Taking as points of departure Carol Meyers' concepts of (male) `authority' and (female) `power' as explained in Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context (1988), this paper explores the presence of biblical archetypes in Allegra Goodman's The Family Markowitz (1996) and Kaaterskill Falls (1998), focusing on the significance and meaning, for these two novels, of the biblical names of four female characters (Miriam, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Rachel) and three male characters (Isaac, Isaiah, and Elijah).

In Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context (1988), biblical scholar Carol Meyers addresses the issue of male dominance or patriarchy in agrarian societies like the ones depicted in the Old Testament. In this book-length study about the role of women in ancient Israel, Meyers explains that the society operated at two levelsthe public and the private:

The public sphere is everything outside the home: collective behavior, legal or judicial regulation of supradomestic matters, and responses to conditions that transcend the needs or problems of individual families. In this domestic-public scheme, female identity is linked with the domestic sphere and male identity with the public sphere. Females are said to be closer to the "natural" functions taking place in the domestic contexts; males are then more closely identified with supradomestic "cultural" life. (1988, p. 32)

This dichotomy between the public and private spheres helps Meyers establish a difference between the concepts of `authority' and `power.' Drawing on M Z Rosaldo's explanation of these two terms in Women, Culture, and Society (1974), Meyers defines authority "as the culturally legitimated right to make decisions and command obedience" (1988, p. 41). In this respect, in most patriarchal societies, men possess authority. Conversely, power "refers to the ability to effect control despite or independent of official authority. Regardless of legal status, power is the influence that females have in gender-related behavior" (1988, p. 41). It is through power that an individual can shape social interaction and social constructs. Meyers' claim is that although women were not present in the structures that granted authority in those patriarchal societies, they did have power. For instance, the story of Sarah proves that she is, spiritually speaking, a powerfuland resourcefulperson. When she tells Abraham to take Hagar, her Egyptian concubine, "Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai" (Gen. 16:2, King James Version). Later, when she asks him to banish Hagar and Ishmael, Abraham hesitates, but God tells him that " all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called" (Gen. 21:12). If it had not been for her, Abraham might have favored Ishmael, and not Isaac, and the history of the Jewish people would have been completely different.

American Literature Journal, Creative Midrash Forces, Biblical Archetypes, Kaaterskill Falls, Patriarchal Societies, Jewish Community, Modern Culture, Orthodox Judaism, Egyptthe Exodus, Elizabeth Shulman, Kirshner Community, Paradigmatic Polarities, Theological Treatises.