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.

see also below). Another interesting element in this pericope is that Miriam, most likely a daughter not a son, is mentioned first in a list of children¹⁷.

        Another matter is suggested by 1 Chr 1,50. There, within a seemingly common reference in a list of male characters (X and the name of his wife was Y), there is a reference to Mehetabel, the wife of Hadad. The interesting point for the present study is that Mehetabel is described as the daughter of Matred, daughter of Me-zahab¹⁸. Thus the readership is informed of one important woman, a queen for that matter, who is identified as the daughter of her mother, rather than as the daughter of a male father. One may notice, that in fact, her father is not mentioned at all. It is worth mentioning that the Syriac seems to be aware of such an "anomaly" in a patriarchal society and attempts to erase it by turning the second "daughter of" into "son of"¹⁹. The change only underscores the atypical character of the information communicated by the Book of Chronicles at this point, of the construction of the identity of a person as son of his mother, and only his mother, rather than of his father. Moreover, even Matred may be identified as the daughter of her mother, since Me-zahab (Heb. bhz ym) may be either a male or a female name. (It is possible that the context here favors a female name since there is no reference to the father of Matred’s daughter). The important lineage thus runs through the women who maintain it instead of the male figures.

        Just as there is room in the genealogies of Chronicles for a woman who is explicitly identified as a daughter of her mother instead of the daughter of her father (on "daughter", see below), there is room also for sons identified as sons of their mothers. The readers of Chronicles are told of Zeruiah and Abigail. As it is well known, the sons of Zeruiah were identified only by their mother, rather than of their father