Love and lust appear in biblical narratives as a fatal combination, at least for the female objects of such emotions. In fact, women are rarely if ever made to experience these sentiments in the Bible. When Amnon, son of David and heir to the throne, conceives an irrepressible passion for his half-sister, Tamar, she begs him to seek permission to marry her (2 Sam. 13). Tamar is fully aware of the hazardous consequences for herself if coerced into sex with her sibling. “To whom shall I carry my disgrace?” (2 Sam. 13: 13). Who, indeed, is likely to sympathize with...

In the book of Genesis, Jewish women marry relatives; non-Jewish women, when they are married to Jewish patriarchs, receive scant attention. This imbalance is, perhaps, not entirely coincidental. The matriarchs of Genesis hardly set a model of wifely behavior. Sarah forces her husband to send away a favorite sexual partner and ruthlessly advances the interests of her own son. Rebecca tricks Isaac into conferring the rights of primogeniture on their younger son. Leah and Rachel leave their parental home in anger, feeling that they have been cheated of their rightful inheritance. Nor does Jacob’s household set an example of blissful...

Only rarely do ancient texts allow us to probe the “happily ever after” stage. Divorce documents hint at marital tension but, on the whole, biblical and postbiblical narrators display a remarkable lack of interest in the intricacies of married life.¹ How ancient Judaism perceived the basic conjugal unit in specific Diaspora settings can be glimpsed through two texts that feature postnuptial “bliss” and a series of married couples. The Hebrew text bearing the name of Esther supplies an astonishing wealth of information regarding familial stereotypes and women in a state of matrimony, as does the tale entitled “Joseph and Aseneth.”...

In the Decalogue no less than two commandments deal, apparently, with adultery. One forbids it, sweepingly stating “thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exod. 20:15).¹ The foundational chart of Judaism also makes it clear that the burden of contemplating adultery lies squarely on male shoulders: “Thou shall not covet the wife of your friend” (Exod. 20: 17), together with his other possessions.² The Hebrew Bible provides a major deterrent to potential adultery by subjecting suspected adulteresses to a public ordeal (Num. 5, and below). Paradoxically, perhaps, it is a married woman, and not a man, who is cast in the act...

In the community of the Garden of Eden, at least according to Gen. 2: 20, the harmony of nature and the first human (male) was guaranteed only with the advent of the first woman.¹ Boredom, too, was dispelled. With Eve came understanding and learning capabilities, conferred on the human couple through the intervention of a serpent. But her appearance on the idyllic scene also heralded morality, mortality, and exile. As a result of her eagerness to acquire sagacity, Eve the wisdom-bearer to humanity, had to be demoted to the status of a wife and child-bearer. Her successors had to be...