Susan Niditch, in the book Ancient Israelite Religion, provides a study of Israelite religion based on critical reading of the biblical text. Niditch discusses the Old Testament story, some archaeological discoveries, and the worldview. The book looks into the experiential, mythical, ethical, and ritual components of the Old Testament story. In an effort to greater understand the way this text informs my reading and interpretation of the Old Testament, I will go through each chapter and discuss elements that impacted my understanding of the Old Testament text.
Niditch begins with a discussion of the experiential elements of the Old Testament. In this chapter she looks into covenant making, annunciations to women, Jacob at Bethel, Saul’s encounter with the deceased Samuel, Moses and his return to Egypt, and visions of heaven. The most impactful element of this discussion, was perhaps that of the annunciations to women. Niditch suggests that, “[The annunciation to women] is probably male-generated, is perhaps patronizing in its implications for modern women, but is nevertheless an empowering cameo of the experiential for women.” As a young woman in the church, it has often been hard for me to read the Old Testament and feel validated. I often looked at these texts and saw the patronizing elements, and the churches response to those texts did not make matters easier. I rarely saw the empowering nature of these stories. In reading Niditch’s book, I was able to see a more comforting and accepting side of God in these texts. Primarily in her discussion of Hagar and Ishmael, we see a God who cares for the boy and the mother. God, “speaks comforting words to the mother, and makes a well of water spring up in the wilderness.” This image of a God who cares for women and children, while it is not foreign, is unfamiliar to me and my understanding of God in the Old