Denying her voice: the figure of Miriam in ancient jewish literature

The task of this study is twofold. First, to analyze the treatment and the development of the figure of Miriam as a literary character in ancient Jewish texts by taking into account all the references to this figure preserved in the ancient Jewish literature from the exilic period to the early second century C.E.: Exodus 15:20-21; Numbers 12:1-15; 20:1; 26:59; Deuteronomy 24:8-9, 1 Chronicles 5:29; Micah 6:4, the Septuagint, the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q365 6 II, 1-7; 4Q377 2 I, 9; 4Q543 1 I, 6 = 4Q545 1 I, 5; 4Q546 12, 4; 4Q547 4 I, 10; 4Q549 2, 8), Jubilees 47:4; Ezekiel the Tragedian 18; Demetrius Chronographer frag. 3; texts by Philo of Alexandria: De vita contemplativa 87; Legum allegoriae 1.76; 2.66-67; 3.103; De agricultura 80-81; Liber antiquitatum biblicarum 9:10; 20:8, and finally texts by Josephus: Antiquitates judaicae 2.221; 3.54; 3.105; 4.78.
The passages referring to Miriam demonstrate that the picture of Miriam preserved in the ancient Jewish texts is richer than the Hebrew Bible suggests. Her function extends beyond the household-responsibility role that is often assigned for women in antiquity. The peak of Miriam traditions fall to the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C.E. when this figure was used to promote the Levite family. After this period, the figure of Miriam lost, at least partly, her prominence, and she became the target of different interpretations. She did not fit into the ideal of a woman in Roman era, and she became more marginalized in a number of texts.
Second, in light of poststructuralist literary studies that treat texts as reflections of specific social situations, I argue that the treatment of Miriam in ancient Jewish literature reflects mostly a reality in which women had little space as active agents. In particular the interpretation of Miriam in the Greco-Roman era shows that when the political goals in the texts are emphasized, the room for women gets narrower. Despite this general tendency, prominent women may have enjoyed occasional freedom. Miriam continues being attributed the title prophetess during the Greco-Roman era. That demonstrates that the female prophecy was a known phenomenon even in a context that generally played down women.