(Note: this post discusses sexual assault and murder as noted in scrpture. Reader discretion advised)
In her text, “Locating Hebrews Within the Literary Landscape of Christian Origins,”[1] Pamela M. Eisenbaum makes a decision that caused me to revisit a familiar passage of scripture in what Eisenbaum terms the “Epistle to the Hebrews.”[2] Deciding to ascribe male gender pronouns to the unknown writer of Hebrews, Eisenbaum states in note 10, “Since we do not know the identity of the author, we cannot discern the gender of the author with any certainty. However, I will use the male pronoun when referring to the author for two reasons: (1) as a matter of convenience; and (2) because the author projects a male perspective; see Heb 11:32.”[3]
I will not quibble here with Eisenbaum’s “matter of convenience” reasoning, but the second reason for using the male pronoun when referring to the writer of Hebrews made me pause. Since I had already questioned the inclusion of only two women in the references to the Hebrew Bible characters in the entirety of the epistle, the men named in this verse previously caught my attention. I noted to myself that I needed to come back to review who each of these men were and why only Sarah and Rahab were name in the entire epistle.[4] But Eisenbaum’s reasoning for ascribing the male pronoun to the writer of Hebrews, based on Hebrew 11:32, hastened my review.
“And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets,” Hebrews 11:32 (NRSVUE).
When I read this verse before reading Eisenbaum’s text, I was immediately appalled at the inclusion of Jephthah. Frankly, anytime I see Jephthah’s name and the inclusion of this biblical character in what I have been taught to refer to as the “Hebrews 11 biblical hall of fame,” I am appalled. It was the story of Jephthah and what he did to his daughter that made me stop reading through the Bible in a year for my sixth go around of my previously annual feat. On my last attempt to read through the Bible a few years ago, I decided to approach the reading with a critical view towards the treatment of women. By the time I got to Judges 11, and the story of Jephthah and his ungodly vow, I had had enough with the battering of women. I know, there were many stories before this one that should have caused me to lay my leather-bound Bible down, but my good Baptist upbringing and staunchly inscribed belief that the Bible is the inerrant, holy of holies, Word of God, never to be questioned, viewed critically or criticized, warred against my ever-deepening womanist sensibilities and deep desire to be a voice to the heretofore voiceless.
I am well-passed the hesitancy to critically read the biblical canon. I cannot read a verse of scripture without infusing, (imposing?) a womanist, lived-experiential lens onto the words, meaning and praxis. Thus, Eisenbaum’s note, coupled with Madison N. Pierce’s call-out that the familial language of Hebrews “does not explicitly extend … relational designations to ‘sisters’ and daughters,’”[5] inspires me to share with you what the list of men in Hebrews 11:32 reveals, especially considering the relationships each of these men with the women in their lives. Below is a brief mention of these six men in relation to the most conspicuous women noted in their biblical accounts.
Gideon (Judges 6 -8)
Not much is said about women in the chapters regarding Gideon, until the end. It is only when Gideon is described as idolatrous that women are mentioned because Gideon had seventy sons from “many wives” (Judges 8:30). Most importantly, Giden’s downfall was the fact that “his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech” (Judges 8:31). The name Abimelech is associated with a notorious opponent of Israel in the Hebrew Bible, and Gideon’s Abimelech is the son of a concubine after Gideon served the Lord well, when he went off to be rebellious, as was the cycle in the Book of Judges.
Barak (Judges 4-5)
What has always struck me about the mention of Barak here is that Deborah is not mentioned in the epistle. It was Deborah who was the prophet and judge, not Barak. Barak, “the warrior,” famously stated to Deborah regarding war with Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite army, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go” (Judges 4:8). As a result, Deborah went to battle with Barak, but she prophesied, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman” (Judges 4:9). And, as Deborah foretold, it was not Barak who defeated Sisera, but “Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite” (Judges 4:17), who defeated Sisera in a direct attack, driving a tent peg into his temple with a hammer (Judges 4:21). If that was not enough, these two women humiliated Barak. First, once Barak showed up, Jael had to take him to where the enemy, Sisera, laid dead (Judges 4:22). Second, Deborah composed and sung a song about Israel’s victory, identifying that it was Jael, “most blessed of women” who “crushed [Sisera’s] head” (Judges 5: 24-27). The epistle doesn’t say it, but I can’t imagine that made Barak feel good about himself.
Samson (Judges 13-16)
Even before we get to Samson’s troubled female relationships, including with his Philistine wife (Judges 14, 15), the prostitute (Judges 16:1-3) and Delilah (Judges 16:4-31), we have his mother who the Bible does not see fit to name. She is the wife of Manoah, Samson’s father (Judges 13). It is to her, before his birth, that Samson was declared “a nazirite to God” and set apart to “deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines” (Judges 13: 4-5). From there, Samson’s life went from one failed sexual relationship to the next. Funny, you never really think of a nazirite as being sexually active. Ir seems that sex is something a nazirite should refrain from along with the haircuts, wine and dead things, but Samson proves otherwise. Anyway, first, Samson wants to marry a Philistine woman upon seeing her. I wouldn’t quite call it love at first site, more like lust at first site. When his father and mother protest, Samson demands this Philistine woman for his bride (Judges 14). While the Bible says that the marriage with the Philistine woman was all the Lord’s doing, it is still tragic that this woman and her family were burned in a fire due to Samson’s erratic behavior (Judges 15). After 20 years of judging Israel, Samsom next takes up with a prostitute before being tricked by Delilah which ultimately costs him his life (Judges 16).
