Sacrifice and Gender in Biblical Law

This book examines the Hebrew Bible's numerous laws about sacrificial procedure to understand the significance of gender in sacrificial rituals and the reasons that gender distinctions are so vital in these acts. Gender selection of both victims and participants is an intrinsic aspect of the nature and purpose of each rite, affecting its form and function, as well as its legitimacy. Sacrifice and Gender in Biblical Law considers the laws of the firstborn, the rite of the red cow, laws of slaughter, rituals of purification, and other offerings. It shows that these laws regulate material wealth and contribute to the construction of social roles.

1. Introduction; 2. Women's sacrificial roles in biblical law; 3. The gendered victimology of animal offerings; 4. Milk, meat, and mothers: the exclusion of mothers from sacrifice in cultic food laws; 5. Death and the female: the sacred impurity of the red cow; 6. Impurity and the creation of difference; 7. Fathers and firstlings; 8. Conclusion: child sacrifice and animal sacrifice.

Nicole J. Ruane is Visiting Assistant Professor at Syracuse University. She was previously a lecturer at Northeastern University and an instructor at Union Theological Seminary and the General Theological Seminary. She has published dictionary articles and her work was included in A Question of Sex?, edited by Deborah Rooke.