Gain insight into what life was like for women in ancient times with the two-course Women in the Biblical World bundle. Dr. Mark Chavalas takes an in-depth look at how women were viewed and treated in the ancient Near East, drawing information from primary texts including Mesopotamian, Greek, and Roman law codes, letters, and other literature. He compares and contrasts the attitudes and behavior of the ancient world in general with the portrayal of women in both the Old and New Testaments.
In Women in the Biblical World: Old Testament, Dr. Mark Chavalas provides a historical and archaeological survey of the status of women in the biblical world, considering Old Testament views on women alongside those of the larger ancient Near Eastern context. Beginning from the advent of the nation of Israel, he covers various cultures from the time period, including Mesopotamia, Egypt, Hittite Anatolia, and Iran, exploring primary texts that inform our understanding of the roles of women in the ancient Near East and the Old Testament.
In Women in the Biblical World: New Testament, Dr. Mark Chavalas provides a historical survey of the status of women in the Graeco-Roman world, from the advent of alphabetic texts in the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean regions during the late eighth century BC, to the first century AD. He looks at Greek and Roman documents as well as classical-period documents from Egypt and other regions of the Near East. Dr. Chavalas presents a rich historical context for understanding how women were treated in the New Testament, and closes the course by evaluating many of the New Testament passages concerning women.
Dr. Chevalas is author or coauthor of publications including Mesopotamia and the Bible (Baker, 2002) and the IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament (InterVarsity Press, 2000) and coeditor of The Ancient Near East and Women in the Ancient Near East. Dr. Chavalas has had fellowships at Yale, Harvard, Cornell, and other universities. He has nine seasons of excavation experience at various Bronze Age sites in Syria, and he is currently President of the American Oriental Society Middle West region and a member of the editorial board of the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.
His research over the past decade has focused on interconnections between ancient Mesopotamia and outlying areas such as Anatolia, Iran, Egypt, and Syro-Palestine. Other recent research has investigated gender constructs in the ancient Near East and Mesopotamian historiography. Dr. Chavalas’ current research is focused on writing a history of Bronze Age Syria from the advent of writing in the third millennium BC to the Iron Age. His courses cover a wide area, including ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, Syria, and Turkey; Iran before Islam; women in the ancient world; and the Akkadian and Sumerian languages.