re: #15 elizajane

Yes, that psalm got quoted often in the 16th century in debates about women’s work as retailers. Of which they did quite a lot.

What this sect is looking at is a very specific timeframe for the “Christian” woman—say, the late 19th century. And a specific class, middle and upper middle. It’s lightyears away from anything most Christians (or as you point out Jews) would ever have recognized.

I just read a great novel about this very thing, passive Victorian womanhood: The Life and Death of Harriett Frean by May Sinclair (1922). This short book should be required reading for anybody who wants to return women to a docile, self-sacrificing role.

I think you are spot on in your comments.