Women in Early Judaism: Twenty-five Years of Research and Reenvisioning

Abstract

Studies of women in Early Judaism seek to correct and go beyond earlier examinations that had overlooked women. In this they share some important goals with social history, arguing that histories that ignore all but the most prominent individuals offer a distorted presentation of the ancient world. Involving an initial reinvisioning, such explorations partake of the varied methodologies and methodological challenges of other projects in Religious Studies and Jewish Studies. Following the pioneering scholars who first challenged assumptions that only men had merited attention, and their successors who gathered evidence concerning Jewish women, current researchers struggle with post-structuralist questions concerning how much one may read texts as social reality. Responses to these challenges continue to build upon the work of recent decades even as they begin to investigate new possibilities.