Gender Distinction in Israelite Personal Names - (Feminist Studies and Sacred Texts) by Phyllis A Bird (Hardcover)

About the Book

Challenges the traditional view that no significant distinction exists between male and female names in the Hebrew Bible by comparing all female names

Book Synopsis

This book challenges the traditional view that no significant distinction exists between male and female names in the Hebrew Bible by comparing all female names from the Hebrew Bible, Hebrew inscriptions, and Elephantine documents with comparable male names.


It shows clear distinctions, unnoted or dismissed by previous studies, and analyzes more subtle differences as reflecting social and religious customs and values over time. Particular attention is given to the work of Rainer Albertz in Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant (co-authored with Rüdiger Schmitt), where he analyzes the personal names found in epigraphic sources as a complement to the biblical names and a primary source for reconstruction of "household religion" in ancient Israel. Two appendices treat (a) the distribution of female names in the Hebrew Bible, with attention to the implications of distinct literary sources for the biblical female and male names, and (b) detailed analysis of all theophoric female names, with comparison to male names from the same root.

Review Quotes

Drawing on an expanded corpus of female names, this latest scholarly contribution by Phyllis A. Bird offers a fresh perspective on women-and men-in ancient Israel. Finely attuned to gender as well as class, this study displays excellent textual intuition and sober philological judgment. An important contribution to the study of ancient Israelite society.
Mark S. Smith, Helena Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis, Princeton Theological Seminary, USA

Phyllis A. Bird's meticulous analysis of female and male personal names in the Hebrew Bible, Epigraphic Hebrew, and Elephantine marks a major advance. Moving well beyond the work of Noth, Stamm, Albertz, and others, she discovers both gender differences by categories and chronological developments in usage. From these results, she proposes constructive and careful suggestions for the place of women in Israelite communities over time.
Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, Professor of Old Testament Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary, USA

About the Author

Phyllis A. Bird is Professor Emerita of Old Testament Interpretation at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, USA.