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Women have played an important role in Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins, in spite of social, cultural, and religious restrictions.

Overview

Article by Svetlana Renee Papazov

In the Greek society, men were the heads of the families. Society expected women to marry when they became of age. Their fathers and prospective husbands arranged this marriage. Women were simply passed from the house of one kyrios (master) to the house of another. Fathers gave their daughters their dowry when they married. If their fathers were dead, their brothers made a provision for it. When women became divorced, or when their husbands died and they had no children, these women returned to their former families, and took their dowries with them.

The ease with which a Grecian husband could terminate the marriage is quite disturbing to a contemporary student of history. The only thing the husband needed to do was to send his wife away to her paternal family and the marriage ended.13 Society did not allow women to conduct legal or economic transactions without a male guardian. In Athenian law women could not own property. Women did not generally inherit anything in the presence of equally close males.14

During their marriage, women in the Graeco-Roman world were supposed to occupy themselves with weaving within the house confines. The seclusion of women was common among Athenians as well. This lifestyle was probably promoted by the cultures of the most active trading peoples, whose influence was strong in the developed world. Greeks and Hebrews were those well-known merchants in the Mediterranean and Europe from 200 B.C. on. What made fashionable that practice was the fact wealthy Jewish traders had homes in each of the major cities of the known world, and to them, secluded wives were a display of social status. It was a matter of pride for Greek and Jewish merchants to have their wives as conspicuously and expensively secluded as possible.15

A respectable woman was not allowed to leave the house unless a trustworthy male escort accompanied her. A wife was not permitted to eat or interact with male guests in her husband’s home; she had to retire to her woman’s quarters. Men kept their wives under lock and key, and women had the social status of a slave. Girls were not allowed to go to school, and when they grew up they were not allowed to speak in public. Women were considered inferior to men. The Greek poets equated women with evil, such as they did with Pandora. In men’s view, woman was responsible for unleashing evil on the world.16

Since a Grecian woman’s sphere of life was her family, her active life did not really begin until her marriage. In the Classical period, women had been able to look forward to only two journeys: the first, from their father’s house to their husbands, the next from their husband’s house to the grave. Fortunately, with the entering of the Hellenistic period, things began to change for women.17 Families migrated to the new cosmopolitan cities, and although some restrictive conventions of the old city-states were retained, others were altered or completely discarded in response to the new dynamics of societal and individual needs.18

The status of Roman women was also very low. Roman law placed a wife under the absolute control of her husband, who had ownership of her and her possessions. He could divorce her if she went out in public without a veil. A husband had the power of life and death over his wife, just as he did his children. As with the Greeks, the Romans did not allow women to speak in public.20

But things in Rome began to change around 200 B.C. Nobody blamed the Romans any longer for the seclusion of women, since they already looked on their women as “emancipated.” Among the Romans, there were those who blamed the” barbarians” for the female house confinement. Roman women had brought their sisters in from the countryside in great masses to demonstrate against the Oppian Law — a law restricting ladies of the upper classes the display of luxury in dress and carriages.21 There were lengthy debates in the tribunes. They repealed the law.

In that freer political arena, Roman women increasingly moved about in public, and increasingly participated in their husbands’ careers. In addition, they conducted large-scale trading enterprises, and had considerable freedom to marry, divorce, remarry, and conduct their own affairs as they chose. Understandably, men were getting progressively uncomfortable with the freedom and power women were acquiring. Still, the household was the real power base for Roman women. Women’s most important purpose in life was procreation.22 Marital fertility was of great importance in the Roman world, and they closely related legitimate marriage with procreation.23 The Roman matron not only managed her home, her estate, her business affairs, but she also bore and educated children, training them in the international politics of the time.

Roman morals were much stricter for women, than for men. The Romans punished riotous banqueting by stringently enforced adultery laws. Some upper-class women, desiring to live such lifestyles, registered as prostitutes to protect themselves from consequences, since extramarital sex was legal for prostitutes. This is an example of women’s readiness to do anything, even use laws of prostitution, to gain extra freedom. On the whole, Roman women were well educated. The poor ones went to school; the richer were tutored at home. The double maternal and tutorial responsibilities of mothers, especially those in the middle and upper classes, set a standard of education for women that led to the tradition of scholarship among Christian women in the succeeding centuries.24

