Journal of Biblical
Literature 17 (1898) 111-48.
Public
Domain.
Woman in the Ancient Hebrew Cult.
PROF. ISMAR J. PERITZ.
1.
Introduction. Current View of Woman's Relation to the
Cult.
THE
opinion has found considerable currency that woman, on
account
of her sex, was disqualified to perform the duties of
the
religious cult among the Hebrews; that in the absence of males
in
the family, the cult of the deceased could not be perpetuated.
The
chief representatives of this view are Stade, Schwally, Benzinger,
and
Nowack. Benzinger (Hebraische Archaologie,
p. 140) has given
it
amplest expression; and, in order to have it clearly before us, I
quote
his words in full: “Noch an einem anderen Punkt zeigt sich
die
Inferioritat der Frau deutlich: die Frau war nicht fahig zur Ausu-
bung
des Kultus. Die Sitte der Schwagerehe setzt die Anschau-
ung
voraus, dass Frau and Tochter nicht im Stande sind, den
Kultus
des Toten zu pflegen. Aus demselben Grund kam ihnen
nur
ein sehr beschranktes Erbrecht zu, ebensowenig wurden der
Frau
nach dem Tod kultische Ehren zu teil. Nur als Ehefrau war
ihr
eine gewisse Teilnahme am Kulte des Mannes gestattet. Bis
auf
den heutigen Tag hat sich bei den Juden these Vorstellung
erhalten:
die Frauen durfen dem Gottesdienst in der Synagoge
anwohnen,
die Madchen sind davon ausgeschlossen. Nicht minder
wird
im Islam die Frau als unfahig zur Kultusubung betrachtet.
Dass
schon fruhe einze ne Frauen als Prophetinnen auftreten, ist
eine
Ausnahme, welche die Regel bestatigt."
Nowack (Hebraische Archaologie i. 344 f., 348) is less sweeping
in
his statements, but also affirms that the levirate law had for its
main
object to provide male descent for the dead, because woman
was
unqualified to participate in the cult; that this disqualification
also
lay at the basis of the Hebrew laws of inheritance; and that
112 JOURNAL
OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
only
the son, or the nearest male, and not the female, was qualified
to
transmit the cult of the testator.
The expression of this view reaches,
it seems to me, the strangest
height,
when Schwally (ZATW. xi. 176 ff.)
endeavors to explain the
word
rkAzA,
‘male,’ as connected with Myhlx MweB; ryKiz;hi, 'to call
in
cult upon God,' and meaning therefore first 'a cultic person,'
then,
on the assumption, according to the view in question, that this
cultic
person can be in all Israelitish and Semitic antiquity only a.
man,
meaning, secondly, 'a male.' This sexual meaning was then,
thirdly,
transferred from men to animals, and reached the highest
point
of development in the Arabic and Aramaic in the meaning,
fourthly,
"das mannliche Glied." Leaving out of consideration the
assumption
as to cult, such a view of an etymological development
from
a distinct spiritual meaning to the lowest physical will never
commend
itself as an improvement on the older view represented by
Gesenius,
s.v.
None of the three authorities
mentioned seems to speak from
independent
investigation of the subject of woman's relation to the
Hebrew
or Semitic cult. All three are evidently dependent upon
Stade,
and simply follow him.
Stade reaches his conclusion in a
peculiar manner. He is dealing
with
the Hebrew family in pre-prophetic time, and he finds in the
customs
of mourning evidences of a cult of the dead and indica-
tions
of ancestor-worship. He concludes from these indications that
ancestor-worship
was a prime factor in the formation of the ancient
Israelitish
family. Here he begins to call attention to similarities in
the
organization of the ancient Greek, Roman, and Indian families,
and
to draw parallels between them and the Semitic. The ancient
Indo-Germanic
family was a "Cultgenossenschaft," held together by
the
common bond of worship of the ancestors of the family, whose
altar
is the family altar, and whose priest is the father and the lord
of
the house. This cult explains the most ancient laws of the people.
Can
similar ancient Hebrew laws find a similar explanation? In
answering
this question affirmatively Stade proceeds to instance the
law
of inheritance. This law among the ancient Hebrews, as among
the
ancient Greeks and Romans, was originally that of agnates. In
ancient
asserts
that wherever this law of inheritance is found, the ground for
it
is that only the son, or the nearest male relative, taking his place
as
the heir, can perpetuate the cult of the testator (Geschichte i.
388-391).
PERITZ
: WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 113
It is important to observe that Stade's
conclusion, denying woman
her
share in the ancient Hebrew cult, is not based upon any direct
evidence
derived from the Old Testament itself, but upon a remote
and
supposed analogy which connects a question of cult with that of
the
law of inheritance, and upon an utter disregard of all phenomena
in
the Old Testament that may point the other way.
