To Have and To Hold: Sexual Violence and the Bible
Explicit content warning
03/27/25 • 57 min
CW: This episode discusses themes of sexual assault and intimate partner violence.
Dr. Rhiannon Graybill shares her research on sexual violence in the Hebrew Bible and ways of reading such messy stories for then and now. We also talk about violent tropes in modern romance literature and Rome's origin stories—and what these kinds of tales do to those who read them.
She says, “In our world sexual violence is often grounded in or justified by the Bible, and the Bible is used against survivors of sexual violence. And so reading biblical stories as fuzzy, messy, and icky helps us dismantle our experiences of sexual violence and of rape culture.”
Access transcript and episode show notes: https://www.womenwhowentbefore.com/episodes/to-have-and-to-hold.
Women Who Went Before is written, produced, and edited by Emily Chesley and Rebekah Haigh.
The podcast's music is composed and produced by Moses Sun.
This podcast is sponsored by the Center for Culture, Society, and Religion, the Program in Judaic Studies, the Stanley J. Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, and the Committtee for the Study of Late Antiquity at Princeton University.
Views expressed on the podcast are solely those of the individuals, and do not represent Princeton University.
CW: This episode discusses themes of sexual assault and intimate partner violence.
Dr. Rhiannon Graybill shares her research on sexual violence in the Hebrew Bible and ways of reading such messy stories for then and now. We also talk about violent tropes in modern romance literature and Rome's origin stories—and what these kinds of tales do to those who read them.
She says, “In our world sexual violence is often grounded in or justified by the Bible, and the Bible is used against survivors of sexual violence. And so reading biblical stories as fuzzy, messy, and icky helps us dismantle our experiences of sexual violence and of rape culture.”
Access transcript and episode show notes: https://www.womenwhowentbefore.com/episodes/to-have-and-to-hold.
Women Who Went Before is written, produced, and edited by Emily Chesley and Rebekah Haigh.
The podcast's music is composed and produced by Moses Sun.
This podcast is sponsored by the Center for Culture, Society, and Religion, the Program in Judaic Studies, the Stanley J. Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, and the Committtee for the Study of Late Antiquity at Princeton University.
Views expressed on the podcast are solely those of the individuals, and do not represent Princeton University.
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Today, taboos about menstruation keep thousands of girls from attending school. For Jewish sages in late antique Persia, such beliefs led to laws that required women to stay away from their husbands during their periods and to wash at prescribed times. (Whether women followed these laws is another question!) Blood could pollute, yet it could also purify. And practices around menstruation may have helped religious communities define their identity.
Access transcript and episode show notes: www.womenwhowentbefore.com/episodes/bad-blood
Women Who Went Before is written, produced, and edited by Rebekah Haigh and Emily Chesley.
Podcast theme music is composed and produced by Moses Sun.
This podcast is sponsored by the Center for Culture, Society, and Religion, the Program in Judaic Studies, the Stanley J. Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, and the Committtee for the Study of Late Antiquity at Princeton University.
Views expressed on the podcast are solely those of the individuals, and do not represent Princeton University.
Women Who Went Before - To Have and To Hold: Sexual Violence and the Bible
Transcript
[Podcast theme music begins, and plays over the introduction]
Emily Chesley: Welcome to Women Who Went Before, a gynocentric quest into the ancient world! I’m Emily Chesley—
Rebekah Haigh: And I’m Rebekah Haigh—
Emily: —scholars, friends, and your hosts!
[podcast music ends]
Emily: In today’s episode, “To Have and to Hold: Sexual Violence and the Bible,” we talk with
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