Women's Inheritance Law in the Old Testament

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The issue of land and its law of inheritance is not only a crucial concern in the Hebrew Bible but also in our society today. The book analyses this issue by a careful examination of biblical assessment of inheritance and ancient west Asian inheritance law along with inheritance rights of ancient Israel and Israelite women against the backdrop of Biblical scholarship. The author also attempts to link the concerned subject with the contemporary issues pertaining to women's inheritance right.

Dr. Nyimangyang Chang is a member of Baptist Church. She hails from Tuensang District of Nagaland. She has been awarded several theology degrees, including Doctor of Theology (2017), all from Senate of Serampore College (University)/ SATHRI. Her ministerial service includes teaching both at B.D. and M.Th. levels, chaplaincy and administrative responsibilities. Currently, she is the Dean of Graduate Studies and Head of the Department of Old Testament at Gurukul Lutheran Theological College & Research Institute, Chennai. She is married to Dr. L. Bimol and they are blessed with two children, Manna and Yensen.

The various movements for women's rights have impacted the institutions world- wide-the legislatures, law-enforcement systems, the judiciary, religious customs. etc. However, the speed and the spread of these changes in favour of women were never equal. There are many societies tucked away from the main streams of these changes. They remain untouched by the changes these movements have effected. The Chang women mainly in Nagaland and scattered in the neighbouring states of India are one of them.
This work is by a Chang woman. She has endeavoured to explore the property rights of women in the Bible and in her own community. She underscores the fact that Chang women are still not treated equal to their male counterparts when it comes to property rights. So, she turns to the biblical witness regarding the women's right to ancestral property.
Nyimang Chang offers a detailed study of the case of the daughters of Zelophehad found in Numbers 27:1-11. This provides the biblical basis for her exploration. In this narrative, we find a highly patriarchal society allowing women equal right with men to their ancestral property. This is a crucial development in Israelite legal system where the legislators make an exemption in favour of women.
This study is remarkable in many ways. First of all its breadth is remarkable. The author explores the legal systems in the Ancient West Asian cultures and in the various traditions of the Old Testament. Secondly, the author's locus contributes to its comprehensiveness. The author is positioned to offer a 360 degree view of the case. She is a Chang-Naga woman, thus an insider. She is treated as a woman without any legal right to her ancestral property like all other Chang women. However, she is an outsider as well. She is married outside her own community and thus subject to another legal system. As an insider, she has a more empathetic knowledge of the situation. At the same time, as an outsider and as an academic, her study is more objective using tools that are not usually available to ordinary Chang women.