254 - The Feminine Unconventional: Four Subversive Figures in Israel's Tradition

The Feminine Unconventional: Four Subversive Figures in Israel's Tradition
By Andre LaCocque
Overtures to Biblical Theology, Minneapolis, Fortress, 1990. 144 pp. $8.95.

Andre' LaCoque, Director of the Center of Christian Studies at Chicago Theological Seminary, has focused much of his scholarly career on the literature of the Second Temple Period. In this book, he discusses four stories he considers subversive literature of that period: those of Susanna, Judith, Esther, and Ruth.

Each of these stories depicts a woman as a model of faith. In each, according to LaCoque, portraying the protagonist as female is part of a protest against the leadership in Jerusalem. LaCoque interprets Ezra and Nehemiah's edicts against marriage between Jewish men and non-Jewish women as evidence of the deteriorating status of women in post-exilic Jerusalem. The stories of righteous and heroic women were intended to show that "women can indeed become God's instruments" and that "to assign them to a lower status of citizenship in the community or, worse, to treat them as disposable goods, would be a grave mistake as well as a grave injustice."

The book begins with a discussion of women in the Ancient Near East and in Israel, then treats the four stories in turn. Susanna satirizes the Jerusalemite leaders by portraying Jewish elders as lecherous and hypocritical in contrast to Susanna, an innocent woman, and Daniel, a wise child. Judith is interpreted as a direct attack on the establishment view of women, showing that "a woman can take the lead and become

256 - The Feminine Unconventional: Four Subversive Figures in Israel's Tradition

the model of faith and martyrdom." By giving Judith an Ammonite male counterpart, Achior, the story also protests exclusivism. Esther protests against the view that the future of Judaism lay with the community of returnees from exile centered in the temple in Jerusalem. A story of Jewish survival in diaspora, Esther makes no reference to the temple. In contrast to establishment exclusivist policies, Esther depicts Jews maintaining their identity while they successfully collaborate with foreign rulers. Ruth is interpreted as a polemical portrayal of a Moabite heroine in protest of the exclusivism introduced by Ezra and Nehemiah.

It is an intriguing theory, one that highlights stories that are well worth exploring. LaCoque brings to the discussion familiarity with a range of literature and theories. His chapter on the status of women in the Ancient Near East and Israel draws on communication theory, anthropology, and the Zohar. His exposition of the four stories incorporates interpretation by the early rabbis, the church fathers, medieval commentators, Goethe, and modern exegetes. The result is a book fall of interesting possibilities and creative hypotheses.

The book is not without problems. LaCoque's literary analysis of the stories depends heavily upon parallels he draws between them and earlier biblical texts. He argues that the author of Judith, for example, has intentionally modelled that heroine on Miriam, Deborah, Jael, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Tamar, Naomi, Ruth, Abigail, David, and Judas Maccabee, Because Judith is of the tribe of Simeon and because she is a "weak woman" exposed to rape, her story is supposed to be a deliberate reinterpretation of the story of Dinah, in which she "is at once Dinah, Simeon, and Levi." One has to raise the issue of control. How does one know that the author of one text has intentionally drawn parallels with another text? The parallels LaCoque draws are not supported by enough textual evidence to be convincing.

LaCoque's understanding of gender differences is also problematic. "Male" is associated with "outwardness," "sending" communications, and "productive creativity." "Female" is associated with "inwardness," "receiving" communications, and "creative receptivity." LaCoque notes approvingly that the heroines remain feminine even as they break sexual stereotypes: "[T]hey show the way to men without themselves losing their congenital graciousness." they remain the " 'feminine' females that they are." When LaCoque goes on to praise the heroine's self-forgetfulness and self-sacrifice, his discussion of the "feminine" comes perilously close to the very stereotypes he is trying to combat.

The Feminine Unconventional is finally more provocative than convincing. It is, however, worth reading for the questions that it raises and the ideas that it provokes.

Carolyn J. Pressler
United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities
New Brighton, MN