Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction for instructors
	A letter from us to you
	Components in each chapter
	Assessment ideas
	Online primary source resources
1 Introduction
	What sort of book is this?
	What is gender studies?
	What is a text and what is reading?
		What is a text?
		From codex to canon
		The ancient Mediterranean world
		How to read a text
	Conclusion: what role do our assumptions play in our reading?
	Discussion questions
	Glossary terms
	Further reading
2 Religious systems of antiquity
	antiquity Standard religious categories and why we challenge them
	Problematic vocabulary: Jewish, Christian, pagan
	The academic study of religion
		What is religion?
	Greco-Roman religions: an overview
	Conclusion
	Discussion questions
	Glossary terms
	Further reading
3 Bodies of literature
	Introduction: diversity in ancient Judaism and Christianity
	What bodies of literature are available from antiquity?
		Hebrew Bible
		Septuagint/LXX
		Apocrypha
		Pseudepigrapha
		New Testament
		Early Christian apocrypha
		Rabbinic literature
		Patristic and apostolic literature
	Conclusion: tools for these texts
	Discussion questions
	Glossary terms
	Further reading
4 Accessing ancient sources
	Introduction to hermeneutics
	Subjectivity and the text
	Interpretive lenses
		Historical criticism
		Feminist criticism
		Marxist criticism
		Postcolonial and aware-settler criticism
		Queer criticism
		Textual criticism
	Conclusion: off you go!
	Discussion questions
	Glossary terms
	Further reading
5 Ancient Judaism
	Introduction: Judaism in the Second Temple period
		The Jewish temple
	History and ancient historians
		Philo
		Josephus
	Women of the Hasmonaean and Herodian courts
		Queen Salome Alexandra
		Alexandra, daughter of Hyrcanus II
		Salome I
		Herodias
		Berenice II
	Women and Second Temple groups
		Pharisees
		Sadducees
		Essenes
		The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Qumran community
		Therapeutae
	The Babatha archives
	Conclusion: so many unknowns
	Discussion questions
	Glossary terms
	Further reading
6 Early Jesus movement
	Introduction
	The early Jesus movement
	Why a separate chapter on Jesus?
	Jesus and Jewish/Roman politics
	Women followers of Jesus in Paul
	Women followers of Jesus in the Gospels and Acts
		Disciples, apostles, baptisers
		Mary Magdalene
		The Samaritan woman
	Conclusion: context is key
	Discussion questions
	Glossary terms
	Further reading
7 Religion in daily life: from birth to death
	Introduction: public men and private women? Not so fast
	Beginnings: marriage and birth
		Marriage rituals
		Birth
	Middles: daily life
		Menstruation
		Women’s ritual in the home
		Community leadership
	Endings
		Divorce
		Death
	Conclusion: from history to herstory
	Discussion questions
	Glossary terms
	Further reading
8 Women as consumers, characters, and creators of literature
	Introduction: on literature and women
	Thinking with women
		Testament of Judah
		Testament of Job
		Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities
		Fourth Ezra and Revelation
		Texts of terror
	The rise of women protagonists
		Judith
		Susanna
		Joseph and Aseneth
	Women authors?
	Conclusion: women consumers, characters, and creators
	Discussion questions
	Glossary terms
	Further reading
9 (Wo)manly ways of dying
	Difficult topic: noble death and martyrdom accounts
	Introduction: martyrdom, sacrifice, noble death
	Martyrdom as text
	Noble death: Socrates
	Manly martyrs, gendered bodies
	Martyrs in 2 Maccabees
	Martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas
	Thecla: a failed martyr?
	Masada: preemptive martyrs?
	Conclusion: persecution’s mythical function
	Discussion questions
	Glossary terms
	Further reading
10 The second century and beyond
	Introduction: continuities and differences into later antiquity
	Women leaders in the ancient synagogue
	Women leaders in the early church
		Asceticism: a pivotal concept for women’s leadership
		Women inside and outside early Christian canons
		Women leaders in early Christianity
	Women in rabbinic literature
		Brief history of the rabbinic period
		Oral Torah
		Rabbinic Judaism
		Women in rabbinic discourse
		Beruriah
		Women from scripture
	Conclusion: your suspicious and savvy mission
	Discussion questions
	Glossary terms
	Further reading
Glossory
Bibliography
Index of ancient sources
Index of subjects