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Women in the Bible, Qumran and Early Rabbinic Literature Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah Women in the Bible, Qumran and Early Rabbinic Literature Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah Edited by George J. Brooke Associate Editors Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar Jonathan Ben-Dov Alison Schofield VOLUME 110 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/stdj Women in the Bible, Qumran and Early Rabbinic Literature Their Status and Roles By Paul Heger LEIDEN | BOSTON This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-NC 3.0) License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Heger, Paul, 1924– Women in the Bible, Qumran, and early Rabbinic literature ; their status and roles / by Peter Heger. pages cm. — (Studies on the texts of the desert of Judah, ISSN 0169-9962 ; VOLUME 110 504 Includes bibliographical references and index.) ISBN 978-90-04-27691-8 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-27711-3 (e-book) 1. Women in the Bible. 2. Women in rabbinical literature. I. Title. BS575.H44 2014 296.1082—dc23 2014012751 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual ‘Brill’ typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 0169-9962 isbn 9�� 90 0� 2�6�1 � (hardback) isbn 9�� 90 0� 2��11 3 (e-book) Copyright 2014 by Paul Heger. This work is published by Koninklijke Brill NV. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Global Oriental and Hotei Publishing. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect the publication against unauthorized use and to authorize dissemination by means of offprints, legitimate photocopies, microform editions, reprints, translations, and secondary information sources, such as abstracting and indexing services including databases. Requests for commercial re-use, use of parts of the publication, and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV. This book is printed on acid-free paper. To my family and worldwide friends, who encouraged me to take the demanding path of transition to academic activity at an advanced age, and assisted me in overcoming the manifold obstacles on that uphill road. ∵ Contents Preface and Acknowledgements xiii Introduction 1 Methodology 5 Plan of the Book 5 Sources 7 part 1 1 The Creation Narrative and the Status of Women 11 1.1 Introduction 11 1.2 The Biblical Text: Problems and Interpretations 11 1.2.1 Key Textual Differences between the Creation Narratives of Gen 1 and 2 11 1.2.2 Textual Issues in the Creation Narrative of Gen 2 12 14 עזר כנגדו Interpreting the Phrase 1.2.3 1.2.4 Implications of Man’s Prior Creation 18 1.2.5 The Creation of Woman from Man (Gen 2:21–24) 22 1.2.6 God’s Presentation of Eve to Adam, and His Reaction 26 1.2.7 Scholarly Opinions and Interpretations 32 1.2.8 Male-Female Equality or Inequality as a Consequence of the Creation Narrative 35 1.3 Qumran’s Possible Understanding of the Creation Narrative and Its Legal Ramifications 39 1.4 Rabbinic Interpretation of the Creation Narrative: Positive and Negative Attitudes towards Women in Midrashim 42 1.5 Conclusion 45 2 Interpretations of the Fall Narrative 46 2.1 Introduction 46 2.2 The Biblical Text: Problems and Interpretations 47 2.2.1 Close Textual Analysis of Gen 3:1–14 47 2.2.2 Gen 3:14–24: Distinct Retributions for Adam and Eve 52 2.2.3 Jubilees’ Intentional Changes to the Biblical Text 60 2.2.4 Scriptural Attitudes towards Women 64 viii contents 2.2.5 Excursus: Is Jubilees’ Attitude towards Women Negative or Positive? 72 2.2.6 Intermediate Summary 77 2.3 Qumran Interpretation of the Woman’s Role in the Fall Narrative 78 2.3.1 Hypotheses of Woman’s Role in the Fall Event 78 2.3.2 No Allegation of Sexual Misbehaviour of Women in Qumran Writings 80 2.4 The Rabbinic Interpretation of the Fall Narrative 83 2.4.1 Midrashim with Negative Views towards Women 83 2.4.2 Midrashim Attributing Guilt to Adam, Mitigating Eve’s Guilt 86 2.4.3 Rabbinic Attitudes towards Women: A Brief Overview 89 2.4.4 Rabbinic Rules of Behaviour for Contact with Women and Their Interpretation 90 2.5 Underlying Philosophy and Theology of Rabbinic Midrashim and Quasi-Halakhot 92 2.5.1 Women’s Character: The Dinah Affair 92 2.5.2 Frymer-Kensky’s Theory 94 2.5.3 Rabbinic Conceptions of Men’s Character 97 2.6 Deducing the Theology and Philosophy Underlying Rabbinic Literature 100 2.6.1 General Principles, Criteria, and Premises 100 2.6.2 Assessing Contrasting Midrashim and Pronouncements 101 2.6.3 Summarizing Rabbinic Opinion 103 2.7 Conclusion, Part 1: Interpretations of the Creation and Fall Narratives 105 part 2 3 The Father’s Authority and Responsibility, and Their Limitations: A