This paper is an examination of the view of women
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This paper is an examination of the view of women and their place in society as portrayed in the Old Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls (also known as the Qumran). While the Qumran includes at least fragments of all but one of the books that make up the Old Testament, it gives some suggestions of Hebrew traditions that predate those of the Old Testament. Hebrew society, facing a state of constant exile and ongoing persecution, developed into a distinctive form of patriarchy, one that allowed women some greater freedoms and responsibilities than more conventional patriarchal systems, because the society needed to include significant contributions from all its adult members in order to survive. These unique adaptions have made some scholars argue that the Jewish system was actually a form of matriarchy, with real power and organization emanating from the female line, but this was actually not the case. The Qumran, by providing clues to the social structure on which Masora (Hebrew tradition) was originally based, gives important indications of the male-based organization that the Jews adapted to their own particular needs as a society. In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd discovered a collection of ancient scrolls, rolled in leather and cloth casings and stored in a cave in the Qumran Valley, near the Dead Sea in Jordan. Archaeologists flocked to the region, eventually uncovering an enormous cache, consisting of between 600 and 800 manuscripts and manuscript fragments, written in
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s, and dependent. This prescribed behavior has led to the erroneous perception of Jewish life as a matriarchy or crypto-matriarchy. This is a false interpretation because female assertiveness was allowed only as long as it was altruistic, that is, in the interests of the community ("good for the Jews") as the men perceived and defined these interests (5).
The private nature of much of their service also tended to render women's contributions invisible within society as a whole.
Ann Belford Ulanov argues that Judaism, by the very nature of its religious structure, had to be a patriarchy, though one that was "transcendent, above and beyond all human categories" (23). She points out that the Jewish deity, Yahweh, "is the image of a generative, radically transcendent God who creates the world and all that is in it, including sexuality and human reproduction, by fiat and by word" (23). Matriarchal tradition is older, deriving from nature religions that consider sexuality to be an independent force, and some of this sensibility infuses the Qumran, overlaid by later, more male-centered views of the world. By the time the books of the Old Testament were embraced officially, Judaism had become a solidly male-dominated tradition, in
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2590
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
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