclination to fornication. The positive esthetical worth is quickly devaluated as soon as men feel exposed to the danger of „female power”. In the eyes of the prophets, jewellery, adornment and any kind of decorations are for harlots and lecherous women. Therefore it seems to be obvious to make a close connection with the contrast-theme of nakedness and lewdness. Beside the positive appreciation of purity and virginity, it is stressed quite often, that these are the most threatened virtues and values in women’s life. For the family of married women female existence is an appreciated role: see the poem about the honest and reputable woman in Proverbs 31. On the other hand: a married woman is a potential sinner, who bears the attributes of deceitfulness and unfaithfulness. In the prophetic literature, the perhaps deepest mystical experience of female existence - pregnancy and giving birth to a child - is deformed and devalued to a sign and illustration of weakness, vulnerability, anxiety and fear. Feminist theologians call the texts of Hos 1-3; Ez 16, 23; Jer 2-5 „prophetic pornography”. At first hearing this sharp and provocative idiomatic expression may generate protest from our side, or at least a serious shaking of our head. But if we are ready to examine closely these texts mentioned above, we will be soon convinced, how much verbal sexual violence and terror are concentrated in them. It is clear, that these public sermons, supported by the verbal / linguistic instruments of prophetic pornography, bring an exciting theme, which can arouse the attention of the audience. The metaphorization of human sexuality is attractive enough to secure attention and sustain interest. It is impossible to disregard or ignore these skilled rhetorical words of the prophets. By the involvement of the audience – that means mainly men –, its emotional response is expected. It is permitted to stimulate men’s fantasy in order to lead them into deeper theological considerations. This dangerous metaphor produces guilt and shame, and these emotions and religious attitudes will operate through the rejection of the metaphorized female. IV. Ezekiel and the women One of the most frequent manifestations of aggression against women is, when the authors of the OT illustrate the theological question of unfaithfulness with the lecherous character of women. The negative picture of women has a prominent place in the arsenal of religious and political propaganda and brainwashing. Within an androcentric framework, women can easily be seen as sinners, and guilty of their own abuse. We can often face the peculiar conception: before her violation, the young woman fulfills the role of virginal object of man’s fantasy; after her abuse, she becomes the harlotrous object of male scorn. In the book of Ezekiel, the chapters 16 and 23 are seen as the most radical and brutal expressions of verbal violence, although similar theological thoughts appear in Jeremiah 2-5 and Hosea 1-3. The most concrete manifestations of verbal force in the book of Ezekiel portray God as a revenger, who seeks for vengeance in his wrath. YHWH’s attitude is described as the behaviour of a jealous husband. For the OT tradition this approach, this language-practice isn’t problematic at all, the least for the prophet. Alone the female theological reflection raises the question: what kind of an image of God, or belief in God results from this view? The marriage-metaphor, which is abundantly reflected in the prophetic literature, now delivered to a „verbal attack” by the linguistic instrumentarium of violence, and serves unambiguously for the manipulation and perversion of the love-relation. This metaphor in the book of Ezekiel is entirely elaborated; its poetical form is apparently in full bloom. YHWH, the faithful and loving husband is deeply disappointed in his wife, Israel, and indignantly condemns her. He holds his wife in great contempt. Judah / Jerusalem - Israel / Samaria, as unfaithful, lecherous wife will get her well-deserved punishment from God. These are the most significant contrast-pairs related to the lewd-paradigm: YHWH is remembering –God’s folk has already forgotten him - Israel’s Lord. YHWH bonds himself to his folk by the act of covenant – God’s folk has broken this bond of relation. YHWH is the plaintiff in this relation, he is rightly furious at Israel – God’s folk, who insults him, the Lord, doesn’t show repentance. YHWH is waiting for sole respect and absolute adoration – God’s folk is open toward other gods and goddesses. On YHWH’s side abundance, prosperity and safe life – without YHWH: vulnerability, suffering and death are Israel’s lot. In the prophetic tradition, there are many expressed ways of reactions on YHWH’s part. The faithful husband YHWH is shocked, deeply disappointed in Israel – then he is willing to sentence his folk in his anger. The Lord pronounces