The Holy Grail and the Female Uterus [Retrospectroscope]

A graph presents a comparison of a chalice to the female uterus. To start, observe the clear resemblance of both to an inverted pyramid shape. Let us now review the role of women in the ancient Jewish-Christian tradition. The Old Testament (OT), the first part of the Christian Bible, is based primarily on the Hebrew scriptures (or Tanakh). The New Testament collects later writings. In the OT, the book of Esther relates the story of a Hebrew woman in Persia who thwarted a genocide of her people, while the book of Ruth tells of a woman who married into an Israelite family and converted to Judaism. Ruth is the great-grandmother of King David and, hence, an ancestor of the Messiah.