The connection of the law of
inheritance with the admission to the
cult,
and the explanation of the former from this source, are entirely
forced
and unsatisfactory. That the inheritance in old
restricted
to agnates is true enough (Nowack, Arch.
i. 348f.); but
we
may well ask whether there is not a simpler explanation of the
fact.
The weakness of Stade's position becomes very apparent when,
in
his attempt to support his view of the dependence of the right to
inherit
upon admission to the cult, he refers to Gen. 15. 2f as the
solitary
evidence. Now, the ancient custom that in default of a son
the
slave of the master becomes heir may prove that Abraham had
no
son, but how it can prove that Eliezer was the last representative
of
the family cult, save on the assumption of that which Stade endeav-
ors
to prove, I cannot see.
But the fact of woman's exclusion
from the Hebrew laws of inheri-
tance
does not need explanation from her relation to the cult. There
is
a better way. W. Robertson Smith mentions a similar law among
the
Arabs. Smith shows that antique Arab society had its basis not
in
the patriarchal authority, the family, but in the stock or kinship
tribe,
an organization that has for its object offence and defence, and
that
the whole law of the old Arabs resolves itself into a law of war,
in
which blood-feud, blood-wite, and booty are the points on which
everything
turns. The law of inheritance there follows the law of
booty.
The tribe owned the property of which the individual had
only
a usufruct, and which fell to be divided after his death like the
spoils
of war. The right of inheritance belonged to the active mem-
bers
of the tribe. This explains the relation of woman to the law of
inheritance,
and is in accordance with the old law of
by
Smith, in which women were excluded from inheritance on the
principle
that "none can be heirs who do not take part in battle,
drive
booty, and protect property." See W. R. Smith, Kinship and
Marriage, pp. 33-58, and his note
on " Law of Inheritance," p. 263.
Now, it is a well-recognized fact
that the affinity in social organi-
zation
and ancient law is far greater between the Arabs and the
Hebrews
than between the Semites and the Greeks and Romans.
And
so woman's exclusion from inheritance finds here, it seems to
114 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
me,
a natural, reasonable, and more direct explanation, and does not
need
the assumption that woman was excluded from the ancient
Hebrew
cult. It thus appears that the current opinion on woman's
relation
to the Hebrew cult is by no means based upon a special and
direct
investigation of the subject. This phase of Hebrew antiquity
has
so far received no critical treatment.1 Because in later Levitical
legislation
man is made prominent in the cult, and later Judaism has
in
Herod's
woman
from reading the Shema' and the ritual of the phylacteries
(Berakoh 33), and in the Middle Ages
woman was relegated to the
galleries
of the synagogues,2 and Jewish men now pray "Blessed
art
thou, Lord, our God, King of the world, that thou hast not made
me
a woman" (Hebrew Prayer Book:
part of the daily morning
prayer),
and because Islam excludes woman from the cult, it has
been
taken for granted that this exclusion was from the beginning
a
distinctive feature of Semitic cult. The facts on the subject, as
contained
in the Old Testament, and supplied by other Semitic
religions,
have not been collected and squarely looked in the face.
To
supply this evident lack is the object of this essay. My method
of
treatment is to collect, arrange, and explain some of the more
prominent
facts in regard to woman's position in other Semitic
cults
in general, but more especially, all the facts bearing upon
woman's
position in the ancient and later Hebrew cult as contained
in
the Old Testament. The conclusion to which the facts thus
treated
have led me, if I may here anticipate, is that the Semites
in
general, and the Hebrews in particular, and the latter especially
in
the earlier periods of their history, exhibit no tendency to dis-
criminate
between man and woman so far as regards participation in
religious
practices, but that woman participates in all the essentials
of
the cult, both as worshipper and official; and that only in later
time,
with the progress in the development of the cult itself, a ten-
dency
appears, not so much, however, to exclude woman from the
cult,
as rather to make man prominent in it.3
1 Schechter, in his Studies in Judaism, under the caption, “Woman
in
and
Synagogue," touches lightly, and in a popular way, upon some of the
surface
facts
of the subject. His essay cannot be regarded as a critical contribution to
the
subject, and in fact he does not lay claim to such a contribution. See p. 313-
2 Cf.
3 I hope, at some future time,
as a second part of the subject, to treat fully of
the
causes of woman's later inferior position in the cult, and her final,
apparently
entire,
exclusion from it.
PERITZ
: WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 115
2. Woman in Other Semitic Cults.
That we have reason to look to other
Semitic cults for light has
been
fully demonstrated by the researches of W. R. Smith, embodied
in
his Religion of the Semites. The
fundamental institutions of the
Israelites
had a common origin with those of the other Semitic
peoples.
