Those Old Women: tell their stories

Those Old Women:tell their stories By Sheila Robinson Date 2015 Those Old Women:tell their stories The purpose of this novel is to ascertain from first-hand telling, the truth about the often harrowing, and frequently unfair experiences and ordeals that women of biblical antiquity endured. Although their experiences were written about and inserted into the scriptural narratives of the Old and New Testaments, the women were not the writers of their own stories. It was the male prophets and writers who chronicled the women’s stories within the sequence of events of the biblical story line. As a result, these questions arise, “How can a man write a woman’s story?” and “How can a male who is the keeper of a gender-off-balanced culture and society write a balanced account of a female experience?” Therefore, to correct the biased accounts of their life encounters, several women of biblical antiquity whose personal stories are documented in scripture, ask God for an opportunity to tell their own stories. God is favorable to their request and grants them the chance to speak from their experiences in order to do so. It is decided they will each share their own life story to be documented for all the world to read. Still another question arises, how will this happen? The women conclude that someone must be designated to become the story teller. But who? God tells them of a young woman in the 21st century named Jennifer who struggles with her century’s gender unfairness and her church’s gender inequities. The women can tell Jennifer their stories and she will write them. The matter is settled; together these old women travel through time into the 21st century to meet Jennifer.