Genesis Gender Roles

“The Role of Women in the Book of Genesis” Women had different social roles back in the time of Genesis compared to today. The Old Testament depicts them as almost secondary beings to men. The stories in Genesis mostly revolve around men, with women seemingly not being as important. In the few stories that do give prime place to them, such as the stories of Rebekah, Leah and Rachel, Dinah, and Sarah and Hagar, the women often cause much of the conflict in the story. These stories depict women as scapegoats who take the blame for the wrongdoing in the story. Specifically looking at the story of Rebekah, the wife of Isaac and mother of Jacob, she causes the main problem to unfold, despite appearing as a nice, caring mother. Jacob appears
to be much more flawed than Rebekah, but some still see him as an admirable person. Jacob’s name itself means “he takes by the heel” or “he supplants,” which foreshadows his future trickery in taking the birthright of his older brother, Esau (Genesis 26:31-33). Rebekah still favors him over Esau, though, and this favoritism leads to her devising a plan to trick her blind husband, Isaac. When Rebekah hears of Isaac telling Esau of how he can secure his holy blessing, Rebekah tricks her husband into giving it to Jacob instead, by disguising him as Esau (Genesis 27:5-10). Rebekah becomes the scapegoat of this story for coming up with the plan, even though Jacob actually does the tricking of his father (Genesis 27:20-27). Rebekah even accepts all of the blame as the wrongdoer, telling a hesitant Jacob “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my word” (Genesis 27:13). Rebekah offers to take the punishment, should her plan backfire. She pressures Jacob into doing it, and convinces him to follow through with the plan. Rebekah fulfills a typical women’s role in Genesis, as she is the scapegoat of a story, covering for a just as, if not more, flawed man. Since she proclaims herself as the one who deserves punishment, Jacob can still be held in high regard by readers who can admire him. His image is important, since he eventually becomes the father of Israel. The idea of women leading lives that caused issues for men in the stories of Genesis goes back to the very first woman.
Eve commits the very first sin by eating the sacred fruit from the tree of knowledge (Genesis 3:6). This leads to God punishing Eve, and God decrees that a husband will rule over his wife (Genesis 3:16). It also leads to man’s tendency to blame the woman for his own action (Genesis 3 footnotes). This shows why women seem to always be directly or indirectly responsible for the conflict in a story, because they were thought to be the root of all problems, and men were thought to rule over them. Sarah mistreats Hagar and drives her away, Leah and Rachel are shown as envious towards each other and Rachel steals from her father, and Dinah’s mistreatment prompts her brothers to brutally destroy an entire city. Since all these women have a major part in the conflict of the story, the images of the men they associate with appear cleaner. The role of women in the book of Genesis appears to be to take the blame for sins committed, both their own and those of men. The story of Rebekah evidences this by her direct statement of accepting a curse that would belong to Jacob instead, clearing his name in the process. This scapegoat role that Rebekah and other women play, leads to the association of the words “shame” with women and “honor” with men in old times. Holy men that walked with God, such as Jacob, look more admirable because their stories give prime place
to women that also make mistakes, but take more blame for them.