Women in bible. Eve: Forbidden Knowledge. Social Sciences Essay

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Rachel, Leah, and Hannah: Barren, Fertile and Prayer
In the Old Testament, barrenness was more like a disgrace as God had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob he would give them descendants who would receive blessings. Rachel’s and Hannah’s situations placed the women in difficult positions as they were ridiculed for their bareness at some point in time, but bore children after divine intervention (Oren-Magidor 90). Jacob sought a wife and visited Laban who was deceptive and presented Leah his older daughter yet Jacob wanted Rachel and he had to wait for seven more years working for Laban to marry Rachel. Despite bareness and fertility issues, prayer and trust in God offers hope that the future will be better for Leah who was fertile, but unloved, while Rachel and Hannah were barren.
Rachel the wife of Jacobs her sister bear children for Jacob that she envied her and even suggested it was better to die (Genesis 30:1). However, Leah envied Rachel as she felt by unloved by Jacob and both sisters directed their concerns to Jacob for either lacking love or children respectively (Alice 100). In Genesis 30: 22: 24, Gods fulfilled Rachel’s prayers, and she bore a son, who she named Joseph to indicate he became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said that God taken away her disgrace. Being a parent is a personal fulfillment as many married people desire to have children and they are mostly satisfied when they are biological parents. Leah felt that God had heard her prayers and thought that the birth of her children would result in Jacob loving her, but this did not happen even when she bore a second son.
Jacob had worked hard for fourteen years for his uncle Laban to get his wife Rachel, but she was barren. Rachel loved Jacob and wanted to please him by giving him offspring (s), but it difficult was to conceive.  At the same time, Rachel the younger sister to Leah knew, Jacob had a special love for her and also wanted to give her children, which fulfill the promise of creating a great nation. Thus, in due time, Rachel became the mother of Joseph and Benjamin and she when she gave birth she felt that God had taken away her shame associated with lack of biological children (Alice 112).  Rachel afraid to be in the presence of God and when God granted her request, and she bore a son and her dignity is the dignity of God (Oren-Magidor 101). In her desperation, Rachel already expressed disappointment as she not have children and preferred death, but Jacob relied to her that he was not God who grants children in Geneses 30:2.
Both Leah and Rachel were believers, and while prays helped them overcome their challenges they chose different ways. For instance, Leah named her children to reflect God’s faithfulness even as Jacob did not love her like Rachel. On the other hand, Rachel was a believer who made mistakes because she was barren she tried to pressure her husband. Both sisters named their children based on their circumstances and belief that God had fulfilled their prayers. The birth of their children was an affirmation of God approval even as they had both stayed childless, and their first children were external signal of their relationship with G...