Book Review: Hannevi’ah and Hannah: Hearing Women Biblical Prophets in a Women’s Lyrical Tradition by Nancy C. Lee
Nancy C. Lee, Hannevi’ah and Hannah: Hearing Women Biblical Prophets in a Women’s Lyrical Tradition
(Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2015).
When you consider women in the Bible, whether they be powerful, influential, noble, gracious, or devious, chances are you think of familiar ones commonly mentioned and named in the scriptures, including Eve, Ruth, Esther, Rebecca, Rachel, Jezebel, Hagar, Sarah, Hannah, Leah, Deborah, Thecla, among others, noted as being impactful characters in their relational support to profound, forthright men. God uses these women in the Bible to affect and propel the spiritual journeys and conquests of the likes of Abraham, Jacob, Elijah, Moses, Samuel, Isaac, Paul and others in liberating Diasporas, missions, evangelism, moments of revelation and prophecy, and as mothers, wives, or nemesis of great prophetic men and kings, but how about enlisting the females as prophetic leaders themselves and giving deeper recognition to their voices throughout canonical text? Prophets highlighted in scripture, exclusive of a few prophetesses such as Deborah, Hannah, Miriam, Huldah, Noadiah, and Anna are primarily men, and in many instances, biblical prophecies and psalms by unknown authors are assumed to be men. However, can established writings in the canon be reassigned to prophetesses, who we know existed in ancient times, but allegedly have no record of? Are we mistakenly identifying scriptural prose and songs as being that of men? “Hannevi’ah and Hannah: Hearing Women Biblical Prophets in a Women’s Lyrical Tradition” by Nancy C. Lee, addresses ideas such as these and explores biblical language, poetry, and phonetics in order to distinguish female voices embedded within scripture in an attempt to discover unbeknown to us, female prophetic voices traditionally presumed to be predominantly male.
The scripture Joel 2:28 (KJV) states, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; And your sons and daughters shall prophesy.” There are a number of women hinted to be prophets in the Bible, but scripture does not detail their works or expression, as their names are either briefly mentioned as a side note in a tale about a far more profound person (usually male) if their name is even mentioned at all. Such examples include the daughters of Phillip (Acts 21:8-9), Anna, Miriam, and Isaiah’s wife (Isaiah 8:3). In “Hannevi’ah and Hannah” Lee seeks to unveil hidden prophetesses by identifying certain poetic and lyrical styles and sound patterns within ancient Hebrew text, distinct manners through which, according to Lee, one can differentiate female undertone. The unique purpose of “Hannevi’ah and Hannah” is to uncover greater matriarchal influence in biblical antiquity, aside from the named women in premonarchic Israel, whose context is renowned for its patriarchal dominance. Lee performs this action through cultural analysis and technical and analytical dissection of the canon, breaking down sentences and word usage with techniques that teach lessons in literature, language, grammar, phonics, lyrical artistry, poetry, and prose with every ensuing chapter. The significance of such an analysis and the benefits of readers perusing Lee’s refreshing discoveries, is empowerment which is not only valuable to females, but liberating for both genders, as individual uninformed mindsets and the outlook of the traditional church as a whole is enlightened and transformed through Lee’s revelation of God’s enhanced use for women in generations past and present. This is of pertinent use in resolving immense controversy within churches regarding women in clergy roles as laywomen, pastors, preachers, prophets and more, a debate happening within many denominations for centuries up unto this present day.
Examples of Lee’s revitalizing discoveries include female utterances amongst songs assumed to be sung by males, including the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15:20-21), wherein Lee who doesn’t go as far as to confirm that the song is composed by Prophetess Miriam as others have suggested, although supportive of the notion, proposes rather to show how Miriam’s inspiration is infused in the lyrical tradition of songs such as this, preceding to do so by corroborating the traditions of Hebrew culture whereby songs such as Song of the Sea, were victory songs traditionally sung solely by Israelite women in honor of victorious warriors, the warrior in this particular song being Yahweh. Lee uses scripture following the Song of the Sea (Ex. 15:25-26) to show’s Miriam’s presence and investigates the style of the performance, suggesting redaction of canon and traditional interpretation as reasons for Miriam being secondary to Moses as the composer and singer.
Lee also gives through her analysis within “Hannevi’ah and Hannah” the possibility of woman prophets in the book of Micah, within the poems of Habakkuk, and among the lamentations of text from the book of Jeremiah. Lee makes contrasts between the voice of the lament in the book of Jeremiah for example, and the perspective of the prophet Jeremiah himself to suggest that the notable differences of the two indicate a women’s voice whose “imagery (similes and metaphors), terminology, content and themes, and poetic technique are similar to the laments within the book of Lamentations and are also “empathetic portrayals of Rachel as figurative mother.”1 In-depth study is also given to Deborah in the book of Judges with specific focus on the sound patterns within ‘the Song of Deborah’ in chapter 5, described by Lee as being key text for analyzing women’s lyrical tradition.
The reasons why female voices were hidden, extracted, and overlooked during the formation of scripture and canonical induction of the 66 books of the Bible can be attributed to a plethora of ideas and notions which served to establish a dominant patriarchal influence, an influence which is not undermined nor unappreciated, but rather complimented through Lee’s insights within “Hannevi’ah and Hannah,” which serve to create an atmosphere in which God equally blessed both men and women with unique gifts and purposes to intricately promote His will in the earth, intertwining two genders as revealed in the prophetic books, messages, and songs, Lee examines. Could it be that God created both men and women, together He created them? The Book of Genesis may have been on to something which Lee so wonderfully adds to with her enlightening analysis of the dormant female prophetic.
Notes
1. Nancy C. Lee, Hannevi’ah and Hannah: Hearing Women Biblical Prophets in a Women’s Lyrical Tradition (Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2015), 121.
