The Woman Facing the Threat of Childlessness: The Literary and Theological Development of a Biblical Motif

This dissertation traces the literary and theological development of the motif of the woman facing the threat of childlessness in Hebrew Bible, Second Temple, and New Testament texts. By situating the biblical stories in their ancient Near Eastern context as variations of a motif already widespread in the cognate literature, this project first seeks to illuminate the ways in the which the biblical stories adapt and alter the motif so as to determine its meaningfulness and the way it functions in the larger biblical story. The focus then shifts to the way in which the story of the woman facing the threat of childlessness is transmitted into prophecy by means of the female personification of Jerusalem. The metaphor of the female city allows for the powerful motif to become a national story. The remainder of the project is dedicated to demonstrating that the link between mother characters and the city of Jerusalem forged in prophetic texts was so strong that the authors of new narratives portrayed maternal characters in such a way that made them function as a parallel to the city of Jerusalem. Second Temple authors employed allusions to prophetic passages that feature the female city in order to make the mother’s story indicative of the city’s story while New Testament authors wrestled with this impulse to connect the mother character to Jerusalem in light of their changing views of the city. The story of the woman facing the threat of childlessness ultimately remained a powerful message of hope as it was transmitted from narrative, to prophecy, and back into narrative.