The Daughters of Zelophehad: Biblical Women’s Rights Activists (?)

• In Event: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible

Abstract

Some scholars have looked to the daughters of Zelophehad as “proto-feminists”, the first women to take an active role in suing for women’s rights. But as other scholars have noted, what needs to be explained was why the Hebrew Bible should prove anomalous in having failed to include inheritance rights for women, thereby requiring the story of Zelophehad’s daughters. It might have been assumed that inheritance rights for women, like so many other legal principles, were part of what many scholars refer to as “oral legal tradition.” In other words, they would have been in effect even though they had not been recorded in writing. But if that had been the case, the contentious character of these Numbers passages would have been altogether unnecessary. Consequently, a dominant scholarly trend has been to conclude on the basis of Numbers 27 and 36 that neither oral nor written legal dicta, were sufficient to resolve the conflict.
The easier path for the daughters would have been to shy away from confrontation; they could have seen themselves as collateral damage, victims of Torah’s patriarchal claim and their parents’ inability to have sons. Rather, a sense of injustice enabled them to confront both Divine and human leadership. And similarly, Moses, as the leader of the children of Israel, could have simply restated the laws of inheritance, reinforcing the absolute law of Torah rather than acknowledging a gap in his own knowledge. Moses could have reasoned that Torah and his leadership should remain intact than admit to shortcomings and fallibility. To his credit, he recognized his shortcomings and the power and potential of the case before him and placed the matter in God’s hands.
And while God could have limited judgment to these plaintiffs, God recognized that equality before the law and true justice are “on trial.” As British biblical scholar Philip Budd writes, “Theologically, the section presses the rights of women to a clear and recognized legal position within the sphere of property law. They are seen as a proper channel through which the threads of possession and inheritance may properly be traced”.
God’s decision inspires hope for a better future, not only for the daughters but for all women (and men!) who will come after them and find themselves in the same position.

Author

• Ilona Rashkow, Stony Brook University, SUNY