Does Bible think Women are Property?

"The nature of patriarchal authority and control of the husband over both his wife and children must be carefully defined. Older, very common, views holding that women and children were simply chattels [a piece of movable property] are simply no longer tenable. As Christopher Wright puts it, "Scholarly research in this century on the status of women in general and wives in particular in ancient Israel has tended steadily to the consensus that the older view of marriage by purchase and wives as chattels is simply untenable" ("Family," Anchor Bible Dictionary 2:766).

Such views are simply misinterpretation of the full range of evidence (especially economic evidence) or failures to see the "depatriarchalizing" trends within the OT:

**** "The Old Testament, born out of the patriarchal society of ancient Israel, has sometimes been accused of contributing to the subordination of women over the centuries. We must question whether this negative view is inherent in the OT, or is consequent upon misinterpreting it. Again, we must ask whether there are conflicting attitudes within the OT, and signs that within the patriarchal culture there was a ‘depatriarchalizing principle’ at work, challenging the structures of society" (Emmerson, 371). Trible states that "as part of a patriarchal society, woman in the OT both mirrors and challenges that structure" (IDBS; see also Trible, "Depatriarchalizing in Biblical Interpretation," Journal of the American Academy of Religion 41 [1973]: 30-48).

We must also recognize that while the social system gave authority ["the power that accrues from hierarchically recognized status"] to men, women did exercise power ["defined as the ability to influence events"] (Frymer-Kensky 61).

The Israelite Husband as Ba’al: "Ownership" of the Wife: Is it appropriate to describe the wife as her husband’s possession? The use of ba’al (= owner, lord) for "husband" (see Gen 20:3; Exod 21:3) and the use of adon (lord) for "husband" in Gen 18:12; Amos 4:1, has given rise to this idea, since when applied to a house (Exod 22:8) or animal (Exod 21:28), ba’al does mean "owner." Emmerson states, though: "It is, however, the word in its context which determines meaning, and the transfer of crude ideas of ownership from one context to another is inadmissable. . . The crude idea of ownership is entirely inappropriate here, as it is also in Jer 31:32" (382).

Note on Exod 21:22
"NOTE: simply attaching economic value to a child does not necessarily mean that the child is regarded as "property." We also attach economic significance to children--in the IRS deduction for children."

For more discussion and bibliography, see: