There's a history book called Who Cooked the Last Supper? I openly admit that I've never actually read this book (it seemed to me a bit on the male-bashing side), but I really, really like the title, and if you're so inclined, please look it up. The title reminds me that in every event in history, even in the Christian Biblical history I was raised with, there are all sorts of gps and holes in the stories that we don't think about because they're background information. The thing is, since our world evolved culturally around the ment's stories being more important, we often overlook stories that can teach us just as much. That is, if they were written well. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot in the Bible about the women that shaped the history. But there is some. And here is a short reference guide to a few of those women, and what they did. It's up to you to figure out why it's important, and to decide if you want to go look for more.

Eve (Genesis)

Eve gets a bad rap, I think. After all, she caused the fall of humankind by eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. But if you read over the story, you see that as Eve was discussing whether or not to eat of the tree, she thought of how nice it would be to know the difference between good and evil. Which of course means that they didn't know the difference before. So was it really evil of her to eat of the tree? How would she know? I say this could have just as easily happened to Adam, since he didn't know the difference either, and we shouldn't hold either of them accountable for being kicked out of Eden. Maybe Eve wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she couldn't help that. God hadn't yet given us the ability of abstract thought. And afterwards she devoted herself to being the absolute best women she could be.

Sarai (Genesis)

Bitter, jealous, and even cruel when it came to her slave's son, who challenged her own son's inheritance, Sarai was a most sacrificing wife to Abram, and God seemed to take quite a liking to her. When young, she was so beautiful that when she and Abram moved to Egypt, he knew he would be killed so that the king could marry her. He asked Sarai to pretend to be his sister so that he might live. It worked. Abram was treated like royalty for having such a beautiful sister, and Sarai was sent off to be a concubine of the kind. Lucky for her, god was looking out for her best interests. God later renamed her Sarah, Hebrew for princess, and gave her a son at the age of 91, Isaac, calling her the mother of nations.

The Daughters of Zelophedhad (Numbers)

You can thank Mahlah, Noah, Holgah, Milcah, and Tirzah for going to Moses and petitioning the Lord through him that they might inherit their father's land. The Lord found that it was right that the daughters of a son-less man should be allowed to own his property after his death. And way back in the book of Numbers, no less! AMazing that our forefathers missed that one, eh?

Delilah (Judges)

Delilah was the second wife of Samson, an incredibly strong man who had really bad taste in women. His first wife sold him out so that her friends could know the answer to a riddle he told. But Delilah, she was in it for the money. Every day she asked Samson how someone could tie him up so that he would lose his strength, and tried every bogus answer he gave. Eventually (without ever catching on to why she wanted to know so bad), he told her the truth. She cut off his hair, and turned him over to the Philistines, who blinded and tortured her husband. She made all sorts of money on that venture. What happened to her after that is unclear. Check it out for yourselves.

Unnamed Concubine (Judges)

I can't tell this story because it bothers me a lot on many different levels. I couldn't figure out the moral, most likely because it was a moral for a different culture in a different time. To today's society, the moral is not what I think the proper one should have been, but that's me, today. The story is in the Book of Judges, beginning Chapter nineteen, verse one. It's a powerful story, and interesting to read through our eyes. But I can't do it here.

Ruth (Ruth)

Ruth was a fiercely loyal woman to her mother-in-law, Naomi. Naomi had lost her husband and sons during a famine, and Ruth took it upon herself to take care of her. Ruth became known throughout the land for her goodness and loyalty. When she started working in fields owned by Boaz to support herself and Noami, Boaz took it upon himself to make sure she was not molested in any way, and came home with much food. He eventually married her, praising her for staying within Naomi's family by doing so. It's a great story of love and goodness.

Esther (Esther)

Esther was a beautiful and strong-willed woman who took it upon herself to stand up to her husband, the cruel king Xerxes. Xerxes' prime minister Haman had issued a proclamation in the king's name that all Jews in the empire would be killed on a certain day. Esther herself was a Jew and put her own life on the line by standing up to her husband. Xerxes listened to his wife, and Haman and his songs were hanged for their evils. Way to stand up against oppression, Esther!

Judith (Judith)

Wow. Judith. She was a pious, beautiful, and very strong-willed woman. Her town was under siege and as food and water ran out, the leaders agreed with the weak and starving townspeople to surrender and become slaves rather than die, if in five days the Lord had not yet saved them. Judith invited said leaders to her home and chastised them for putting God to the test, when they themselves were being tested. She devised a plan which she kept secret, and stole away to the enemy base. She convinced them that she had a direct line to God and he would tell her when to attack her people. She said God wanted them to be smited because they had sinned against him. Because she was beautiful and well-spoken, they fell for it, and let her live in the camp. After a few days the general and some officers had a party, got really drunk, and the general decided to seduce Judith. Instead, Judith prayed to her God and received the strength to chop off the general's head. When his army found out that they had been shamed by a woman, and when the Israelites found out that they had not been abandoned by God, War ensued, and the Israelites followed Judith's battle orders and won. Judith was rich and famous the rest of her life, but remained pious and lived simply. And so long as she was alive, no one dared attack Israel.

Mary, the Virgin Mother (Gospels)

Mary was about thirteen and was engaged to be married when an angel told her she was pregnant. At first she thought the angel was accusing her of something, since she was not yet married, but her fears were put to rest. And Mary gave up her life as she knew it to become the Mother of God. As she watched him grow, and pull away from his family, and wander in the desert, and be surrounded with people, and killed by religious men who thought he was blaspheming. She went through an awful lot as a mother, and I can't imagine how she could balance being the mother of God and the mother of regular people (Mark 3.31). She must have been incredibly judicious to pull that one off, and I think that deserves some recognition.

There are other women in Christain Biblical history that often go unsung. It would be a shame if because they are not often noted, that they should be forgotten. Those who feel compelled to study the scriptures should make a special note to seek out these women and learn from them the goods and evils of life.