Wait! You Mean There Were Female Prophets?

“Wait. There were female prophets???” Her shock hung in the air, almost palpable. And her exclamation echoed the surprise and measured curiosity of countless students who, upon learning of female prophets in the Bible, aren’t sure whether to be suspicious of what they are reading or resentful that they have never heard of a female prophet despite sitting in church most weekends and attending private schools where they took years of required Bible classes. 

“Yes,” I said. “But it’s complicated.”

Technically there are three main women in the biblical text described as prophets. Miriam, the sister of Moses, is described as a prophetess in the context of leading the people in triumphant song. Deborah, one in a long series of figures who led Israel during the period of the judges, is described as a judge, a prophet, and a military commander.  And Huldah, the only prophetess in the Hebrew Bible described as delivering a prophetic oracle, is consulted at a pivotal point in the history of Judah when King Josiah needs guidance on what to do next. Other references to female prophets include “the prophetess” in Isaiah who carries out a prophetic sign-act of giving birth to a child whose name represents the message, a group of female prophets confronted along with male prophets as false prophets by the prophet Ezekiel, and a (possibly) female prophet in Jerusalem who opposes Nehemiah’s work. 

Being attentive to the presence of female prophets in the Hebrew Bible is complicated for many reasons.

In some ways, the biblical text (written primarily from the perspective of elite males) does not elevate the work of female prophets. For example, the so-called writing prophets (prophetic figures who have collections of prophetic material collected under their names) in the Hebrew Bible are all male. Many of the most widely read modern treatments of the prophetic literature in the Hebrew Bible focus on the writing prophets, thus excluding discussion of women who carry out prophetic work.

In other ways, the biblical text elevates the work of female prophets. The Song of the Sea (see Exodus 15) is widely considered to be one of the oldest poems in the Hebrew Bible and it is associated with the prophetess Miriam. This has led some scholars to refer to Miriam as the first prophet in the Bible. In the book of Judges, the period of Deborah’s leadership is the only time when the tribes join together to defend each other against outside oppressors. Deborah, the “Mother of Israel,” a prophetess, and a judge (or governor), is described in the introduction to the narratives about her work, as “woman of lappidoth.” This phrase is usually translated “wife of Lappidoth,” with the second word understood as the name of her husband. Wilda Gafney, however, argues that this phrase can just as easily be translated “fiery woman.”[1] This is only one of many examples where what we assume (that every woman in the Bible is known only through her relation to influential men) can impact how we read a text. Daniel Block points out that Deborah is the only judge cast by the narrator “in an unequivocally positive light.”[2] And Deborah is by no means the only woman who rises to the occasion in times of crisis and unrest in the unfolding history of ancient Israel.

Esther Hamori begins her book on women’s divination in biblical literature with the $10,000 question: “Who has access to divine knowledge?”[3] One of the most consistent characteristics of prophets, evident at multiple periods in the unfolding history of ancient Israel, is divine inspiration. Prophets in the ancient world functioned to make accessible what would normally be restricted to the divine realm. By keeping this broader description in mind, we can both acknowledge the complexity of the question of female prophets in the Hebrew Bible, and also find more allusions to the work of women attentive to the divine realm—even when they are not explicitly named “prophetesses” in the text.

Dr. Gafney’s words are a fitting way to close this short reflection while also inviting us to continued attentiveness to where the spirit of God is being poured out. “Female prophets are a consistent expression of ancient Israelite religion,” Gafney writes, “at each phase of Israel’s national development: Miriam in the Exodus; Deborah in the settlement of Canaan; Huldah, the Woman-Prophet, and, most likely, the daughters of Heman in the monarchy; the castigated women’s guild in the exile; No’adiah in the return. There will continue to be women-prophets in the ‘days to come,’ the eschaton. These female prophets survived the redaction and canon-formation processes of the Hebrew scriptures and bear witness to the importance of their narratives to communities that preserved and normalized the text.”[4]

Written by Jody Washburn

Art: Adapted from stylized portrayal of female figurines from ancient Israel by Autumn Uhrig. Follow her work on Instagram @afaithu 

[1] Wilda Gafney, Daughters of Miriam: Women Prophets in Ancient Israel, page 90.

[2] Daniel Block, “Deborah Among the Judges,” page 236.

[3] Esther Hamori, Women’s Divination in Biblical Literature, page 3.

[4] Wilda Gafney, Daughters of Miriam: Women Prophets in Ancient Israel, 116.