5 Biblical Women Who Aren’t as Bad as You Think

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There are not many women who are named in the Bible, and, unfortunately, those who are tend to have a bad reputation. Ask most Christians to name five women from the Bible, and their first answer will probably be the Virgin Mary. Their second, third, fourth and fifth answers will probably include Mary Magdalene, Eve, Delilah or Bathsheba. These women are seen as a former whore, the first sinner, a traitor and a seductress, respectively. This does not bode well for women who are looking for female role models in the Bible.

Many of the women who are seen as temptresses and “bad girls,” however, were not the immoral seductresses that so many Christians today believe they were. In fact, the Bible itself often supports the actions of so-called immoral women. When this information is combined with an examination of ancient Israelite culture, it rapidly becomes clear that many Biblical women never really earned their bad reputation. This information has fascinated numerous people and led to the publication of books such as Sandra Glahn’s “Vindicating the Vixens.” Such works show that many of the women in the Bible were not seductresses at all but righteous people trapped in a heavily patriarchal society with values very different from the values that modern day Christians grew up with. Here are five Biblical women who aren’t as bad as most Christians think.

Tamar

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Tamar appears in Genesis 38 as the Canaanite daughter-in-law of Judah. Tamar is often mischaracterized as a prostitute, but she was actually nothing of the sort. Tamar was first given to Judah’s eldest son, Er, in an arranged marriage. Er, however, dies prematurely. Following the custom at the time, Tamar was then married to Judah’s second son, Onan. Onan was meant to sire a son with Tamar. This son would be treated as Er’s son to ensure that the branch of the family tree did not die off. Onan, however, refused to do so and died prematurely as well. Now twice widowed, Tamar should have been married to Judah’s youngest son, Shelah. Judah, however, blamed Tamar for the death of his sons. He claimed Tamar and Shelah would wed when Shelah was old enough, but Judah had no intention of allowing the wedding to take place. Tamar eventually found out that Judah did not intend to keep his word and tricked Judah into fathering her son himself. This action is often used to paint Tamar as a prostitute and temptress. The reality, however, is that Judah was the one in the wrong. Ancient laws required that a widow be married by her father-in-law if her late husband either had no brothers or his brothers refused to do their duty and marry her. Tamar, then, was the law-abiding citizen. Judah had lied to her and refused to uphold her honor or the honor of his son, Er. As such, Tamar took matters into her own hands. The Bible itself, far from painting her as a temptress, describes Tamar as a righteous woman who did what needed to be done to uphold the family honor. In Genesis, Judah specifically states “She is righteous, not I.”

Bathsheba

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Bathsheba is often blamed for leading David into sin. This Israelite woman appears in the book of 2 Samuel where she is often accused of having an adulterous affair with David. The reality, however, is likely far darker. According to textual and archaeological evidence, it is likely that Bathsheba was not a temptress but a victim of rape.

The story of Bathsheba and David begins when David spies Bathsheba bathing. Bathing outdoors, however, was not the scandalous and immodest action that modern Christians tend to view it as. In the era before indoor plumbing, men and women often bathed outdoors in enclosed courtyards. It was here that Bathsheba was likely cleaning herself, and she may have been mostly dressed. The Hebrew word for “bathing” used in 2 Samuel denoted both washing the entire body and washing only ones hands.

Once David is obsessed with Bathsheba, he uses his position as king to send multiple messengers to summon her to the palace where he rapes her. While some paint Bathsheba as a willing lover, the text itself belays that assertion. When the prophet Nathan condemns David’s sin, he focuses only on David and gives no culpability or blame to Bathsheba. Nathan speaks only to David and, in the original Hebrew, uses second person masculine pronouns. Through Nathan, God Himself places the blame on David and David alone for using his overwhelming power as king to force Bathsheba into an impossible situation.

Eve

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The first woman to be created has quite the bad reputation. Nearly all the blame for the Original Sin is laid at her doorstep. This, however, is not what the Bible itself implies.

The book of Genesis has two subtly different tales of Eden, but the lies of the serpent form the climax in both cases. The actual fall of humanity, however, is not the work of deliberate womanly seduction that is so often portrayed. The Bible says that “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food…she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband who was with her.” The text itself says that Adam was with Eve when the serpent spun its fabulous lie.