Looking at the place of women in late antiquity, we cannot forego a large sector of them who were involved in agriculture. In general, in the Graeco-Roman world, agriculture was a man’s domain, while women were confined to domestic chores. The common held belief was that the gods had made one gender — the women — fit only for a seated way of life, but too weak for activities out of doors, while the other gender — the men — were less suited for domestic work, but were strong enough for labor that required motion. That presumption applied primarily to women from the upper class society.25 Only Greek and Roman men of some social and economic standing would have been able to keep their wives and daughters totally withdrawn from physical labor and the world of men. Peter Garnsey asserts that in reality, two basic preconditions governed the lives of most people in antiquity: the level of poverty and the place of labor occupation. The mass of the population lived at or near subsistence level. The majority of people lived in rural areas. Peasant society greatly outnumbered the rich, and a large part of the labor force had to be employed in agriculture. 26

Yet, men laborers were not sufficient to deal with the needs of the family and the land, which meant that the majority of women in the Graeco-Roman world had to work in the fields out of necessity. Since the economic role of women profoundly affected their status and what might be called their personal freedom — women bore a large part of the outdoor work in more egalitarian communities based on hoe cultivation, but tended to be more secluded in the home, and largely occupied in the domestic sphere in male-dominated plough farming.27 The extent to which Greek and Roman women were involved in field work, and other outdoor tasks, contributed to the degree of visibility, or invisibility that was dictated by the physical location of their daily chores. That could had likely been a factor in shaping both their position with their own family, and their relations with, and access to the outer world.28

We can assume that an absolute majority of women in that epoch either belonged to households that lived by agriculture and had, at least at times, to rely on the labor of all its members, or were compelled as slaves or dependents to fulfill whatever tasks they were assigned.29 The extent to which women participated in farming labor depended on the size of an agricultural holding, and on the strength of the available labor force. Thus, small family units required greater efforts of their female members than larger estates. The generalizing observation by Aristotle that he made in his Politics, “the poor have to use their wives and children as servants since they cannot afford to keep slaves” could certainly be applied to the rural population as well.30

The social status of Jewish women in Palestine during the Graeco-Roman period had an image of its own. This status was not only shaped by the prevalent culture of the ruling empire, but also was strongly influenced by religious norms and expectations. Judaism, and later Christianity, had put their formative stamps on the identities of the Jewish women. As in the pagan cultures, the family was of utmost importance for the Hebrew woman. According to rabbinic sources, they regarded age 12 as the suitable age for Jewish girls to be given in marriage. In the rabbinic ideal, women are not to be found in the marketplace, where the risk to their chastity was considered enormous. Polygamy was present in the Jewish society, but was more likely to be an upper-class phenomenon. Wealthy men without heirs could afford to take other wives, while keeping the first. Poorer men were more likely to divorce under similar circumstances. Jewish women, when widowed, would frequently remarry.31

Concerning women’s education and study of Torah, girls learned to read and write only if someone at home taught them. Women were especially likely to know the rules for keeping a kosher household, particularly in Pharisaic and tannaitic families. The oral law prohibited women from reading the Torah out loud. Synagogue worship was segregated, and they did not allow women to speak. Jewish women were barred from public speaking.

Tal Ilan, who wrote her doctoral dissertation on Jewish Women in Graeco-Roman Palestine, believes that if women studied Scripture it was probably confined to Genesis. She asserts that women were involved in the performance of commandments connected to the Temple service.32 Although rarely, there were incidents in Judaism where women served as leaders in the ancient synagogue, and some were even well educated.33 Judaism and Christianity were both thriving religious movements in the Graeco-Roman period, and the evidence for female conversions suggests that women found both religions attractive.

Nevertheless, Jewish women were looked upon as inferior. Judaism found some substantiation of that presumption by looking at the bodily marker of circumcision. Men were set apart as Jewish by circumcision, but there was not a comparable bodily identification for Jewish women. For the rabbis, who considered the “natural” inferiority of women self-evident, the lack of bodily sign was not problematic. Even later in Christianity, some considered that since femaleness was inescapable, the female salvation would always be somehow lesser than that of males.34

The Essenes and Women

The Essenes reject pleasures as an evil, but esteem continence and the conquest over our passions, to be virtue. They neglect wedlock, but select other persons children, while they are pliable, and fit for learning, and esteem them to be of their kindred, and form them according to their own manners. 121 They do not absolutely deny the fitness of marriage, and the succession of mankind thereby continued; but they guard against the lascivious behaviour of women, and are persuaded that none of them preserve their fidelity to one man. (Josephus, Jewish War 2)

