Early Jewish Writings

This collection of essays deals with aspects of women and gender relations in early Judaism (during the Persian, Greek, and Roman empires). Some essays focus on specific writings: the Greek (Septuagint) version of Esther, Judith, Joseph and Aseneth, and the Letter of Jeremiah. Others explore how certain biblical texts are reinterpreted: Eve in the Life of Adam and Eve, the mixing of the sons of God with the daughters of men from Genesis 6:1–4, the Egyptian princess at the birth of Moses, and how Josephus retells biblical stories. The third group of essays explore specific social contexts: Philo's views of women in the Roman empire, the Sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls, and women philosophers of the Therapeutae in Egyptian Alexandria.

CONTENTS

Introduction
Eileen Schuller and Marie-Theres Wacker
1. EARLY JEWISH WORKS
Adele Reinhartz
lXX Esther: A Hellenistic Jewish Revenge Fantasy
Barbara Schmitz and Lydia Lange
Judith: Beautiful Wisdom Teacher or Pious Woman? Reflections on the Book of Judith
Marie-Theres Wacker and Sonja Ammann
The Holy and the Women: Gender Construction in the Letter of Jeremiah
Angela Standhartinger
Intersections of Gender, Status, Ethnos, and Religion in Joseph and Aseneth
2. INTERPRETATIONS OF BIBLICAL WOMEN
Magdalena Díaz Araujo
The Sins of the First Woman: Eve Traditions in Second Temple Literature with special Regard to the Life of Adam and Eve
Veronika Bachmann
Illicit Male Desire or Illicit Female Seduction? A Comparison of the Ancient Retellings of the Account of the “Sons of God” Mingling with the “Daughters of Men” (Gen 6:1–4)
Hanna Tervanotko
“The Princess Did Provide all Things, as Though I Were Her Own” (Exagoge 37–38): Reading Exodus 2 in the Late Second Temple Era
3. WRITINGS AND THEIR HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Tal Ilan
Flavius Josephus and the Biblical Women
Maren R. Niehoff
Between Social Context and Individual Ideology: Philo’s Changing Views of Women
Joan E. Taylor
Real Women and Literary Airbrushing: The Women “Therapeutae” of Philo’s and the Identity of the Group
Maxine L. Grossman
The World of Qumran and the Sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls in Gendered Perspective
Bibliography
Contributors
Index of Ancient Sources