Women leaders in the ancient synagogue : : inscriptional evidence and background issues / Bernadette Brooten.

• Superior document: Brown Judaic studies; 36
• VerfasserIn: Brooten, Bernadette J.,
• Place / Publishing House: [Providence, RI] : : Brown Judaic Studies,, 2014; Atlanta : : Scholars Press,, 2020.; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2014; 2020
• Language: English; Hebrew
• Series: Brown Judaic studies ; 36.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (x, 281 p. ); illustrations (greyscale), plates, tables
• Notes: The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. To use this book, or parts of this book, in any way not covered by the license, please contact Brown Judaic Studies, Brown University, Box 1826, Providence, RI 02912.

This book argues that women served as leaders in a number of synagogues during the Roman and Byzantine periods. The evidence for this consists of nineteen Greek and Latin inscriptions in which women bear the titles "head of the synagogue," "leader," "elder," "mother of the synagogue" and "priestess." These inscriptions range in date from 27 B.C.E. to perhaps the sixth century C.E. and in provenance from Italy to Asia Minor, Egypt and Palestine. While new discoveries make this a growing corpus of material, a number of the inscriptions have been known to scholars for some time. The book contains a new preface by the author.

Table of Contents

Part One: The Inscriptional Evidence -- Part Two: Background Questions.

Women as Heads of Synagogues -- Woman as Leader -- Women as Elders -- Women as Mothers of the Synagogue -- Women as Priests -- Did the Ancient Synagogue Have a Women's Gallery or Separate Women's Section? -- Further Background Issues Relating to Women Leaders in the Ancient Synagogue.