Rebekah’s Influence in Genesis
Uploaded by jamie83 on Oct 26, 2011
This paper discusses the way in which Rebekah exerts her influence in the male-dominated society of her time. (5 pages; 1 source; MLA citation style)
I Introduction
The Book of Genesis formally relegates women to second-class positions in relation to men: the Bible tells us that Eve was made from Adam’s rib. She was thus seen as a part of him, and would never have existed if he had not been created.
Then too, throughout the first chapters of the book, we are given the history of men and their descendents, thus:
“These are the descendents of Shem. When Shem was a hundred years old, he became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood; and Shem lived after the birth of Arpachshad five hundred years, and had other sons and daughters.
“When Arpachshad had lived thirty-five year, he became the father…” (Genesis, Chapter 11, verses 10-12).
The point is that the Bible is describing the line of descent from father to son to son to son; women are barely mentioned, and are unimportant in this society.
However, women did influence society, but indirectly and very subtly. There was none of the activism familiar to us today.
II Rebekah
Rebekah (Rebecca) was the great niece of Abraham; she was the daughter of Bethuel, and Bethuel was the son of Abraham’s brother Nahor.
When Abraham grew old, he wanted to find a bride for his beloved son Isaac. However, he told his oldest and must trusted servant that he was not to find a bride for Isaac from among the Canaanites, but instead to go to Abraham’s country and family, and find a woman there.
The servant did as he was told, and “took ten of his master’s camels and departed … and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor.” (Chapter 24, verse 10). He waited outside the city, at a well where women came to draw water in the evening. He had decided that he would ask one of them for a drink for himself, and that if she agreed and also offered to water his camels, he would pray that she would be the one God had selected for Isaac.
The women came to the well, and the servant immediately saw Rebekah. “The maiden was very fair to look upon, a virgin, whom no man had known.” (Chapter 24, verse 16)....