For no Essene takes to himself a wife, because woman is immoderately selfish and jealous, and terribly clever in decoying a man's moral inclinations, and bringing them into subjection by continual cajoleries. For when, by practising flattering speeches and the other arts as of an actress on the stage, she has deluded eyes and ears, then as having thoroughly deceived the servants she proceeds to cajole the master mind. And should she have children, she is filled with pride and boldness of speech, and what she formerly used to hint under the disguise of irony, all this she now speaks out with greater audacity, and shamelessly compels him to practices, every one of which is hostile to community of life. For the man who is either ensnared by the charms of a wife, or by force of natural affection makes children Ins first care, is no longer the same towards others, but has unconsciously become changed from a free man to a slave. (Philo).

On the west [of Lake Asphaltites] the Essenes flee away from the shores that are harmful, a people alone and in all the world strange above the rest, [being] without any woman, abdicating all sexual acts, without money, companioned by palms. (Pliny)

There is another order of Essenes, who agree with the rest as to their way of living, and customs, and laws, but differ from them in the point of marriage, as thinking that by not marrying they cut off the principal part of human life, which is the prospect of succession; nay rather, that if all men should be of the same opinion, the whole race of mankind would fail. 161 However, they try their spouses for three years' probation; and if they find that they have their natural purgations thrice, as trials that they are likely to be fruitful, they then actually marry them. But they do not use to accompany with their wives when they are pregnant, as a demonstration that they do not marry out of regard to pleasure, but for the sake of posterity. Now the women go into the baths with some of their garments on, as the men do with something girded about them. And these are the customs of this order of Essenes. (Josephus, Jewish War 2).

Pay no heed, therefore, my children, to the beauty of women, nor set your mind on their affairs; but walk in singleness of heart in the fear of the Lord, and expend labour on good works, and on study and on your flocks, until the Lord give you a wife... 5 1 For evil are women, my children; and since they have no power or strength over man, they use 2 wiles by outward attractions, that they may draw him to themselves. And whom they cannot 3 bewitch by outward attractions, him they overcome by craft. For moreover, concerning them, the angel of the Lord told me, and taught me, that women are overcome by the spirit of fornication more than men, and in their heart they plot against men; and by means of their adornment they deceive first their minds, and by the glance of the eye instill the poison, and then through the accomplished 4 act they take them captive. For a woman cannot force a man openly, but by a harlot's 5 bearing she beguiles him. Flee, therefore, fornication, my children, and command your wives and your daughters, that they adorn not their heads and faces to deceive the mind: because every woman 6 who useth these wiles hath been reserved for eternal punishment. For thus they allured the Watchers who were before the flood; for as these continually beheld them, they lusted after them, and they conceived the act in their mind; for they changed themselves into the shape of men, and 7 appeared to them when they were with their husbands. And the women lusting in their minds after their forms, gave birth to giants, for the Watchers appeared to them as reaching even unto heaven. 6 1 Beware, therefore, of fornication; and if you wish to be pure in mind, guard your senses from every 2 woman. And command the women likewise not to associate with men, that they also may be pure 3 in mind. For constant meetings, even though the ungodly deed be not wrought, are to them an 4 irremediable disease, and to us a destruction of Beliar and an eternal reproach. (Testament of Reuben).

Summary

Women were present in the community life regulated by the legal prescriptions in the Scrolls. This is indicated by the number of regulations pertaining to women, especially in the areas of marriage, sexual conduct, and biological causes of impurity. That these prescriptions were not simply the general laws in force in Judaism at this time and thus can tell us nothing about this particular community is evidenced by the fact that some of them embrace positions in opposition to other groups within Judaism of the period (e.g. the bans on uncle-niece marriage and polygamy). The regulations for community life also indicate the presence of women; in fact, women had particular roles to play in the governance of community life, and could attain special honored positions (e.g. “Mothers”). Finally, although the hierarchy of the community was male-dominated and the viewpoint of the Scrolls androcentric, there is nothing in the Scrolls themselves that indicates that women were deliberately excluded or that this was a male-only community.