judgement: the hard sentence very often contains elements from the „terror-vocabulary”. We can see clearly, that in the book of this prophet the punishment of Israel, the revenge for her sin of fornication / adultery will be a real pornographic act on YHWH’s part! See Hedwig JAHNOW et alii (eds.), Feministische Hermeneutik und Erstes Testament. Analysen und Interpretationen, Stuttgart, 1994 Concerning the reflections of the gender-roles related to the marriage-metaphor in the book of Ezekiel, the following main points are to be mentioned: See Athalya BRENNER, On Prophetic propaganda and the Politics of ’Love’: The Case of Jeremiah, in: Athalya BRENNER (Ed.), A Feminist Companion to the Latter Prophets, A Feminist Companion to the Bible 8, Sheffield, Sheffield Academic Press, 1995, p. 262. Objectified female sexuality serves as a symbol of evil. It is earthly, deviant, motivated and defined by the ambition for sensual pleasure. Female sexuality is depicted as negative relative to a positive or neutral male sexuality standard. YHWH’s attitude and behaviour presents male sexuality. This is valid on the contrary too: man’s existence and man’s potential serves as a model for YHWH’s power, strength, potency and activity, which is ascribed as politically and morally correct. Women are degraded and publicly humiliated. Female sexuality is portrayed as an object of male possession and control. This includes the depiction of women as analogous to nature in general and the land in particular, and, especially, in regard to imagery of conquest and domination. See Fokkelien van DIJK-HEMMES, The Metaphorization of Woman in Prophetic Speech: An Analysis of Ezekiel 23, in: Athalya BRENNER (Ed.), A Feminist Companion to the Latter Prophets, A Feminist Companion to the Bible 8, Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, 1995, p. 248. The woman-existence in the androcentric point of view is turned from subject to object. This attitude toward her signalizes her dehumanization. The woman’s sexual culpability typifies the general moral guilt of the people. It legitimates masculin violence against the wicked and sinful. The androcentric reflections on women’s dignity lead to a well-elaborated scheme that reduces women to sexual functions of the virgin and the whore. V. Oholah and Oholibah The Hebrew language generally perceives geographic entities as female. Therefore, in the Hebrew Bible, cities, nations, geographical areas are frequently personified as women (Jerusalem for example as „Daughter Zion”) However, the figure of city, as women cannot be explained merely as an incidental function of grammatical gender. Even in our postmodern world, the old patriarchal ideology comes clearly to light: in English, for example cities, nations, ships, automobiles and other things over which men wield power are construed feminine. (Very interesting that hurricanes in America until recently have had female names – a patriarchal way of thinking again: bad women who don’t want to submit to men’s control?) In the age and culture the OT the naked body counted as a taboo, the female body in particular. The visuality and „iconography” of the prophetic language has the power to trigger the audience’s astonishment and indignation. Uncovering of the cloths and exposing a woman’s prudency: it equals to the sex act in the euphemistic language of the OT. God’s chosen folk: Israel / Judah in her presumption didn’t think of her forthcoming shame. Soon, however, as a humiliated, raped woman, she became a prey to her enemies. Ezekiel 16,1-63 is by far the longest literary unit in the book. The literary form of this chapter is a special kind of judgement speech: the rîb. The dispute, keeping the nature of the covenant relationship, moves on a personal, bilateral level: YHWH plays the role of the plaintiff, his folk is the defendant. The classic illustration of Hos 2,3-15 may have inspired Ezekiel’s prophetic words. The indictment of Jerusalem is cast in the form of allegory. See Ronald E. CLEMENTS, Ezekiel, Westminster Bible Companion, Louisville, Kentucky, Westminster John Knox Press, 1996, pp. 67-73., 104-109. The affinities between Ezekiel 16 and 23 are obvious: in length, structure, theme, style and vocabulary. Nevertheless, there are significant differences between the two chapters: Ch. 16 concentrates on Jerusalem: she is YHWH’s wife, while in ch. 23 YHWH has two wives, Samaria and Jerusalem, which have special names here: Oholah for Israel and Oholibah for Judah. In ch. 16 the defilement of Jerusalem is caused primarily by cultic harlotry, in ch. 23 it has mainly political reasons. In ch. 16 Jerusalem’s abominable past is traced back to her roots in Canaan, in ch. 23 it goes back farther, to her youth in Egypt. In ch. 16 Jerusalem’s sister Samaria is mentioned only briefly compared to ch. 23. In ch. 16 Jerusalem is the subject ogling at