Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1. Biblical Daughters
2. Daughters in the Family
3. Daughter Language
4. A Canonical Review of Daughters
5. Power and Social Stratification
6. Daughters and Power
7. Final Thoughts
References
Kimberly D. Russaw is visiting assistant professor of religion and philosophy at Claflin University.
Russaw, professor of religion and philosophy at Claflin University,
has set out in this volume to address a significant lacuna in
biblical scholarship, which, while in recent years devoting
extensive attention to biblical women in general, has largely
failed to pay attention to women as daughters. The resulting study
is an engaging and wide-ranging work that looks at biblical
daughters from several angles, including discussion of daughters in
the family, “daughter language,” and daughters and power. This is a
decidedly scholarly work that attends closely to secondary
literature and the original Hebrew (always translated).
Nevertheless, non-specialists with a modicum of background in the
Bible will find this a readable and engaging volume that does
indeed open up to great profit an unexplored—yet recognizably
important—aspect of the Hebrew Bible.
*The Bible Today*
Russaw's is a welcome new voice. Her book examines the daughters of
the Hebrew Bible with clear-eyed acumen. But Russaw also does
much more: she becomes the daughters' advocate and addresses
and speaks up for the marginalized of our own time. Bravo!
*Johanna Stiebert, University of Leeds*
The simple title of this volume belies the sophisticated
methodological approaches and the thorny issues Russaw addresses in
her treatment of the largely neglected character of the biblical
daughter. The author dismantles the construction of the daughter
through her novel socio-historical and feminist analyses of a
myriad of biblical texts. She brings biblical daughters out of the
shadows and exposes the wide range of roles they fulfilled in
family life to answer the question: “What about the daughters?”
Based on compelling analyses, Russaw makes clear that there is no
one depiction of the daughter in the Hebrew Bible but that nearly
all daughters either accommodate or resist (or both) systems of
power that are antagonistic to them.
*Naomi Steinberg, DePaul University*
Like a keen investigative reporter or shrewd detective, ala Miss
Marple, Sherlock Holmes, Jessica Fletcher, or Hercule Poirot,
Kimberly Russaw deconstructs clues, reviews evidence and pushes
traditional and exegetical boundaries in her seminal work,
Daughters in the Hebrew Bible. While most scholarship has focused
more on women as procreative vessels and patriarchal properties,
this work analyzes unmarried daughters as relevant persons with
character, value, and purpose amid systemic, oppressive patriarchy
generating family structure and language of power and social
stratification. Russaw beautifully orchestrates her strategies so
we 'see' the daughters' positions of vulnerability and resistance,
minus social status and community care accorded wives and widows.
She tackles issues of virginity, inheritance, spatiality, and
safety. Facing matters of function, industry, and sexual
compliance, she shows that the socio-cultural structure of ancient
Israel largely erased or hid their daughters. This is a cogent,
clear, creative reading. Daughters is a must read for any scholars
or practitioners interested in biblical women in general and
daughters in particular during this era; and is a must read for
contemporary daughters, their parents, friends, their siblings, and
all authority figures to understand what it means to be daughter,
how society diminishes daughters, and then begin to imagine healthy
options for discourse and interaction.
*Dr. Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, Shaw University Divinity School*
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