“There are no girls in the Bible” - responding to lack of female rep in religion

[MadamPia]

When my daughter was 5 she said that “there are no girls in the Bible, just boys.”

We went to church regularly, had a children’s Bible that we read regularly. But I realised that many Christian churches do not share memorable or empower stories about girls and women.

As a woman I found that I had to do my own reading but I felt that this played such a role in the self esteem of many women that went to church every week without fail but struggled with their self image.

Anyway we decided to write about the females in the Bible - just for fun and I have learned so much!

I would love to hear how you would respond to this comment from a young girl and do you think more should be done to bring to light the role of women in religions?

The bible was carefully pruned by men who couldn’t credit the idea of women’s importance because of their own culture.

If you read it bearing that in mind, you start to notice the women more.

The early church was led by women as well as men.

Why, why why? Delilah?

No-one has mentioned the Jewish heroine Judith.
The Book of Judith is the biblical story of how a young widow named Judith slew the Assyrian general Holofermes who is laying siege to her town of Bethulia.
https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/judith-beheading-holofernes

Also the Jewish heroine Esther.
In the biblical book named after her, Esther is a young Jewish woman living in the Persian diaspora who finds favour with the king, becomes queen, and risks her life to save the Jewish people from destruction when the court official Haman persuades the king to authorize a pogrom against all the Jews of the empire.

@CurlewKate i came on to this thread to post about Jael. Definitely some women with power moves.

Also the story of Dorcas;

https://truerichesradio.com/who-was-dorcas-in-the-bible/

Jael and Deborah are of the same era.

In the Hebrew Bible and ancient Jewish literature, some women kill. Deborah, the only female judge of Israel, helps lead the Israelite army to war against the Canaanites. During that same war, a woman named Jael lures the Canaanite general into her tent, then kills him with a tent peg through the head.

Also, Miriam ; She was Moses' elder sister.
Moses' mother left him in a basket protect him from being murdered by Pharaoh due to his being a Jewish baby. When Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses and had mercy on him, Miriam devoted herself to Pharaoh’s daughter in order to raise him so that they could remain together.
We can credit Miriam with instilling Moses with a devotion to the Lord that manifested itself in later days, which enabled his openness to divine encounter with the one true God and his moral conscience which guided Israel all the way to the promised land.

Priscilla was a powerful church leader in the book of Acts.
She and her husband, Aquila, led the church in maintaining theological purity, love for the poor, and mentorship of young, charismatic leaders such Apollos, who were still figuring out how Jesus fit into God’s story of redemption.

My response would be to apologise for not giving her the female stories and then start to do so...

Miriam, Ruth, naomi, Esther, hannah, rebecca, leah, Rachel, dinah, and so many others in tye old testament.

Elizabeth, Mary, the other Marys, Mary magdalene, salome, jairus' daughter, joanna priscilla, Lydia, tabitha/Dorcas and so many others in the new testament.

Etc.

Has anyone mentioned Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist (Jesus' cousin)?

You might also look at some of the female martyrs for inspiration.

The “Mighty Girl; Mighty God” series by Lucy Rycroft is age appropriate for a 5 year old and deals with some strong women of the Bible: Deborah, Jael, Rahab and Abigail.
Abigail: 2 (Mighty Girl, Mighty God) https://amzn.eu/d/8DslNKo

First of to repeat what others have said, there are women and girls in the bible. Powerful & memorable ones:

The daughters of Zelophehad - fought for the right to inherit their father's property.
Miriam, sister of Moses who cleverly ensured her own mother nursed her brother when found by pharaoh's daughter.
Jael
Deborah
Esther the queen
Rahab the prostitute who through her incitefulness saved the lives of herself and her family
Hannah
Abigail
The widow of Zarephath
Mary & her alabaster of oil
Mary & Martha
Lydia, the dealer of purple cloth

Second I don't what 'Christian churches' you are familiar with but I have listened to stories of strong women and girls held up as inspirational figures in the church throughout my life.
If a young girl asked me that question, I'd tell her that when she starts to read the bible more she'll find many examples, that is before I sit her down and share a few of those stories with her.

My podcast is doing an alphabetical series on women of the Bible... We're currently at letter D. You can catch up on Spotify the website is www.cwinuk.org