Classics 373 (Lec 002): Texts of Terror: Sexual Violence in the Bible

Throughout the Hebrew Bible “violent power is marked as masculine, [and] subjugation and defeat as feminine.” We see this in the many instances of sexual violence perpetrated against women in the biblical text––men take women as the spoils of war, virgin women are raped, fathers sacrifice their daughters, and husbands barter their wives to save themselves. Readers are repeatedly faced with images of the objectification of women and violence against the female body, which is often described in pornographic detail. In this course, we will explore the challenges posed by the presence of gender violence in the Hebrew Bible and the various responses to those challenges throughout the history of interpretation. Particular attention will be paid to the interpretative methods of feminist biblical scholars, as well as female artists and authors.