The relation of woman to the other Semitic cults has
therefore
a vital bearing on our question, and must all the more
receive
some attention, since Schwally (ZATW.
xi. 178) claims that
"im
israelitischen, uberhaupt im ganzen semitischen Altertum," man
only
possessed the qualification to perform independently the duties
of
the religious cult.
1. Woman in the Arabic Cult.
Islam is no such ancient nor
unadulterated source as to supply
much
that is helpful in the investigation of the early Hebrew cult.
It
is far different with pre-Islamic, Arabic heathenism. Here we
may
well go with confidence for analogies and explanations. We are
not,
therefore, like Benzinger, so much concerned with the relation of
woman
to the cult of Islam as with her relation to the cult of Arabic
heathenism.
Fortunately, meagre as the source in general is, it
yields
material enough to leave beyond any question woman's rela-
tion
to Arabic cult. The facts, as collected mainly from Wellhausen's
Reste arabischen Heidentumes, lead to the conclusion
that this rela-
tion
is one of almost perfect parity with that of man, there being not
the
slightest indication that the question of sex from a religious point
of
view ever comes into consideration.
(I) Female Divinities. -- Female divinities are numerous, and
play
a very important role in Arabic heathenism. The Jinns even
were
mostly feminine (Wellh., Heid., p.
135). Local divinities of
mitic
goddess (p. 70).
Noah,"
was worshipped by the Beni Hamdan, and in the form of a
woman;
so a late tradition says, which, however, according to Well-
hausen,
is not reliable (p. 16). According to Epiphanius the worship
of
Dhu IShara was associated with that of his virgin mother (p. 46).
Shams
was a goddess (p. 56). But chief of all are "the three daughters
of
Allah," the goddesses Al Lat, Manat, and Al ‘Uzza, whose worship
possessed
more vitality and importance than that of all the male
divinities,
Allah only excepted. All
116 JOURNAL
OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
devoted
to them, the polemic against them in the Koran being but a
small
part of the evidence of this fact (p. 21ff., p. 71). A religion
that
pays such homage to female divinities is not likely to discrimi-
nate
against woman in matters of cult; at any rate only the most
positive
testimony can carry any weight in the matter.
(2) Women as Devotees.--Women frequented the places of wor-
ship.
At the annual Hajj at
were
present (p. 85). The reference in Yaqut to the backs of the
women
jostling at Dhu lKhalasa is an indication in what throngs
the
women attended the sanctuaries (Wellh., p. 43; Smith, Kinship,
p.
295).
But the women's devotion was not confined
to simple attendance
they
brought their votive offerings. There is ancient testimony to
the
fact that the women worshipped Al 'Uzza "daily with sacrifices
and
gifts" (Wellh., p. 37 ; cf. also pp. 112, 101).
The two principal acts of Arabic
worship, the 'stroking' (ta-
massuh), and (most important
of all) the tawaf, or act of
encircling
the
sacred stone, were participated in by the women as well as by
the
men (Wellh., pp. 52, 105f., 118).
In the cult of the dead the women
had even more than their share.
It
was theirs to chant the rhythmical dirge; the institution of the
professional
mourning men is later than that of the mourning women
(p.
160).4 The regulation that woman during the period of her
purification
must not approach the sanctuary (pp. 52 and 118) is
but
the evidence of the single exception that proves her inclusion in
the
cult. For an interesting story of the conversion of a Dausite and
his
wife, illustrating many points of the intimate association of man
with
woman in religion, see Wellh., Heid.,
p. 45.
(3) Woman as Cultic Official.--Arabic heathenism had two chief
cultic
officials: sadin (temple watchman),
or hajib (doorkeeper), the
temple
servant or priest, and kahin, seer,
prophet. In the latter
class
women are numerous (Wellh., p. 130); but of the woman
sadin there is not a single
instance that I can find. But this fact
finds
a simple explanation as soon as the nature of the office is
examined.
The sadin was not a priest whose
specific prerogative it
was
to officiate at the altar. Such an
official the Arabs never had.
He
was not needed for sacrificing, and, though the sacred lot was in
his
keeping, and he, in general, officiated at the casting of the sacred
4 Circumcision was practised,
among some tribes, upon girls (p. 154f., 168).
But
this custom, found also among certain uncivilized tribes in
one
feature in the consecration of all the members of the tribe to the deity.
