Women in the Old Testament, Part One

Irene Nowell, OSB, is a Benedictine of Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas. An accomplished theologian and biblical scholar, Nowell is a past president of the Catholic Biblical Association and the author of numerous volumes in the New Collegeville Bible Commentary series; author of the Sarah and Hagar volume in the Alive in the Word series; Sing a New Song: The Psalms in the Sunday Lectionary; and Pleading, Cursing, Praising all published by Liturgical Press. She is also a contributor to the Little Rock Catholic Study Bible and she is a member of the editorial board of Give Us This Day (Liturgical Press). Jaime L. Waters, author of Jeremiah in the Wisdom Commentary series (Liturgical Press), is associate professor of Old Testament at the Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry. She holds degrees from Boston College, Yale Divinity School, and Johns Hopkins University. Waters also contributes to Give Us This Day and America Magazine.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Welcome   7
     What materials will you use?   8
     How will you use these materials?   8
Lesson One  Introduction and Women of Israel’s Beginnings   11
     Sarah, Hagar
Lesson Two  More Women of Israel’s Beginnings   31
     Rebekah, Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, Zilpah, Dinah, Tamar
Lesson Three  Women of Israel’s Passover   53
     Shiphrah, Puah, Moses’ Mother, Pharaoh’s Daughter, Miriam, Zipporah
Lesson Four  Women of Israel’s Early Tribes   67
     Rahab, Deborah, Jael, Jephthah’s Daughter, Samson’s Mother, Samson’s Wife, Delilah
Lesson Five  More Women of Israel’s Early Tribes   91
     Ruth, Naomi, Orpah, Hannah, Peninnah
Endnotes   108
Bibliography   109
Praying with Your Group   110
Reflecting on Scripture   112