Abigail's Wisdom: Analysing Patronage and Gender in the Hebrew Bible

EMANUEL PFOH

Helsinki

Congreso; Fifth Workshop on Gender, Methodology and the Ancient Near East, Helsinki, 1-3 June 2022; 2022

University of Helsinki

If we go through the ethnographic and ethno-historical records at quite different locations on the globe, we can rapidly see that the practice of patronage (or patron-client relationships) is overwhelmingly a male-centred socio-political phenomenon, performed in social situations considered to be predominantly male, and basically involving the establishment of an asymmetrical reciprocity between two individuals, namely a patron and a client. In the vast majority of the cases found in these records, women appear secondarily as performative agents, although we can certainly find some historical examples of women acting as patrons--or we should rather say, matrons. The first part of this paper will deal with the relevance of gender in the expression of patronage in society and the crafting of hierarchical networks through a rapid reference to episodes at different historical periods and to, especially, some ethnographic cases. The second part of the paper will focus on the Hebrew Bible, where patronage meets the attested norm of being a male-centred practice, within the socio-political world of the ancient Near East, and it can also involve a divine-human exchange. Yet, when reading some biblical stories between the lines--searching for implicit or ´hidden´ situations--we actually find instances when women are entangled in patron-client relationships, having a rather relevant or even pivotal role in the communication of the theological message. In effect, and attending as an example to the known story of Nabal?s encounter with David in 1 Samuel 25, we find Abigail (Nabal's wife), who while being seemingly a secondary character in the narrative, performs in fact her actions with wisdom and understands the true nature of divine patronage through David's presence and behaviour towards Nabal. Critical reference to this biblical story will allow lastly for some reflections on patronage, gender and the Hebrew Bible and some prospects for future research.