This is definitely not the " path less-taken". Feminist writers have supported this view of the Hebrew Bible for years. Phyllis Bird writes: " women are portrayed as objects in the Book of Genesis"(3). Alice Bach states that: " [women] are man's ruin - it is Eve who causes humanity to be expelled from paradise"(4). Feminists often argue that women are portrayed as a commodity. Men offer their daughters for other men to have sex with a number of times in the Hebrew Bibl

The Hebrew Bible depicts women as possessions. From the very creation of women, we are told that women are property. Woman is created out of an object: "Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man"(Genesis 2:21). This concept of a woman's creation forming from an in-animate thing clearly puts the woman as property of man. She is made from part of the man and therefore belongs to him. She is objectified like a sheep in a flock. One could, of course, argue that Adam was made from in-animate material as well. This is true, but Adam is not created from an object, which belongs to someone else. Eve is created from the possession of man, thereby classifying her as a piece of property. The fact that she is formed second, emphasizes her insignificance to man. While woman can be seen as completing man in being created after him, she is not created first. In most cultures, whatever occurs first is generally the most important. Woman is presented as second to man. Women are therefore inferior to man. This is also supported by the concept that God is a man. The masculinity of God mocks women in that it is the female gender, which brings life into this world (with the assistance of man, of course). God steals the creation rights from women whom are the gender that predominantly nurtures and raises newborns. Women are presented as property, which can be used as a commodity. They are never asked if they want to be wed. They are taken: " I took her to be my wife"(Genesis 12:19). Property is described as being taken or given. People are usually not objectified like this. This argument is strengthened when Lot offers his daughters to the horde of men determined to have sex with the two angels: "Don't do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters that have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do with them what you like"(Genesis 18:7/8). The text once again places a higher importance over men than women. Lot is willing to let a horde of men rape his virgin daughters. Lot adopts the view that women are property as he attempts to let his daughters face the most gruesome of violations. If he had been successful, his daughters would surely have been killed. He treats his daughters like livestock or a mere possession. If he truly valued the life of women, he would certainly have been willing to die to protect his daughters. Women are possessions in the Bible as they said to belong to or to be owned by their husbands: " You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbors wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor"(Exodus 20:17). This quote shows the texts view on women. It mentions women in the same list as slaves, homes, and animals. Therefore women are of equal standing with these possessions and thus are property themselves. Women, viewed as property, are commanded to serve men.

1) Holy Bible. New International Version. Zondervan Publishing; NY, 1973

4)Bach, Alice: The Pleasure of Her Text: Feminist Readings of Biblical and Historical Texts. Trinity Press Int'l; Philadelphia, 1990

2) Bird, Phyllis: Women in the Old Testament. Simon and Schuster; NY, 1974

e. Fem

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2163
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)