Footnote 3 – Unlikely Heroes

Notwithstanding the remarkable presentation of women throughout the Bible, almost without doubt the authors responsible for the biblical material were men. It is true that in general, ancient Near Eastern literature, including the Bible, is anonymous, and therefore one rightly could argue that “he or she” is called for when referring to the author. But when we possess the names of scribes, as we do from ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia, they are invariably men; with no evidence to the contrary, I assume the same is true of Israel.