The Untold Story of “Mrs Noah” : The Hebrew Bible, Gender and Media: An Intertextual Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

The Bible is notorious for its androcentric narratives of biblical protagonists. Women’s stories are either abbreviated or erased. Where and when they are mentioned, women are represented negatively as whores, adulteresses and wicked temptresses. Where they are represented as virtuous, virtuousness is synonymous with meekness and submissiveness, both of which reinforce patriarchal ideologies. In the narrative of Noah, we read about the godliness and righteousness of Noah, but we only hear about his wife in passing. Mrs Noah is not only unnamed; she is voiceless and only exists in the shadow of her famous husband. This paper attempts to re-construct, based on Proverbs 31:10-31, the story of Noah’s wife from an intertextual critical discourse analysis perspective, to show that issues of gender and the media have evolved from biblical times to the detriment of women. The paper argues that when read within the cultural context of ancient Israel, the untold story of Noah’s wife is that of a great woman.