The Bible, Gender, and Reception History ― The Case of Job's Wife

The
Bible, Gender, and Reception History: The Case of Job's Wife investigates
the fleeting appearance in the Bible of Job's wife and its impact on the
imaginations of readers throughout history.
It begins by presenting key
interpretive gaps in the biblical text concerning Job and his wife, explaining
the way gender studies offers guiding principles with which the author engages
a reception history of their marriage. After analyzing Job and his wife within
medieval Christian theology of Eden, the author identifies ways in which Job's
wife visually aligns with medieval images of Satan. The volume explores portrayals
of Job and his wife in publications on marriage and gender roles in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, moving onto an investigation of William
Blake's sharp artistic divergence from the common tradition in his representation
of Job's wife as a shrew. In the exploration of societal portrayals of Job and
his Wife throughout history, this book discovers how arguments about marriage
intertwine with not only gender roles, but also, with political, social, and
historical movements.

Katherine Low is Assistant Professor of Religion and Chaplain at Mary
Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia. She has published articles in JSOT,
Journal of Religion and Film and Journal of Feminist Studies in
Religion, exploring the intersections of religion, gender, and culture.