Endnote 4 – Hitchhiking and the Bible

Today, Bird continues to believe in the possibility of what she calls “meaningful conversation” with the Bible, although she has been disturbed by a tendency she has detected among fellow feminists to read into the biblical text ideologies that are not actually there. For example, Bird’s scrupulous scholarship compelled her to demonstrate, on the basis of ancient Near Eastern texts and art works, that the phrase “image of God” in Genesis 1:26–7 is a “royal motif.” The phrase more likely refers to human sovereignty over the earth and not primarily (however much she might personally wish otherwise) to a divine nature that encompassed the masculine and feminine.