Proverbs 31 Woman

Ruth is a Biblical story loved by many. A story of God’s unexpected plan panning out in a style that only He could come up with inspires many to trust His direction. The movie, titled The Story of Ruth, conveys this message though the movie does not always adhere to perfect Biblical accuracy. The addition of certain events and characters enhances the movie’s appeal, yet distracts from the factual account presented in the Bible.

The Wife of Bath is the tale of an independent and headstrong woman. She strongly believes in the worth of every woman and that women should be dominant in their marriages. The Wife of Bath also directly speaks against strict religious claims for chastity and monogamy, using Biblical examples. These examples include Solomon to show that the Bible does not openly condemn all expressions of sexuality, even outside of marriage.

Using uncertainty and stating how the men are meant to know knowledge but women should not even think without consulting the men. She demonstrates this by stating passages from books but not stating which book those passages came from, but a man would know because he is knowledgeable and reads a lot. Also by stating how she is devoted to God and how His opinion and acceptance of her is all that matters shows that the only goal of her life is to be obedient to God and his companions.

In the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Genesis and the Greek play Medea, by Euripides, contain female characters that can be seen as complex and have significance and meaning in the text. There are many interpretations involving the female characters, some characters may be portrayed as weak and irrational or strong-willed and wise. I will argue that, women are portrayed in the Hebrew Bible and Medea as irrational and senseless, in order for the men to be portrayed as superior and for women to be seen as inferior. This idea of the female characters being irrational and senseless can be seen in Genesis 4, Genesis 18, Genesis 29, and throughout the Medea play.

In the bible, Ruth has a chance to go and protect herself and find a husband, but she stays with her mother in law. She has a chance to help herself, but she does the honorable thing and stays with Naomi (Ruth 1:10-14).

I think this because she says, “Who is this lady and how does she know me?” Ruth also seems unsure and lies to her because she thinks she can’t keep her secret.

Ruth’s family moved a lot because of her father’s job as a traveling rabbi. She says that he was hard a rock and because of this they didn’t stay in one place for very long. Once Jewish congregations figured him out they sent him away. For a Jew in Ruth’s time there were no many jobs available so most of them had to travel and preach. Because of this, Ruth moved around very often when she was young.

She states that the wisdom of a mother benefits her sons immensely, for wise sons cannot exist without wise mothers, as the mother stays at home with the children most often, while the father works and earns wages for the family. So long as society degrades women in this way, she says, and treats them as slaves, their sons will grow up as fools, never to bring their fathers any pride. With pride in women comes pride in future generations, and that cannot occur unless and until men treat women more

Between the roles of the two woman, it is apparent that Ruth’s role is more favorable in the eyes of characters

Also, while she claims Biblical support for her views on marriage, the support that she cites is conveniently edited to suit her purposes (for example, Solomon did have 700 wives and 300 concubines -- but his appetites led to his turning away from God; and the marital relationship specified in the Bible is a reciprocal one rather than the one-sided one she speaks of, tilted in favour of the wife -- she conveniently ignores that while the "Apostel [...] / [...] bad oure housbondes for to love us weel", he also exhorts women to love their husbands), and she elsewhere ignores the Bible when it proves difficult to "glose" in her favour (as in her dismissal of its injunction to dress "in habit maad with chastitee and shame"). Moreover, her behaviour is a demonstration of all the anti-feminist accusations

The Wife of Bath uses bible verses in “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue.” Further, she employs the verses as an outline of her life to find reason in God to justify her actions. Nevertheless, the purpose of the verses differs within each stanza of the poem. The Wife of Bath is a sexually promiscuous, lustful, and manipulative woman. She marries men one after the other as they get older and die. In order to combat and overthrow the speculation and criticism being thrust upon her by societal norms because of her marriages, the wife turns to specific bible passages to find reason in life and support for her actions (Article Myriad.com). When the wife is having sex quite frequently and with different men she is said to be fruitful and multiplying. According to the wife, this is what she is told to do in the bible passage, which she has misinterpreted. Ironically, The Wife of Bath is using a predominantly male dominated book to back up and support her reasons for women being equal to men (Article Myriad.com). Not only has she referred to the benefits of adultery through the bible, she has also attempted to undermine the power of men in the very same way she has attempted to prove that the genders are equal. From this, it can be interpreted that although the wife claims to be providing evidence for women being equal to men, she is actually saying that women are better than men. She misinterprets the readings of the bible and male written passages on purpose in order to suit her needs.

This effectively explains the views of a "woman's role." The excerpt speaks directly about man's obligation to God but more directly about woman's obligation to man. In Corinthians Chapter 14 verse 34, this system of beliefs is recognizable as it is written...

The Bible is controversial on the matter of gender equality. There are numerous contradictions about the status of women in Christian society. Historically, the most prominent interpretation has been rather negative toward women. The Christian Church, with principally male authority, emphasizes the idea that women are inferior to man. They focus on Eve’s sin leading to a punishment that “her husband will have authority over her.” (Drury, 34)

These above apprehensions are genuine. Still, there is a lot to understand what the Scripture is actually saying. Passing the life of the biblical world through the fire of homiletical thought tells me more, however, than just apprehensions about patriarchy in Proverbs 31:10-31. Truthfully, while focusing on the biblical world and the specific world of Proverbs, I discover there are two significant elements about that particular verse which describes the proficient wife where she looks after her family and home. Below are my two exegetical observations:

In ancient Israelite culture, a woman’s entire life, from her societal standing to her source of income, rested entirely upon her husband’s shoulders. In the beginning of the book of Ruth, even though there is a great famine in the land, Naomi is still taken care of because she has the security of her husband and sons. However, when her husband and sons pass away, she is left with absolutely nothing because as a woman, she is viewed as essentially a second-class citizen at best. After the death the death of her husband and sons, Naomi turned to the only family she had left, her two widowed daughter-in-laws. She tried to convince both of them to follow her to Bethlehem. One of them refused, but Ruth decided to follow Naomi.