On a Newly Published Divorce Bill from the Judaean Desert

Research notes: 
reader checked 31/07/2012 AL
Reference type: 
Journal Article
Author(s): 
Ilan, Tal
year: 
1996
Full title: 

On a Newly Published Divorce Bill from the Judaean Desert

Translated title: 
Journal / Book Title || Series Title: 
Harvard Theological Review
Volume: 
89
Issue / Series Volume: 
2
Number of volumes: 
0
Series Title: 
Abbreviated Series Name: 
Collaborating Author: 
Place of Publication: 
Publisher: 
Pages: 
195-202
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Abstract: 

A wife's right to divorce her husband does not exist in Jewish law, or so claims virtually every textbook on Jewish law. Over the years scholars have, of course, noted exceptions to this absolute assertion. In Jewish marriage contracts from Elephantine, for example, women have a right to divorce equal to that of men. Another example is the Gospel of Mark's logion on divorce, which apparently implies that either a woman or a man can initiate divorce procedures. Josephus, moreover, relates that Salome, King Herod's sister, sent her husband a bill of divorce. Mainstream scholarship has too often brushed aside these pieces of evidence as nonrepresentative actions or misunderstandings on the part of a transmitter. The Elephantine community was thus remote and had lost contact with the center of Jewish life many years earlier, living a pagan existence and following the legal practices of its neighbors. Mark was a non-Jewish author describing the actions of Palestinian Jews in light of more familiar Roman legal practices. Salome's actions contradicted Jewish law and succeeded only because of her Roman citizenship.

Notes: 
Language: 
Alternative title: 
HTR
Date: 
Primary Texts: Judean Desert Documents: 
Scroll / Document: 
XHev/Se 13
Edition: 
Original Publication: 
Reprint edition: 
URL: 
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1510140
DOI: 
ISBN: 
Accession number: 
Call num: 
Label: 
19/09/1996
Record number: 
14 712