Jephthah (Judges 11)
The first thing we learn about Jephthah is that he is the son of a prostitute. Already, he’s stigmatized. But that is no excuse for the terrible decision he made. Because of a vow he declared hastily, Jephthah mercilessly kills his only daughter, a young virgin who did not have a chance to live. I’ve heard sermons that told me that Jephthah had to keep his vow because he made it to the Lord. Hogwash! But, even if we accept that to be true, should we not ask of scripture, where was the intercepting, Abrahamic angel of the Lord or the substitutionary ram “caught in a thicket by its horns” that should have prevented Jephthah from laying his hand on the girl or doing anything to her (see Genesis 22)? Or should we better approach Jephthah’s daughter by expecting that she had been saved not through the sacralizing violence of surrogacy, as womanist theologian Delores S. Williams declares, but through the expectation of a deliverance “through a ministry of compassion and love.”[6] A father’s compassion and love should have been the acceptable surrogate for Jephthah’s young daughter. The resulting custom of lament noted in scripture for the daughter of Jephthah, after her slaughter, should serve as a model for all women who have been mercilessly sacrificed due to the carelessness and callousness of men who did not protect them with compassion and love.
David (2 Samuel 11 and 13)
What David did to Bathsheba is legendary. Just like the misguided sermons I’ve heard proclaiming Jephthah’s murder of his daughter unavoidable, I’ve heard sermons that blame Bathsheba for how David stalked, summoned, seduced and sexually assaulted her. I cry, hogwash, again! Yet, the despicable David did not stop in his disregard for the women in his life with Bathsheba. David disastrously failed his only named, daughter, Tamar. You would think the fact that she was his one and only named girl would have signaled something positive and special about her, and maybe this woud have caused David to protect this princess. You would think wrong. Not only did David not prevent his beautiful, young, virgin daughter, Tamar from walking into harm’s way, David “sent her” to her abuser’s house, unprotected (2 Samuel 13: 7). Then, after Tamar was sexually assaulted by her brother, the warrior, King David, not only failed to avenge the reputation, mind, body and spiritual well-being of his daughter Tamar, David “would not punish his son Amnon because he loved him, for he was his firstborn” (2 Samuel 13:21). David later had the audacity to mourned Tamar’s abuser when her brother, Absalom, killed him. David’s anger at hearing of Tamar’s rape paled in comparison to his bitter weeping for Amnon, her rapist. David had no regard for Tamar for the entirety of her life. Like Jephthah, David is another girl-dad gone bad.
Samuel (1 Samuel 1)
Finally, to be fair, I am not completely sure that Samuel disliked women. Samuel was a unique man. He was the only person in the Hebrew Bible who was judge, prophet and priest. He was also a boy who was abandoned by his mother. When I first heard that in a sermon by Rev. Michael A. Walrond, Jr. many years ago, I knew I would never view Samuel the same again. The truth is that I could never fully wrap my mind around his mother, Hannah’s decision to “lend” her much desired, first child to the Lord by leaving him with an old man priest at the house of the Lord in Shiloh (1 Samuel 1:28). Can you imagine that maybe Samuel was traumatized by not having his mother in his life and only seeing her once a year when she came with the family to worship and sacrifice at Shiloh? What did Eli and his evil sons tell Samuel about his mother and why he was left with them and did not live with her and his own siblings? So, while Samuel may not have shown any dislike for women, it may be safe to imagine that he had abandonment or mommy issues.
These are, of course, my thoughts. I will not go into “and the prophets,” as there are way too many to identify, but if these six men are the ones called out as exemplars in Hebrews 11:32, what are we, Women in Theology, to make of this?
Fetured photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash
[1]. Pamela M. Eisenbaum, “Locating Hebrews Within the Literary Landscape of Christian Origins,” in Hebrews : Contemporary Methods – New Insights, Gabriella Gelardini, ed., (BRILL, 2005). Accessed July 23, 2026. ProQuest Ebook Central.
[2]. Ibid., 213.
[3]. Ibid., 218 n 10.
[4]. See Hebrews 11:11 and 11:31.
[5]. Madison N. Pierce, “Letter to the Hebrews,” in The New Testament in Color : A Multiethnic Bible Commentary, Esau McCaulley, Janette H. Ok, Osvaldo Padilla, and Amy Peeler, eds., (IVP Academic, 2024), 515. Accessed July 23, 2026. EBSCOhost. I must, however, note that Pierce graciously attributes the welcoming inclusion of women to the author of Hebrews. I am not so sure about that.
[6]. Delores S. Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk, (Orbis Books, 1993), 148.
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