Holiness - set apart for the purposes of God. Overshadowed in what is clearly a male narrative, the Old Testament has some outstanding women, who made significant contributions to History.

Eve, formed by God to be Adam’s partner (Genesis 1:27; 2:18), decieved by a liar, into disobeying God, something that still happens all too often (Genesis 3:16). In the Abraham saga, Sarah has a part as important as Abraham’s and her name says it all, God changed her name from “Sarai,” “my princess,” to “Sarah,” “mother of nations” (Genesis 17:15–16). Isaac and his Rebecca are a great love story, she comforts him after the loss of his mother, then she ensures that her favourite, Jacob, becomes the heir to God’s promises (Genesis 27:5-17). There are lessons in the narrative of the 2 wives of Jacob, Leah and Rachel. The survival of the baby Moses was entirely due to the clever tactics of a number of women (Exodus 2:1-10).

The women of the Exodus from Egypt who redeemed Womanhood from the taint of original sin at Mt Sinai when they refused to have anything to do with worshipping the golden calf.

Women who endured pain and suffering, Jephthah’s virgin daughter, died because her father made an unwise vow (Judges 11:30-40). The concubine who died after being gang-raped to save her master from sexual abuse (Judges 19:22-30), Naomi, who lost her husband and sons, then guided her widowed daughter-in-law Ruth, a young Moabite widow, who became an ancestor of Jesus.

The prophetess Huldah was consulted on behalf of King Josiah over the book of the Law found in the Temple. While recognising that the king himself would be spared because of his faithfulness, she correctly saw the coming judgment on Jerusalem (2 Kings 22:14-20).

Some of the finest songs or hymns in the Old Testament are attributed to women. The songs of the widow Judith (Judith 16), of Hannah (1 Samuel 2:1-10), mother of the prophet Samuel, whose song inspired the Magnificat. Prophetess Deborah (Judges 5), one of the judges or governors of Israel, and Miriam (Exodus 15:21), sister of Moses and Aaron, one of the leaders of the exodus from Egypt. Miriam and Aaron had the courage to insist that God’s revelation came through them as well as Moses (Numbers 12:2).

There are important stories of women in the period after the exile. The oppression under Antiochus Epiphanes (160s BCE) produced several stories in which women play a prominent role. The story of Esther may be set in Persian times, but it probably belongs to the second century BCE, as Queen Esther by her skill and charm manages to stop a Jewish genocide from occurring. Susanna's story, probably came from the same period, illustrating the triumph of virtue. In the stories of the Maccabees there is included the martyrdom of seven brothers and their mother, who “was especially admirable and worthy of honourable memory” (2 Maccabees 7:20).

Buried in the literature of a patriarchal society, are many others who played a large part in God’s purposes but were not recorded.