Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

WIDOW

Heb. ʾalmānâ, generally translated “widow,” means something more nuanced than simply a woman whose husband has died. Primarily on the basis of the Akkadian cognate almattu in Middle Assyrian Law 33, some scholars have argued that an ʾalmānâ in ancient Israel was a woman whose husband and father-in-law were both dead, and who had no son. In order to accommodate this definition to biblical texts that speak of an ʾalmānâ having a son or sons (e.g., 2 Sam. 14:4-8; 1 Kgs. 17:8-24), the lack of a son has been qualified as referring to the lack of an adult son with the economic means to support his mother. However, in 1 Kgs. 11:26 the mother of Jeroboam, clearly an adult man of means, is nevertheless called an ʾalmānâ (cf. 7:13-14). Also, in Gen. 38 the ʾalmānâ, Tamar’s father-in-law Judah, is very much alive. Here Tamar is not called an ʾalmānâ until Judah instructs her to return to her father’s household (Gen. 38:11), so only when Tamar is deprived of her father-in-law’s support is she termed an ʾalmānâ. This presumes that withdrawal of the father-in-law’s material support is the functional equivalent of his death.

Given that landed property in ancient Israel was normally passed down from father to son(s), a widow who had no son to inherit patrilineal property was in an economically precarious and socially vulnerable situation. Though explicitly concerned with perpetuating a dead husband’s name, levirate law, which encouraged a man’s kin to sire a son with his widow, benefited the widow by securing her access to landed property and hence a means of support (Deut. 25:5-10; Ruth 4; ; cf. 2 Sam. 14:5-7). A kinsman could, however, refuse to perform his duty (Deut. 25:7-10; Ruth 4:1-6). In the absence of levirate or another form of remarriage the biblical texts present widows as stereotypically vulnerable and thus in need of special legal protection (e.g., Deut. 10:18; 24:17; 27:19; 2 Sam. 14:4-11; Job 24:3; Ps. 94:4-7; 146:9; Isa. 10:2). While certain widows might have been able to return to their natal households for support (Gen. 38:11; Lev. 22:13), widows’ access to gleaned and tithed produce provided a legislated form of social assistance (Deut. 14:28-29; 24:19-21). A widow’s pledge or vow was immediately binding, without recourse to male approval (Num. 30:10).

Personified cities could be described as widows (Isa. 47:8-9; Lam. 1:1; cf. Isa. 54:4). Widowhood in these contexts may metaphorically express the vassaldom of previously independent cities. This metaphorical correspondence of widow and vassal is premised on the dubious typification of marriage as a status or condition of female independence. Rather, the widowed city (or nation) metaphor draws upon an analogy between a wife bereft of her husband and a geopolitical entity bereft of its male citizenry and/or abandoned by its male deity.

Bibliography. C. Cohen, “The ‘Widowed’ City,” JANES 5 (1973): 75-81; F. S. Frick, “Widows in the Hebrew Bible,” in A Feminist Companion to Exodus to Deuteronomy, ed. A. Brenner (Sheffield, 1994), 139-51; P. S. Hiebert, “ ‘Whence Shall Help Come to Me?’: The Biblical Widow,” in Gender and Difference in Ancient Israel, ed. P. L. Day (Minneapolis, 1989), 125-41; R. Westbrook, “The Law of the Biblical Levirate,” Property and the Family in Biblical Law. JSOTSup 113 (Sheffield, 1991), ch. 4; F. Yurco, “Merenptah’s Canaanite Campaign,” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 23 (1986): 189-215, esp. 189.

Peggy L. Day

In the NT Luke associates Jesus of Nazareth with the prophet Elijah and with the Lord’s care for widows, by having him restore to life a widow’s only son (Luke 7:11-17). Widows also appear in the parables as embodiments of generosity (Mark 12:41-44) and persistence (Luke 18:1-8). The Jerusalem community provided food for widows (Acts 6:1), and the Greek Dorcas wins praise for having made clothing for them (9:39). Care of widows and orphans is a mark of religious commitment (Jas. 1:27). By the 2nd century c.e. care of widows had become an institutionalized ministry. In order to receive aid, a widow had to meet certain criteria: she had to be 60 years old, childless, with a good reputation and no relatives to support her, and willing to live a life of prayer and good works (1 Tim. 5:3-16). Community leaders thus assumed the responsibility of male relatives to regulate the sexuality of female family members and to determine the ministerial roles open to women.

Kathleen S. Nash

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

WIDOW

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)