The Qumran documents are the library or collection of the Jewish Essenes in the late Second Temple period. The Essenes included women, and its members married, but a subgroup within the Essenes eschewed marriage for purity reasons.82 Qumran was a study center for the Essenes, inhabited mostly by males pur suing a rigorous standard of purity and adhering to the Rule of the Community, but the majority of the Essenes lived throughout Judaea, following the regulations of the Damascus Document. This thesis allows us to place women back into the frame of Qumran studies, and resolves the question of so-called Essene “celibacy.”

Philo and Women

For Philo the ideal life is to live according to the law of nature, established by God through creation. (There no devil or corruption in Philo). And there is a cosmic principle which decrees the rule of the superior and the submission of the inferior. Since he accepts without question the natural superiority of the male and the inferiority of the female, it follows that Philo perceives male supremacy as enjoined by cosmic law.

Women are by nature "passive" "weaker", while men are "active" and "stronger".

There is danger and sin when their role are reversed.

The hierarchy of the universe has spirit at the top and matter at the bottom. As a result:

• Everything except God (who is pure spirit) has some natural superior;
• Everything except unformed matter has some natural inferior.
• The goodness, happiness, and dignity of every being consists in obeying its natural superior and ruling its natural inferiors

Self-control

Philo designates the lower, carnal part of the individual (the senses) as female, and the higher, spiritual part (the mind) as male.

The allegorical interpretation of the sin of Adam and Eve:

In human beings the mind occupies the rank of the man, and the sensations that of the woman. And pleasure joins itself to and associates itself with the sensations first of all, and then by their means cajoles also the mind, which is the dominant part. For, after each of the senses have been subjected to the charms of pleasure, and has learnt to delight in what is offered to it, the sight being fascinated by varieties of colours and shapes, the hearing by harmonious sounds, the taste by the sweetness of flowers, and the smell by the delicious fragrance of the odours which are brought before it, these all having received these offerings, like handmaids, bring them to the mind as their master, leading with them persuasion as an advocate, to warn it against rejecting any of them whatever. And the mind being immediately caught by the bait, becomes a subject instead of a ruler, and a slave instead of a master, and an exile instead of a citizen, and a mortal instead of an immortal. (166) For we must altogether not be ignorant that pleasure, being like a courtesan or mistress, is eager to meet with a lover, and seeks for panders in order by their means to catch a lover. And the sensations are her panders, and conciliate love to her, and she employing them as baits, easily brings the mind into subjection to her. And the sensations conveying within the mind the things which have been seen externally, explain and display the forms of each of them, setting their seal upon a similar affection. For the mind is like wax, and receives the impressions of appearances through the sensations, by means of which it makes itself master of the body (Op. 165-166).

Males (being both rational and irrational) can and should control themselves.

For the sake of sense-perception the Mind, when it has become her slave, abandons both God the Father of the universe, and God's excellence and wisdom, the Mother of all things, and cleaves to and becomes one with sense-perception and is resolved into sense-perception so that the two become one flesh and one experience .... But if Sense the inferior follow Mind the superior, there will be flesh no more, but both of them will be Mind (LA 2.49f.).

Women instead (being irrational) are unable to control themselves but must be controlled by men and by law

"The soul has, as it were, a dwelling, partly men's quarters, partly women's quarters. Now for the men there is a place where properly dwell the masculine thoughts (that are) wise, sound, just, prudent, pious, filled with freedom and boldness, and akin to wisdom. And the women's quarters are a place where womanly opinions go about and dwell, being followers of the female sex. And the female sex is irrational and akin to bestial passions, fear, sorrow, pleasure, and desire, from which ensue incurable weaknesses and indescribable diseases. (Quaest. Gen. 4:15).

Good women and bad women

For Philo women represent danger, even death, when they are uncontrolled or when they usurp the position of authority. Women are helpful, even necessary, when they are under firm masculine control.

Philo recognizes only two types of women, the "ladies", astai, and the "harlots", pornai. The former live a life of virtual seclusion, devoted to home, husband and children. The latter are those who do not meet this standard. Whether they display themselves in public, practise magic, join other religious groups, or actually engage in sexual misconduct, Philo condemns them all as pornai, enemies of the people, deserving extinction. astai are women who work within the social framework established by men, and their actions contribute to the welfare of men. Pornai represent danger, and in their presence man must choose between fight or flight, depending on his own powers of resistance.