the figures of males; in ch. 23 the city figures primarily as the object of other’s gaze. In ch. 16 the story of Jerusalem concludes on a positive note: the covenant relationship between YHWH and his folk will be restored; in ch. 23 we can’t find any hopeful promise for Judah / Jerusalem. Daniel I. BLOCK, The Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 1-24, Grand Rapids, Michigan - Cambridge, Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997, p. 729. In ch. 16 YHWH is portrayed as a kindly saviour who rescued a small girl’s life (16,3-7). She had two sisters: Samaria and Sodom, serving later as comparisons for Jerusalem’s evil deeds. The girl’s story tells us about her hopeless situation: she is abandoned because of her (pagan) parents’ evil behaviour. This surprising characterisation of Jerusalem’s past makes the reflection to the present situation very easy for the prophet. The innocent young woman, adopted by YHWH, graciously elevated to the status of a queen, becomes a whore. She, once rejected, now rejects her own benefactor, her husband, who saved her purity by the marriage-act. We can read a broad description how this young beautiful woman is dressed, adorned, nourished by her Lord. The expressions: embroidered cloth, fine linen occur elsewhere - most frequently in the descriptions of the tabernacle, and mean its curtains and priestly vestments. Fine flour and oil – the quality-food of women - are the main ingredients of the sacred offerings. In short: Queen Jerusalem, YHWH’s wife is clothed with the garments that „clothe” the sanctuary, and is fed with the „foods” of its offerings. (We are very close to the thoughts of the Zion-theology.) However, Jerusalem’s presumption leads her to prostitution. The „Leitwort” of the oracle in ch. 16 is the Hebrew word: „zānâh” which means: to commit harlotry, to practise illicit sex, to act as a prostitute. This word is used exclusively for females, and its meaning suggests (that) habitual, iterative activity (professional whoredom) (is implied in the verb). It occurs nearly 20 times in the chapter. (The other expression: nā’ap, with the meaning of illicit sex, committing adultery by both genders turns up in ch. 23.) Jerusalem’s prostitution has two sides: the verses 15-22 deal primarily with her religious prostitution, the verses 23-34 with her political fornication. The former unit describes Israel’s apostasy in the term of „whoring after other gods”: it means the pagan cultic rituals on high places, the idolatrous religious acts. Still it is not enough: She, who had been abandoned by her parents as an infant, now sacrificed her own children! This sacrificing of YHWH’s children is the ultimate cultic crime in Ezekiel’s eyes. The priestly prophet speaks very offensively, using obscene terms: Jerusalem as a women „opened her legs wide to passersby”; „she made love with the Egyptians who had huge organs.” When her religious harlotry failed to satisfy her nymphomaniac lusts, she turned to other nations: Jerusalem flirted with the „world-powers”. As a married woman, she committed adultery by receiving strangers instead of her own husband, YHWH. The resources that YHWH had bestowed on her, she dispensed to her lovers, all the surrounding nations; so that they didn’t have to pay for the service of the lewd woman. The sinful way of life comes to an end by YHWH’s judgement. Judah has no more chance. Jerusalem’s disobedience has a straight consequence: her humiliation and the sustained rape. Jerusalem must experience that God is as passionate in his judgement as he had been in his love. She loses everything she had ever possessed. After the hard judgement, God’s folk experiences a new outpouring of divine grace: Jerusalem’s sins are forgiven, and the covenant-relation is renewed. At the end, she has to recognize that the past disruption in her relationship with YHWH was not God’s fault, but her own: and she feels ashamed of it. In the parable of ch. 23 the marriage-metaphor is exploited to the limit. We meet two women: Oholah (Her own tent) and Oholibah (My tent in her). Both are YHWH’s wives: this is a new feature of the metaphor. The two sisters have the same status: both had been whores in their youth in Egypt – their immoral sexual activity antedates their marriage to JHWH at Sinai. When they become wives of the Lord, they bear children for YHWH. The prophet’s primarily interest in Judah is obvious, but he starts with the case of Oholah (23,5-10). Oholah’s behaviour represents a continuation of the sexual addiction developed in her youth in Egypt. Here in this chapter, YHWH’s rivals are not idols (cultic man-images) as in ch. 16, but humans: Assyrians. The prophets’s audience is well aware about the consequences of Oholah’s harlotry: Samaria’s fall in 722 B. C. In the next unit, explicit comparisons are drawn between the two „ladies”. It is very interesting, that