Here come the girls...

In the Bible, there are many female characters and figures all of whom are depicted in a slightly different way. There are stories involving women in both the New and Old Testament and whilst their messages can be interpreted in a variety of ways, it is fairly apparent that women have been neatly categorised according to their characteristics and actions as either pure, patient and perfect or scheming, seductive and sinful...

I have studied a handful of women in the Bible, examined their characters and summarised how their behaviour enables us to place them under one of the two categories.

Firstly the 'good' girls:

Esther is so keen to avoid others from suffering that she goes conscientiously warns the king about Haman's plan to kill the Jews. She exclaims, "For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?" (Esther 8:6) Here she is portrayed as a maternal, caring and compassionate woman.

In Ruth (1:16-18), Ruth shows her selflessness when she chooses to remain loyal to her mother in law and stay with her after her son (Ruth's husband) dies. This shows that she has a life and desire to good that extends beyond pleasing her husband; she acts on her own accord. She extends this admirable generosity to Naomi when she agrees to marry Boaz in order to help her and protect her future, as well as her own.

When Mary is told by the angel that God has blessed her with a child through the Holy Spirit, she immediately submits to God's will saying, "I am the Lord's servant... May it be to me as you have said." (Luke 1:38) Her response reflects her humble and godly character which is then further seen in the Magnificat where Mary praises and glorifies God for his mercy.

Now we move on to the 'not so good':

In Genesis, we see the very first woman come into existence. Eve is made as a "helper" (2:18) for man and is created out Adam himself (2:23). This order of events is immediately suggestive of the fact that male and female are different and perhaps even implies that women are in some way inferior as they were derived from man. It is Eve who gives in to the temptation of the serpent to eat from the forbidden tree which gives the impression that she (arguably as a woman) is weak, selfish, attracted to pleasure and therefore rather shallow and superficial. Her position worsens when she is unable to accept blame for her fault when she simply answers God's questioning with, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate it." (3:13)

Then there's Potiphar's wife (who is notably unnamed and instead a possession of her husband). She pressurises, seduces and tempts Joseph, seemingly trying to 'corrupt' him by getting him to sleep with her; she clearly lacks self-worth. She is incredibly persistent in her demands to the point of being seeming almost possessed. She ends up being the cause of injustice when she lies about Joseph, landing him in prison. Despite deceiving her husband, her power is actually virtually none because she rather pettily 'tells' on Joseph, relying on a male's authority to punish.

Finally, in Judges, Delilah is persuaded by the rulers of Philistine to seduce Samson in order to find out the "secret of his strength" (16:5). These men use and successfully bribe her for their own benefit. In verse 15 she asks Samson, "How can you say 'I love you'..?" - this questions depicts women as being rather petty an pathetic in their reliance on a man's affirmation for security and contentment.