The women are best suited to the indoor life which never strays from the house, within which the middle door is taken by the maidens as their boundary, and the outer door by those who have reached full womanhood . . A woman, then, should not be a busybody, meddling with matters outside her household concerns, but should seek a life of seclusion. She should not shew herself off like a vagrant in the streets before the eyes of other men, except when she has to go to the temple (hieron), and even then she should take pains to go, not when the market is full, but when most people have gone home, and so like a free-born lady worthy of the name, with everything quiet around her, make her oblations and offer her prayers to avert the evil and to gain the good. . Should she not when she hears bad language stop her ears and run away? (Spec.3.171-174).24

Jesus and women

An extraordinary treatment of Women?

"Jesus came to the Earth to break the gender bias ..."

“What would be the status of women in the Western world today had Jesus Christ never entered the human arena? One way to answer this question,” writes Dr. Schmidt, “is to look at the status of women in most present-day Islamic countries. Here women are still denied many rights that are available to men..." But is it really the case?

Jesus spoke to women, healed women

• Canaanite Woman (Mark 7:24–30) // Matthew 15:21-28 // no Luke

• Bleeding Woman Mark / Matthew / Luke

• Samaritan Woman only John 4

• Jesus at the Home of Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42) no parallel

• The Adulteress (John 8:1-11)

Paul and women

"There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male of female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28).

Contrary to what happened to Gentiles, the gift of justification (baptism) was offered immediately to women without reservations, and from the beginning of the Early Christian church, women were important members of the movement. As time went on, groups of Christians organized within the homes of believers. Those who could offer their home for meetings were considered important within the movement and assumed leadership roles. Turning the private domestic setting into the public religious setting opened up to women opportunities for religious leadership. Such women were Lydia, Priscilla, Phoebe, Junia, and many others, who are mentioned by Paul as his co-helpers.

Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.[Col. 3:18–19]

Paul’s commands for husbands and wives in Colossians provided a completely new way to look at marriage: as an earthbound illustration of the spiritual mystery of the union of Christ and His bride — the church. Paul called wives to not only submit to their husbands as to the Lord, but he called husbands to submit to Christ.44 He called men to love their wives in the self-sacrificing way Christ loved the church. In a culture where a wife was property, and a disrespected piece of property at that, Paul elevated women to a position of honor previously unknown in the world.

Covering the head

Although Paul repeats that in this world "the husband is the head of his wife", he reminds his followers that " in the Lord woman is not independent of man or man independent of woman. 12 For just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman; but all things come from God."

In the eucharist, through baptism, women have received authority, and they may pray or prophecies "before the angels".

"I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the husband is the head of his wife, and God is the head of Christ. 4 Any man who prays or prophesies with something on his head disgraces his head, 5 but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled disgraces her head--it is one and the same thing as having her head shaved. 6 For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or to be shaved, she should wear a veil. 7 For a man ought not to have his head veiled, since he is the image and reflection of God; but woman is the reflection of man. 8 Indeed, man was not made from woman, but woman from man. 9 Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man. 10 For this reason a woman ought to have a symbol of (her) authority on her head, because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man or man independent of woman. 12 For just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman; but all things come from God. 13 Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head unveiled? 14 Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is degrading to him, 15 but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering. 16 But if anyone is disposed to be contentious--we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God. (1 Corinthians 11:3-16).

A problematic passage

"As in all the congregations of the Lord’s people. Women should remain silent in the churches, They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church." (1 Cor 14:33-35).

This passage contradicts what Paul says in other passages (see 1 Corinthians 11:5: "every woman who prays or prophesies"). Does the passage refer to the assemblies of the community outside the communal meal? Many understand it as a later interpolation, as it reflects similar passages in 1 Timothy: "A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet." (1 Timothy 2:9-15).

In Depth

• A (sources) -- survey of ancient sources

• A (arts) -- survey of fictional works

• A (research) -- survey of scholarly works

See also Esther / Judith / Mary of Nazareth / Mary Magdalene / Salome / Salome Alexandra

• Women Scholarship /Women Fiction

References

• Women / Tal Ilan / In: The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism (2010 Collins / Harlow), dictionary, 1346-1349

• Women in Greco-Roman World and Judaism / Catherine C. Kroeger / In: Dictionary of New Testament Background (2000 Evans & Porter), dictionary, 1276-1280

• / [[]] / In: The Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992 Freedman), dictionary,

External links

• Wikipedia