Streszczenie:
The issue of the female authorship of biblical texts has received an academic interest in recent years. Although it is challenging to prove any authorship, or to define the gender of individual authors, there are elements in the biblical texts that may indicate the female authorship. This article aims at the sociolinguistic analysis of the Hebrew text of Psalm 131 wherein the psalmist uses the metaphor of a weaned child on her /his mother’s lap as an inspiration to trust God. Through this metaphor the psalmist makes a woman speak about her daily experience as a mother in the domestic realm and how it affects her relationship with God. Scholars treat the use of the metaphor in the Psalm as an example of the female voice that was included in the biblical text as part of the religious experience. Importantly this poem belongs to the collection of the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120-134) – a series of songs used by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem during festal pilgrimages and a cultic procession to the Temple as well. Frequent mention of the names Zion and Jerusalem; exhortations for confession and hope of the community of Israel; liturgical terminology such as blessings and peace indicates the communal and liturgical dimension of this collection. Psalm 131 as a part of this pilgrimage collection with the metaphor of the mother and her child suggests that the female imagery was not out of place in the context of the public worship, but, in contrast, contributed to the religious piety of the ancient Israel. This study consists of the linguistic and literary analysis of the Psalm, including comparative study of the ancient translations, study of textual particularities of selected lexemes, examination of the historical and social contexts of the Psalm, theological interpretation of the poem.
