When Deborah Met Jael

When Deborah Met Jael defines and situates the significant elements that might constitute lesbian-identified readings of scripture. Deryn Guest explores the instability of the lesbian label and the concept of a “lesbian sensibility” while defending the need to retain the ‘lesbian’ identifier despite shifts to queer terminology. An exploration of the differing social locations of lesbian-identified hermeneutics, noting in particular the adverse positions of lesbians socially, economically and religiously, grounds the subsequent proposal of three principles (and accompanying reading strategies) that might characterize lesbian-identified hermeneutics. These principles, which are not to be read as progressive linear movements but rather as interweaving commitments, include a commitment to a hermeneutic of hetero-suspicion, a commitment to strategies of appropriation, a commitment to the disruption of sex-gender binaries and a commitment to making a difference (which involves a willingness to confront the issue of biblical authority). Throughout, the author evaluates strategies that have been used to date by lesbians reading scripture, identifying those strategies that are most likely to provide empowerment contemporary lesbians in a variety of social contexts and she engages closely with relevant biblical texts to demonstrate how these strategies can be applied.