ABSTRACT
At various points in the biblical tradition, both in the Hebrew Bible (HB) and in the New Testament (NT), female barrenness is seen as a disability which impacts individuals and the broader community. After all, the first blessing in the HB is Genesis 1: 28, in which ‘God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it”’. Examples of barrenness in the HB, which run counter to God’s blessing, include Sarah, Rebekah, Hannah and Samson’s mother; in the NT, the most significant example is Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. Their disability is healed when God gives them all the blessing of a child.
