Gender Oddities or Why Does God hate women?
Genesis 46
Jacob and family moves from the land of Canaan to Egypt at Joseph’s request. The Pharaoh has offered them the best of land on which to raise their herds. This chapter covers the move but mainly consists of rather dense lists of the children and grandchildren who migrated. When you look closely, oddities emerge. Guess what! They’re nearly all boys. With the exception of Dinah, all the listed descendants of Jacob are male. That is strange. Now the Bible does say the following:
Jacob’s people who migrated to Egypt–his direct descendants, not counting the wives of Jacob’s sons–numbered sixty-six persons in all.
This is somewhat understandable. The wives of his sons would not be his descendants. But except for Dinah, who played a part in the saga, there is not another girl. The troop consists of Jacob and his three living wives; Leah, Zilpah, and Bilhah, plus Dinah, and sixty-one sons and grandsons. Do they actually mean to imply that there was only one daughter/granddaughter in the entire family? No, not quite, for when Joseph was thought to be dead, Genesis 37/35 states “Though his sons and daughters tried to console him, he refused all consolation.” Notice the word “daughters” with an “s”. Other Bible versions say it even more clearly “all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him.”
The question begs to be asked. Where are the women? Why are these daughters virtually unmentioned? Why doesn’t the tally of descendants mention them, either by number or by name? Had they been married off? Everyone? All the granddaughters too? If that’s the case they would have to marry them off in diapers.
I think the truth here is clear. It’s that same truth that has come up before and will, no doubt, rear its patriarchal head again. The women and girls weren’t mentioned because they weren’t important enough. No one bothered counting or remembering their names, unless of course, they were unlucky enough to be raped, and then only for the purpose of detailing biblical retribution. That in mind, it’s possible that Jacob’s family may have been nearly twice this number. Those uncounted multitudes were simply considered to be no better than livestock.
We’ve come a long way baby! We have just a little farther to climb.
Just wanted to say thank you for the entertaining blog. It’s a great idea to go through the Bible from an atheist perspective. I plan to follow it till the last verse of Revelations.
I was thinking that God hated women also, but the words that deceit would be defeated through the seed of a woman always makes me ponder. Could it be that the world hates women because deceit reigns supreme here on earth? Did you ever think about the first question asked the man and woman and more importantly the answer they gave? I just can’t reach the conclusion that their is no Creator of life that atheism demands.
Just a note – there is a HUGE chasm between “there must be some kind of creator” and the christian god. There are tons of specific monotheistic and polytheistic religions, both current and extinct – though most of those also make claims that fall in the face of reason. A deist god allows for a creator without requiring the belief in so much disproven BS. I still don’t go there, as I see no evidence for it either, but you may want to consider it.
The chritian mind should understand that the bible was written by people who were products of culture during a particular time and at in a specific place. Genesis was old testament, right? So, it was written between 1000 and 3000 BC in Palestine. What we have is a racist, sexist, homophobic, story-telling jackass fucking Palestinian in 2000 BC, who was a product of his fucked-up culture, determining our morals and culture today half way around the world.
Lynn, God doesn’t hate anyone just like Shredder from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles doesn’t hate anyone. Neither one of them exist. Join us in reality.
antiwasp- is correct, god doesn’t hate women, the MEN who wrote the bible, or more accurately pieced together the fables and myths that made up the bible, these are the men that hated women. To be fair, hate is a rather harsh assessment, it was more a reflection of the attitude towards women at the time.
I think that God does not look down upon women but he considers them less important than men. Notice how “God” is regarded as “God the Father” or “Heavenly Father” and also how his “Son was sent by his “Father”. Also the Holy Spirit may not be either sex, but in the Catholic Church the Holy Spirit is regarded as a male. No women whatsoever. I also do not like how Mary of Magdeline was never identified of a disciple even though she wrote her own book of being one of the disciples of Jesus. So all in all I really don’t know what side I should choose; equality of women or my religion.
Very weak argument and very silly. When you study Bible you must note that Bible times were a time when man was the bread winner unlike 20th century. So it’s often that decisions were made by man and he was responsible for the social changes. Bible in the New testament commands men to care , love and to be patient with their wife. There are women mentioned in Bible for their role good or bad…Jesus was born of a virgin women and Bible address Mary as a blessed women.
Unlike Quran, bible is very clear love your wife and any bitterness towards her could hinder a man’s prayer.
God loves women, but women and men have their respective role as a individual. Physically and emotionally women need men to be there for them and vis versa. That is how God created us. So lets accept it and love God for us being different but compliments each other…
Yes, times were different. But that’s the whole point of this blog. Its main purpose is to point out that the Bible shouldn’t, can can’t, be taken as the ultimate arbitrator of an unchanging system of morals and ethics, as some fundamentalists would have us do.
It’s also worth pointing out that the Roman church picked and chose which gospels and such to make canon with a clear agenda in mind. Part of that agenda was the subjugation of women. There had been female community leaders and such in the pre-Roman Christian church, for instance, but that wasn’t the Roman Way. They may have taken up Christianity, but they certainly weren’t going to let that influence their traditional way of life, including their attitude toward the place of women in their society. It was the Roman church that also conflated Mary Magdalene, who wasn’t a prostitute, with another, totally different, Mary, who was, in order to discredit her.
The Bible you read has been edited for political reasons several times, both by the pre-OT Jews, and by the later, Christian, NT authors and followers. You might want to look into the history of your book before proposing it as a modern guide on How To Live Right. ‘Unchanging Word of God,’ it ain’t.
Damn, forgot to tick the email box!
I think the reason women aren’t mentioned in the bible is because these stories are fiction, and as any fiction writer knows, you leave out the characters that are not important to the story. Since the writers thought women were unimportant, they didn’t write stories about them.
Because Lucifer is a woman. That’s why God distrust women.
@Varendo, wow your ignorant.
Any woman who follows christian, jewish, or islamic religion is reading a few sugar coated verses and putting on blinders for about 10,000 verses of violence and unfairness to women. “No wickedness comes anywhere near the wickedness of a woman…..Sin began with a woman and thanks to her we all must die” (Ecclesiasticus 25:19,24).
“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I don’t permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner” (I Timothy 2:11-14).
“The birth of a daughter is a loss” (Ecclesiasticus 22:3).
“As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.” (I Corinthians 14:34-35)
“A bad wife brings humiliation, downcast looks, and a wounded heart. Slack of hand and weak of knee is the man whose wife fails to make him happy. Woman is the origin of sin, and it is through her that we all die. Do not leave a leaky cistern to drip or allow a bad wife to say what she likes. If she does not accept your control, divorce her and send her away” (Ecclesiasticus 25:25).
“They called out to Lot and said, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have sex with them! Lot went out to them at the entrance and shut the door behind him. He said, “Don’t do this evil, my brothers. Look, I’ve got two daughters who haven’t had sexual relations with a man. I’ll bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want to them. However, don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the protection of my roof.” (Genesis 19:5-8)..
Can you hear that train? it’s the roar of our own stupidity- we have been manipulated through the ages by distorted patriarchal history, anti-female religions, witch hunts, exploitation, slavery, lies, propaganda, control, wars, fear, poverty and injustice. While men are in control, women will always be second class citizens. The bible does not even reflect the period it’s written in, it’s just a carefully concocted fairy story to control and manipulate people into believing in their own pathetic salvation through selective passivity and subordination. It’s new-speak devoid of any factual reality. Does God hate women? The one that most Christians, Moslems, Hindus and (yes, even) Buddhists believe in, clearly the answer is yes.