The valued focus of a widow and an orphan statuses and scale of protection in the Old and New Testament tradition

Abstract

The article is devoted to a problem of a widow's place, status, scale of protection and vulnerability consideration due to the biblical tradition. Moreover, it discovers a problem of widows' and orphans' solitude and their incorporation into social life. Some ambiguity of a widow's place and role in ancient tradition is highlighted. The various contexts of a widow's image understanding are considered. The multi-vectoral focuses of a widow's image presentation in Biblical context are analyzed. The diverse contexts of solitude, exclusivity, devoted life, vocation, abandonment and protection at the same time, Heaven's protection are conceived. Presented factors of a widow's status are compared with the statuses of orphans, levits, foreigners, etc. The work is based on methodical description of the women' images who are selected from the Old and New Testament. Particular attention is given to Ukrainian context of a widow's image spiritual and semantic understanding.

Keywords

• вдова
• цінність
• образ
• аксіологія
• сирота
• символічність
• семантика
• самотність
• обраність
• захищеність
• окремішність
• заступництво