Nadunga, Annet2026-03-262026-03-262025-10Nadunga, A. (2025). The ideal wife of proverbs 31:10-31: a contextual study in relation to contemporary marriages in Uganda.Kyambogo University (Unpublished work).https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12504/2790x, 239 p.This study is a contextual analysis of אֵֽשֶׁת־ חיִל (the ideal wife) of Proverbs 31:10-31 in relation to the African ideological conceptualizations of a good wife. The contemporary African society is a multi-ideological environment, which includes Afro-Christian and women emancipation ideals. These ideologies play concurrent and conflicting roles in informing value judgements in marriage and family life. This study problematizes the contemporary ideological constructs of a good wife and advocates for an ideological framework, which protects the African family and marriage. This ideological framework should emerge from the negotiations between the Afro-Christian and women emancipation ideologies. The study is hinged on the following objectives: to examine the textual and contextual meaning of אֵֽשֶׁת־ חיִל in Proverbs 31:10-31; Explore the African contextual Bible interpretation of אֵֽשֶׁת־ חיִל in Uganda; and lastly, to establish ways in which the contextual understanding of אֵֽשֶׁת־ חיִל can inform an understanding of an ideal wife in the contemporary African society. The study took a textual and contextual Bible Study (CBS) approach, which revealed an array of interpretations of the concept of ideal wife ( אֵֽשֶׁת־ חיִל ) across different settings and categories of participants. The lexical analysis of the Hebrew word אֵֽשֶׁת־ חיִל revealed fluidity especially in the functionality of the concept of חיִל . Moreover, the textual analysis across contemporary language translations revealed the cultural whims of the audience on the idea of an ideal wife. On the other hand, the CBS revealed resistance and adaptations from the participants on the notion of an ideal wife, which inevitably highlight differences in the ideological lenses. The views from the textual and contextual analysis were used in informing the advocacy for the new ideological space. The fluidity in the Hebrew חיִל gave the researcher liberty to reimage and reconstruct אֵֽשֶׁת־ חיִל in view of an ideal wife in the contemporary context. It is from this framework that the religio-cultural notions of a good wife, as well as the excesses of emancipation ideals are questioned in search of a third ideological space that is friendly to contemporary marriages and family relation.enBible. Proverbs XXXI10-31CriticisminterpretationWivesBiblical teachingThesis