the explanation of Oholibah’s fate will take up five times that number than Oholah’s story. Jerusalem – note the expression: „My tent in her”: that means the Sanctuary on Zion - was worse than her older sister. She intensified her harlotries by imitating Oholah’s behaviour: she had affairs first with the nobilities of Assyria, then with the Babylonians. She sent messengers to them and invited governors, officers, horsemen to her place. They all accepted her kind invitation. The obscenity of Ezekiel’s description reaches its peak in verses 19-21: „She craved copulation with her lovers, men with phalluses like donkeys and ejaculations like stallions”; „she had remembered the lewdness of her youth in Egypt, when the men had fondled her nipples, squeezing her breasts.” The parable is followed by the sentence, by the punishment of Jerusalem. Ezekiel is not hesitating to show us, that the former lovers of Israel and Judah would be later the rapists of these women. Instead of love now, it is time for war! The agents of YHWH’s wrath will execute the sentence against Oholibah in accordance with their own customs and legal prescriptions. The prophet mentions a series of barbarous atrocities, which show the treatment of conquered people. (Cutting off the nose and ears, taking away children and posterity, and all the possessions of the people, committing rape against women.) In short: YHWH as an abusive husband humiliates his wife by stripping her naked and encouraging others to gang rape her. (23,29!) Oholibah has to drink the cup of YHWH’s wrath. See the parallel in Jer 25,15-19 This will be the punishment: the cup of devastation and horror, the wine that intoxicates. The folk’s covenantal infidelity (see nā’ap in v. 37) is seen as a priestly crime: defilement on the Sanctuary and on the Sabbath. In v. 45 we are told that righteous men are called on to execute the sentence on the women. They will judge them according to the law of adulteresses and to women who shed blood. At the end of this long oracle, there is a paraenetic warning to women everywhere to heed the lesson of Oholah and Oholibah, and desist from their immoral behaviour. IV. Conclusion The metaphorization of woman in Ezekiel 16 and 23 performs a violent speech act, (which is) offensive enough to shape and distort female sexual attitudes, manifestations of female existence – it has influence yet in our time, in our Christian communities of today. The question rises: has there been any change since the time of the Bible? In this lecture, my aim was to show you a few approaches I consider dangerous theological views. I would emphasize, that in our female reading considerable texts of the OT are absolutely humiliating and unacceptable, at best seen as publications of events or authoritative rules, without any critical comments. See for example Carole R. FONTAINE, The Abusive Bible: On the Use of Feminist Method in Pastoral Context, in: Athalya BRENNER, Carole R. FONTAINE (eds.), A Feminist Companion to Reading the Bible, Approaches, Methods and Strategies, Sheffield, Sheffield Academic Press, 1997, 84-113. Therefore, the female „rereading” of biblical texts is important and necessary to form a balanced biblical-theological view. The message unfolding this way is able to help the rehabilitation of people on the periphery. It can amplify their voices and reshape false deformed images of God, man and woman fixed by prejudices and narrow-mindedness. As women - living and serving in Christian communities, dealing with theology – our task is to help today’s Christians and Bible-readers to feel themselves liberated from the pressure of alignment with these traditional (patriarchal) approaches. Our duty is to show a conscious, sensible and sober theological way of thinking which leads to a personally convinced acceptance of the female face of theology. Reading the standard commentaries on Ezekiel – written „interestingly” mainly by men -, my impression was, that the authors named only rarely the problematic points of the „terror-texts”. The prejudices and popular stereotypes, which come from the gender-question are still live and vivid, effecting society and church, even scholars of theology. In most cases, the prophetic message dressed in words of violence becomes the labelling: dramatic, hard, powerful, embarrassing, disturbing. In the exegetical notes, we meet a mainly restrained evaluation of woman-offending theological statements and thoughts. Therefore, it is our task, our theological program to give bread instead of stones – as the title of Schüssler-Fiorenza’s famous book formulates it. It is important to express more bravely our sensible theological thoughts when we start to speak, instead of a careful, moderate and remote expression of our opinion. Nevertheless, I believe that daybreak is not the work of those who keep awake, but the gift of the vigil.