The Image of Woman in the Old and New Testaments

he diploma thesis called "P r e s e n t a t i o n o f F e m a l e C h a r a c t e r s i n t he O l d a n d N e w T e s t a m e n t s " endeavours to examine the depiction of female characters in the texts of the Old and New Testaments. The deuterocanonical books and addictions to Esther and Daniel are taken into account too. A list of the female characters and the interpretation of their names proves not only that there are many of them but also their importance. The classification suggested by this thesis is based on women's role in the story of our salvation and representative examples of these characters show their typical features as well as the personal ones. The characters are further described by means of the theological and historical context. Conclusions of these analyses are confronted with the commonly shared views and stereotypes in particular because of their claim that the Bible strongly promotes the patriarchal life concept. The author has concluded that the female characters in the Bible are much more important than people commonly think. Biblical authors naturally shared the patriarchal view of the world, in spite of it we can assume that they didn't belittle the importance of women.