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.

readership of Chronicles is told that she is not only a sister to an important character in the Manassite list, but also the mother of three sons. There is no reference to the father of these sons, and they and now her lineage are brought together with that of her brother. In this case, the text asks the readers to imagine a metaphorical⁵³, transgenerational household in which the sons of a sister of the head of the family are included, rather than being associated with those of the husband of the sister. In other words, the sons of the unnamed father followed for one generation a matrilineal instead of the usual patrilineal line. May we infer that in this case, "being sister of X" carried more weight than "being a wife of X" ⁵⁴?

        A somewhat similar case is that of Zeruiah, David’s sister (see above), whose sons are associated with the lineage of Jesse (and the household of David). For all purposes she fulfills the role of a (male) head of her section of the family, to the point that her (anticipated) husband is not demoted to a subordinate position (cf. 1 Chr 2,34-35) but eliminated.

        All in all, it is significant that there are instances in which sisters/daughters are mentioned alongside brothers/sons. As sisters are mentioned alongside their brothers or fathers, the text seems to accentuate their position within their particular families. Chronicles here seems to overstep the borders of a set of ideologically construed values according to which sisters were not supposed to possess a specific, broad influence within a family, nor were conceived as fulfilling an ideologically outstanding, permanent role within the social