If Adam had been absent from the tale, there is a very different story to be told. In this case, the argument can be made that it took a woman to cause a man to sin. It took Satan himself, however, to convince Eve to fall.

Mary Magdalene

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Mary Magdalene has, in many ways, become the portrait of repentance and redemption. Ask most people who Mary Magdalene was, and they will say that she was a prostitute who repented of her sins and came to follow Jesus. This picture has become entrenched in Christian culture, but there is little to no textual evidence to suggest that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute or an adulteress.

The Gospel of Luke states that she was cured of seven demons by Jesus. Shortly after, she became part of the entourage of women who traveled with Jesus and the Apostles through Galilee and helped to support, serve and care for the material needs of the men. When Jesus died, the Bible states that Mary Magdalene was there. She stood at the base of the cross and witnessed His suffering firsthand. She was also a witness to His burial and, as Matthew states, she did not leave Jesus’ tomb until the Roman soldiers sealed it. Finally, Mary Magdalene was the first witness to Jesus’ resurrection and the one who spread the news that He was risen.

Mary Magdalene is mentioned 13 separate times in the New Testament, but nowhere does the text state that she was a prostitute, adulteress or anything other than a loyal disciple. In the ancient Greek texts, the words used to describe Mary Magdalene’s support for the disciples makes it clear that she used her own finances to help support the disciples. The imperfect tense is used in the text and shows that Mary Magdalene was continually providing for the other disciples.

Mary Magdalene’s status as “repentant whore” largely comes from a sermon by Pope Gregory the Great in 591 when he merged the sinful woman who purified herself with unguent in Luke, Mary of Bethany in John and Mary Magdalene who was possessed by demons in Mark. This new portrait of Mary Magdalene was commonly portrayed in artwork and so became the accepted view of Mary Magdalene. The Catholic Church attempted to fix this mistake many years later, but, unfortunately, Mary Magdalene is still cemented in the collective Christian consciousness as a former prostitute.

The Samaritan Woman at the Well

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In John 4, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman beside a well. This unnamed woman is often characterized as the typical sexually immoral sinner. She is most often characterized as an adulteress, but some people say that she was a prostitute. Most of the evidence for these views comes from two details in the text: (1) the Samaritan woman drew water at noon instead of in the morning, and (2) she had five previous husbands but the man she lived with now was not her husband. When placed in the cultural context of Jesus’ time, neither of these details are enough to prove that the Samaritan women was guilty of sexual immorality.

Drawing water at noon does not mean that the Samaritan woman was a prostitute looking for customers. The argument behind this idea is that it would be more efficient to draw water in the morning instead of under the hot afternoon sun. The woman must have an alternative reason for avoiding the well in the morning such as hiding in shame from her neighbors. This interpretation, however, does not hold water. There are any number of reasons for the woman to be drawing water in the afternoon, and nowhere does the text say that the afternoon was the woman’s first time at the well. She may well have needed more water to finish her tasks or have been assisting a neighbor. Practicality also does not govern all actions. In modern Kenya, for example, village women often wash clothing in the afternoon. It would be more efficient to do so in the morning, but women instead wash and hang the clothing in the late afternoon. It is very possible that something similar occurred in ancient Samaria.

The Samaritan woman’s large number of husbands does not necessarily mean that she was an adulteress or serial divorcee. This interpretation does not fit due to ancient customs. The Samaritan woman was married five times. No man would marry a known adulteress, and that is assuming she was not executed for her crimes. Similarly, divorce in the ancient world was both more complicated and simpler than it is today. Custody courts and long legal battles did not exist, but a woman could not ask for a divorce. She had to request the intervention of a male relative. Again, the interpretation of the Samaritan woman as a serial divorcee would mean that she successfully talked a brother, uncle or her father into intervening on her behalf five separate times. That is highly unlikely. Instead, it is most likely that the Samaritan woman was a widow several times over. Mortality rates were high in the ancient world meaning remarriage would have been common. As women often married younger than men, it is perfectly possible that the Samaritan woman simply outlived several much older husbands, and the current man had not given her the dowry document that formalized marriage. This would render her a concubine, a position common in the ancient world, or she could have been his second, and less loved, wife.