Intersecting Identities: Towards a Refined Understanding of Social Life in Early Judaism

This article foregrounds the importance of intersectionality and related approaches to our understanding of early Judaism. The first section discusses the rise of scholarly approaches that bring questions of the social world to the forefront of historical inquiry, and how the Dead Sea Scrolls have been integrated into the study of the Second Temple Jewish society. The second section introduces intersectionality and argues for the analytical benefits of reading and interpreting Jewish materials through an intersectional lens. By stressing the plurality of categories that characterise and shape the agency and experience of any human being, such a lens allows scholars to observe and examine (ancient) people and their social settings beyond a single-axis approach, with a special focus on power and its problematics. The final section discusses the case studies included in this issue which investigate both ancient texts and material objects in the light of new research paradigms.