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.

words, that mothers may on occasion take the structural role commonly associated with fathers. The readers of Chronicles are informed that an ancient Judahite father who had no sons married his unnamed daughter²⁷ to a man who was both an Egyptian and his slave. The result of such action was generations of Judahites (1 Chr 2,34-35). The house of the father could be maintained, because his daughter became structurally speaking a "son"²⁸. Of course, these are not common cases, but the message of Chronicles here is clear, gender and ethnic boundaries may be crossed and have been successfully crossed in the past²⁹, when the situation warranted it.

        It is worth noting that, as shown above, some of the references to mothers in the genealogies include not only an explicit mention that they bore their husbands’ children, and mainly, his sons, but also some additional information about themselves. Such references would have been superfluous had the male literati imagined women only as walking womb-bearers for their husbands/mates, with absolutely no significance of their own.

        Given that genealogies construct a self-image of the community and shape borders of inclusion and exclusion and a "historical" memory to back them up, it is worth stressing that in a number of cases,