Negative Images of Women in Some Selected Passages in the Old Testament and Its Impact on Women in the Contemporary Nigerian Society

The paper discussed the negative images of women in some selected passages of the Old Testament. Since it is not possible to deal with all negative pictures about women in the Old Testament, the work concentrated only on three images of women which are viewed negatively: women’s biological make up, women as temptress, women as harlots. The methodology used is a systematic and scrupulous referenced study of relevant books, journals and theses. The paper recognized that even though there are good pictures of some women like Deborah, Miriam and Huldah in the Bible, but these women in actual sense do not represent the condition of every Israelite woman. Perhaps more than any other, the patriarchal Old Testament culture that treat women as sinners affirms and reinforces the attitude of men to women in the contemporary society. Different images and languages of denigration usually used against women in the Nigerian society are clearly spelt out. However, the paper concludes that a new form of expression and interpretation of tradition should be used to uphold the images of women.  Equally, the paper recommended that there is need to change the negative linguistic models against women by specifically following the example of Jesus attitude to women of his days.