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Is it possible to discern women prophets' utterances embedded within lyrics of prophetic books? If so, women prophets would be represented as implied composers along with men.
This study offers a reliable method in this effort, based on the sound patterns of lyrical Hebrew that disclose a consistent, clear 'signature' of women's oral composing more broadly, and a different signature of men's composing, across all lyrical genres and historical periods.
Integrating feminist, postcolonial, and indigenous cultural approaches as well, this inquiry moves past closed doors of previous suppositions, including that ancient Israel was simply patriarchal.
This methodological key, when turned, unlocks and throws open a window on a significant women's Hebraic composing tradition resounding in texts where women's voices are attributed, and where they are unattributed. It also brings a new appreciation of a practice, at times, of female and male prophets lyricizing in partnership, in a culture whose women, individually or as a group, were not always given credit for their contributions.
About the author
Nancy C. Lee is Professor of Religious Studies at Elmhurst College and honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Stellenbosch. She is the author of Lyrics of Lament (2010) and The Singers of Lamentations (2002). She has contributed to The Bible and Women (2013) and to The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Bible and the Arts (2015).
