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.

several duties. One important implication is that the woman/matriarch has to lead the family, represent it in public, manage its properties and the goods it produces, participate in trades as required and the like. In addition, heads of family participated in local, "political" life of their community. Ordinarily, it was men who fulfilled all these roles. When Chronicles asks its readers to imagine women as heads of a family, does it imply that these women stepped fully into this particular male world? It might be debated if the readers were asked to imagine these women as representing the family in official tasks, like those associated with ‘the elders,’ ‘the heads of the ancestral families,’ or ‘all Israel’⁵⁷. It might also be debatable whether women served in these positions, even if only occasionally, in Yehud or not. But it is most likely that these readers were asked to imagine and did imagine these women as taking care of the economic life of the household, with all its implications concerning the management of property, ability to trade goods and the like, as well as holding the decisive authority within the household on internal matters.

        Are there clues in the genealogies that suggest that the readers of Chronicles were asked also to imagine a world in which women could have, even if rarely, fulfilled clearly communal leadership roles and be assigned the prestige associated with these (male) roles?

2. Women Building Cities

        Within the world of the HB, men build cities (e.g., Gen 4,17; Josh 19,50; Judg 1,26). Nowhere in the HB, except for 1 Chr 7,24 any woman is referred to as a city builder. Against this background, the atypical character of the explicit report about a woman who built cities in 1 Chr 7,24 is self-evident. In addition, it certainly is noteworthy that the theme of building cities is in itself very uncommon in 1 Chronicles 1–9.

        In fact, there is only this reference to a woman who built three cities (one incidentally, carrying her own name; 1 Chr 7,24), and another about a man who built two cities in 1 Chr 8,12. Incidentally,