Antje Labahn - Ehud Ben Zvi, «Observations on Women in the Genealogies of 1 Chronicles 1–9», Vol. 84 (2003) 457-478

These observations address the construction of women and their roles in the genealogies of 1 Chronicles 1–9. References to women in these chapters construed them as fulfilling a variety of roles in society, and characterized and identified them in various ways. To be sure, the genealogies reflected and reinforced the main construction of family and family roles in a traditional ancient near eastern society. But, numerous references in these genealogies indicated to the early (and predominantly male) readers of the book that ideologically construed gender expectations may and have been transgressed in the past and with good results. By implication, these references suggested to the readers that gender (and ethnic) boundaries can and even should be transgressed on occasion, with divine blessing, and resulting in divine blessing.

father of Gibeon, appears twice, in 1 Chr 8,29 and 9,35. The text seems to suggest that she gave birth to nine or ten sons, depending on the verse, whose names are transmitted subsequently and who, as expected, are textually inscribed as the sons of her husband. Several other examples of references to women who bore children appear elsewhere in the genealogies⁹.

        In a significant number of cases nothing is said about the women/mothers. In fact, they remain unnamed, anonymous¹⁰, even when references to named mothers appear in textual proximity of their own, and even if they are supposed to be of "higher status" than the named mothers. This is the case in 1 Chr 2,42-46; the implied wife of Caleb, who had at least three sons — the exact number of children remains unclear — remains unnamed, but the same does not hold true for his #glyp, who was the mother of two of his sons. The latter was certainly not viewed by the historical readership as enjoying a higher status than the former in the household, and the explicit association of children with her serves to separate the two branches of the family in a way that within the discourse of the period gives preference to those by the higher status mother. Yet it is worth noting that the text here does not want the readers to associate naming with status, quite the opposite. A similar case occurs in 1 Chr 2,25-26. The text in 2,25 informs the readers that an implicit, but unnamed first wife of Jerahmeel bore him five sons. The next verse informs them that Jerahmeel also had another wife, whose name was Atarah and who was the mother of Onam. The reference to the "other" woman (trx) h#)) serves to create an ideological hierarchy between the two, to separate "his" son from the other sons. Significantly, the lower status woman is the one that is named in the text, and about whom something is said. Further, the wording of the text is worthy of notice; Atarah is referred to as "the mother of Onam", but not explicitly as