Introduction

As feminist studies began ransacking the Hebrew Bible and the related documents (e.g. rabbinic literature, New Testament, Dead Sea Scrolls), it soon became clear just how misleading it is to speak of a – much less of the – place of women in Israelite tradition. Yet most scholars concur that Israelite society was essentially patriarchal. Now patriarchy is thought to be intolerant of polyandry but compatible with both polygyny and monogamy. Theoretically, then, being pro-monogamy does not make a text uxorious or matriarchal. However, it is not merely monogamy that Genesis 1 projects, but a playing field for spouses that is as level as any in the Bible. How influential was the Genesis 1 configuration, or did it begin and end with the first idyllic union? Put another way: off paper, can the paradisiac model hold up under patriarchy? It is easy to be sceptical. But even if the hope of finding equality is a lost cause, might there not be shades of inequality?

Étan Levine has this to say in his article “Biblical Women's Marital Rights”: