Shiphrah and Puah: brave, rebellious and wise heroines. The figure and actions of midwives in Ex 1, 15-22

Abstract

After the account of the beginnings of slavery suffered in Egypt, Ex 1: 15-22 narrates how two brave midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, moved by the fear of God, disobeyed the order to kill the newborn Hebrew males. Their intrepid and intelligent actions prevent infanticide and become a cause of blessing for the people and for themselves. These heroines embark on an unequal combat and defeat an all-powerful monarch who wants to destroy the People of God, and they become an example of the struggle against the culture of death and discarding. In a world that turns its back on immigrants and where ethnic cleansings and genocides still exist, they stand as prototypes of women of faith committed to the sufferings of the poor and the excluded. Remarkably, the biblical tradition did not recall their valiant epic; on the contrary, rabbinical tradition and Hebrew legends did. This article aims to recover the figures of Shiphrah and Puah, by carefully studying different aspects of these exceptional women, such as the office of midwife in ancient times, the possession of names, the question of their nationality, the reckless actions they carried out, the fear of God and the wisdom they possessed, their transformation into instruments of Providence, the blessing obtained, their cunning and courage, motherhood, resistance to oppression, their sisterhood, etc. For the analysis, different instances of the critical historical method, narratology, rabbinic interpretation and other approaches will be applied.