Me, Female, God. The Comparison Ps 131:2cd with Regard to the Image of God and the Self-image of the Woman Praying

Abstract

The reading of the MT ‘like an infant with me’ (Ps 131:2d) supports the thesis that Ps 131* was written from the perspective of a woman. This fact was erased by contextualisation, changing the consonants or the division of the sentence from the editors of the Psalter (attribution to David) to most commentaries and modern translations, thus omitting the female subject (exception: Zenger!). The comparison of the relationship ‘infant ‒ mother’ with ‘soul ‒ YHWH’ is widely received in research under the keyword ‘female characteristics of God’ (e.g. Isa 66:13), but from a (queer-)feminist perspective, it appears ambivalent. Positive: The attribution of characteristics with female connotations to God breaks up a one-sided male image of God. Negative: The link between infant and mother is a female stereotype that is perpetuated in this way.
What is not taken into account is that the comparison also contains statements about the self-image of the woman praying. On the one hand, she sees herself as a (male) infant and thus appropriates a male-centered form of relationship with God. On the other hand, she describes her role towards the infant as divine care, compares herself to YHWH and thus describes a female version of the image of God (cf. Gen 1:26; Ps 8). This deserves attention precisely because of the fatal male narrow-minded New Testament history of the effects of the image of God (1 Cor 11:7).