Four Biblical Heroines and the Case for Female Authorship

Hillel I. Millgram, ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, lives in Israel. He combines research and writing with teaching graduate courses in the Bible.

Table of Contents



Preface and Acknowledgments     

Abbreviations Used in the Text      xiii

Introduction     



PART I. IN THE BEGINNING

1. A Woman’s Tale: An Introduction to the Book of Ruth     

2. The Exiles     

3. Amid the Alien Corn     

4. The Winning of Boaz     

5. At Bethlehem’s Gate     

6. What Means This Tale?     

7. Tamar     



PART II. STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND: ESTHER, A TRAGI-COMEDY IN THREE ACTS

8. Understanding Esther: An Introduction     

Act I: The Women in His Life

9. Party Time in Old Persia, or Lessons on How to Run an Empire     

10. The Substitute     

Act II: The War Against the Jews

11. Prologue: The Night of the Assassins     

12. The Man Who Would Not Bow     

13. The War Commences     

Act III: Fighting for Their Lives

14. In the Valley of the Shadow: Looking into the Abyss     

15. Interlude: The Theater of the Absurd     

16. Esther Triumphant     

17. Reversing the Engine     

18. Judgment Day     

19. Thou Shalt Not Forget!     



Conclusion

20. The Dark Vision     

21. The Hidden Hand     



PART III. SUMMING UP

22. Thinking Outside the Box     



Appendix I. From Whom Did Boaz Buy the Field?     

Appendix II. Can Judah and Tamar Be Fitted into the Joseph Narrative?     

Appendix III. It’s Greek to Me: The Greek Versions of Esther     

Appendix IV. Mordecai’s Decree: A Technical Interlude     

Appendix V. But Could She Read? The Question of Literacy in Ancient Israel     

Timeline: Putting Things in Perspective     

Glossary of Terms, Place Names, and Persons     

Selected Bibliography     

Biblical Verses Index     

General Index