Michael Coogan
Michael Coogan is Director of Publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum, Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College, and Lecturer on Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Harvard Divinity School. Professor Coogan is the author of A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in Its Context (2009), The Old Testament: A Very Short Introduction (2008), and The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures (2006; 2010). He is the editor of The New Oxford Annotated Bible (2001; 2007; 2010) and Oxford Biblical Studies Online. He has written and edited many other articles and books, and has appeared on such programs as Nova’s The Bible’s Buried Secrets. Coogan has also taught at Boston College, Wellesley College, Fordham University, and the University of Waterloo (Ontario), and has participated in and directed archaeological excavations in Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, and Egypt. His most recent book is God and Sex: What the Bible Really Says.
Presenter at
Bible & Archaeology Fest XIII, November 19 – 21, 2010
“He will rule over you”: The Status of Women in Biblical Times
Just how patriarchal is the Bible? Did women exercise any influence in their larger societies or within the family? This presentation will consider women’s functions in the public sphere in roles such as prophets, queens, and deacons, as well as in the domestic context in roles as daughters, wives, and mothers. It will look closely at some notable women, including Jephthah’s daughter, the woman of Endor, Abigail, and the women who discovered Jesus’s empty tomb. This presentation will also consider how Biblical views about women affect a modern understanding of the authority of the Bible.