Debate with Scholarly Theories 113 3.1 Introduction 113 3.2 Slavery and Manumission for Israelite Women: Scriptural Rules 113 3.3 Rabbinic Rules Relating to Male and Female Minors 124 3.4 Plausible Attitude of Qumran towards the Father’s Authority 126 3.5 A General Reflection on the Status of Women in Jewish Writings 128 contents ix 4 Women’s Obligations to Fulfill Biblical Precepts 131 4.1 Introduction 131 4.2 Scriptural Attitudes towards Women’s Obligations 132 4.2.1 Scriptural Commands That Lack Precision about Gender 132 4.2.2 Did Women Participate in the Revelation at Sinai? An Analysis of the Scriptural Text 133 139 עדה and העם The Range of 4.2.3 4.2.4 Ramifications of Women’s Absence from the Revelation at Sinai 141 4.2.5 The Husband’s Authority to Decide Which Precepts His Wife Must Fulfill: The Evidence 143 4.3 Rabbinic Viewpoints on Women’s Obligations to Fulfill Biblical Precepts 148 4.3.1 Did Women Participate in the Sinai Revelation? Rabbinic Opinions 148 4.3.2 Rabbinic Attitudes towards Women’s Obligations: Introduction 152 4.3.3 Rabbinic Theories and Their Textual and Practical Background 154 4.3.4 How Women’s Obligations Became Institutionalized 162 4.4 Debating Safrai’s Theory on the Sequence of the Developmental Stages 163 4.4.1 Consequences from the Rabbinic Midrashim about the Rules for Teaching Women 163 4.4.2 Additional Evidence against Safrai’s Theory 165 4.5 Qumranic Attitudes on Woman’s Obligations to Fulfill Biblical Precepts 170 4.5.1 Introduction 170 4.5.2 Implicit Deductions from Qumranic Texts 170 4.6 Conclusion 174 5 Were Women Members of the Eda–Yahad? 176 5.1 Scriptural Commands That Lack Precision about Gender 176 5.2 Qumran’s Principle of Eda, the Yahad Holy Community, and Its Legal Implications 176 5.3 References to Yahad in Qumran Writings: Differing Scholarly Proposals 184 5.4 Sharing Wealth of Members in 1QS and in CD: Identical or Different? 189 5.4.1 1QS Community Rules Texts 190 5.4.2 Harmonization of Apparent Inconsistencies 192 x contents 5.5 Interim Conclusion 195 5.6 Debating Schuller’s and Grossman’s Theories 197 5.6.1 The Status of Women and Children in the Eda 197 5.6.2 Schuller’s Interpretation 199 5.6.3 Grossman’s Interpretation 204 5.6.4 Further Debates on Women’s Status in Qumran 208 5.7 Debating Wassen’s Theory 213 6 The Polygamy Rules of CD IV:20–V:2 and 11Q19 LVII:15−19 and Their Sources: Implications for Divorce and Remarriage 220 6.1 Introduction 220 6.2 The Interpretation of CD IV:20–V:1: Disputing Schremer’s Theory 222 6.3 Motivations and Sources of the Prohibition on Polygamy in CD 225 6.3.1 The Motivation for the Prohibition: Wassen’s Conjecture 225 6.3.2 The Biblical Source of the Polygamy Prohibition in the CD 226 6.3.2.1 Lev 18:18 or a Logical Consideration of Gen 1:27 and 7:9? 226 Debating Gruber’s Narrow :זנות The Meaning of 6.3.2.2 Interpretation 228 6.3.2.3 Further Arguments against Gruber’s Theory 230 6.3.3 The Source of the Prohibition on Polygamy in 11Q19 LVII:15–19 235 6.3.4 Further Questions on the Polygamy Prohibition 238 6.3.5 Thoughts on the Motive behind Qumran’s Prohibition of Polygamy 239 6.3.6 Interim Conclusion on the Source of the Polygamy Prohibition in the CD 240 6.4 Does CD Prohibit Divorce? 241 6.4.1 Shemesh’s Theory: Sexual Intercourse between a Man and an Unmarried Woman Is Equivalent to Marriage 244 6.4.2 Vered Noam’s Theory That Qumran Followed the Rule of the Ancient Halakah, Prohibiting Divorce Altogether 247 7 Asceticism in Scripture and in Qumran and Rabbinic Literature 249 7.1 Introduction 249 7.2 What Is Asceticism? 250 7.3 Fraade on Rabbinic Asceticism 252 contents xi 7.4 The Biblical Attitude towards Pleasure: The Antithesis of Asceticism 262 7.4.1 The Scriptural Concept of Fasting 265 7.5 Pleasure and Self-Denial in the Rabbinic Literature 267 7.5.1 Boyarin’s Thesis: The Good and Evil Desires 267 7.5.2 Rabbinic Attitude towards Pleasure 270 7.6 Fraade’s Thesis: Obstacles to Spiritual Fulfillment 272 7.6.1 Fraade’s Definition of Perushim 275 7.6.2 Self-Denial of Pleasure during Mourning Is Not Asceticism 279 7.6.3 Nazirite Abstention Is Not Asceticism 282 7.6.4 The Rabbinic Concept of Fasting 288 7.7 Asceticism in the Qumran Texts 292 7.7.1 Preliminary Considerations 292 7.7.2 Fraade’s Thesis: An Ascetic Community in Qumran? 293 7.8 Conclusion 298 8 Genealogy and Holiness of Seed in Second Temple Judaism: Facts or Creative Supposition? 302 8.1 Introduction 302 8.2 Genealogical Purity or Cultural Survival? 303 8.2.1 The Nature of Restrictions on Marriage in Second Temple Judaism 303 8.2.2 The Basis of the Qumranic Marriage Rules of 4Q271 and 4Q396 308 8.3 Interpreting Ezra and Nehemiah on Intermarriage 311 8.3.1
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