PERITZ
: WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 117
lots,
even that could be done without him (Wellh., p. 129). The
sadin or hajib, as the names indicate, was the watchman, the door-
keeper
of the sanctuary. Arabic nomadic life had given a peculiar
form
of duty to this office. In general the sanctuaries did not
wander
with the tribes, but remained stationary; but there are cases
where
the idol did share in the nomadic life, and was carried into
battle
like the ark of Jahveh (Wellh., pp. 18 and 129). Cases of
theft
of idols, even, are not unheard of (p. 18). The sadin became
in
this manner the resident, the defender, and, in time, the actual
possessor
of the sanctuary. By a natural law of selection, the office
of
watcher, protector, and possessor would fall to man and not to
woman.
The absence of woman from this office cannot therefore be
taken
as implying a discrimination against woman in reference to the
cult.
This view is confirmed by the fact
that woman was not excluded
from
the office of kahin, which carried
with it far greater cultic
significance.
This significance becomes all the more apparent when
the
original position of the kahin is
recognized. There is every
reason
for accepting the conclusion of W. R. Smith, Wellhausen, and
most
moderns, that the office of the sadin
was originally included in
that
of the kahin, which corresponded very
nearly to that of the
early
Hebrew kohen. In course of development
the kahins branched
off
from the general priestly body, carrying with them the principal
part
of its duty and the ancient title of honor, and leaving behind
them
a class of officials who sank into mere aeditui
(Wellh., p. 134;
W.
R. Smith, Journal of Philology xiii.
278). The kahin therefore
was
originally the great official of the cult, and women, as stated, are
frequently
found holding this office.
It thus appears that the testimony
of Arabic heathenism on woman's
relation
to the cult is comprehensive, clear, and uniform. Whether
as
divinity, devotee, or cultic official, woman shares cultic duties with
man,
and in matters of religion there is no sign of any discrimination
against
her on account of her sex.
2.
Woman in Assyro-Babylonian, Phoenician,
and other Semitic
Cults.
Babylonian and Assyrian cults do not
furnish altogether as safe a
basis
for comparison with the Hebrew cult as that of Arabic heathen-
ism.
Babylonian and Assyrian religions, as is generally held, are
syncretistic,
mixed with non-Semitic elements, and developed under
physical
and moral conditions different from those which determined
118 JOURNAL
OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
the
Hebrew development. This is in great measure true also of the
Phcenician
cult--a result due, no doubt, to its close relation to the
Assyro-Babylonian.
One feels the need, therefore, of caution in
the
use of material from these sources. Yet there are certain general
features
which recur with striking uniformity in all parts of the Se-
mitic
field, as W. R. Smith has said (Rel. of
Sem., p. 14 ff.). The rela-
tion
of woman to the cult, it may be safely asserted, is one of these.
As
my purpose is simply to allow a side light from this direction to fall
upon
the main question, it will not require an exhaustive treatment.
(i) Female Divinities.--It will not be necessary to name all of
the
numerous female divinities of the Assyro-Babylonian pantheon.
As
the representative of them all, we may call to mind the Babylo-
nian
Ishtar, who was venerated as the mother goddess, the queen,
head
and firstborn of all gods. (Cf. W. R. Smith, Rel., p. 56 ff.)
Among
the other female divinities may be named Damkina, Nana,
Nin-gal,
Gula, Anunit, and Zarpanit. In pairs often occur the divini-
ties:
as, Bel and Belit; Ea and Damkina.
The Phoenicians have by the side of lfb a tlfb, both distin-
guished
by many additional names, expressing either attributes or
names
of cities devoted to their worship. Besides, they worshipped
trtwf, Astarte, the great Semitic goddess, and
tnt,
Tanith. Cf.
Baethgen,
Beitrage, pp. 29, 31, 26 ff. ;
Baudissin, PRE3. s.v.
Astarte,
Baal;
Pietschmann, Geschichte d. Phoenizier,
p. 182 ff.
The Moabites worshipped by the side
of wmk
an wmk rtwf
who
was most probably a female divinity. (Cf. Baudissin, PRE3.
ii.
150, 156, and Baethgen, pp. 14, 256.) To her Mesha, according
to
his inscription, devoted the Israelitish captives. Cf. the inscrip-
tion
of King Mesha on the Moabite stone, 1. 17.
The Aramaeans worshipped by the side
of Hadad the female divin-
ity
Atargatis, who was the great Syrian goddess, even outranking
Hadad.
Cf. Baethgen, 68, 74.
(2) Women as Devotees.-- It would be safe to let this question
rest
on a priori grounds: that cults which
pay such homage to
female
divinities cannot discriminate in matters of cult against the
female
sex. But there is all the direct testimony that is needed.
Woman's
intimate relation to the divinity finds expression in some of
the
female names, viz. trqlmtmx and trqlmtm, “Handmaid
of
Melkart"; trqlmtH, “Sister
of Melkart”; trqlmnH, ”Grace
of
Melkart"; cf. Euting, Sammlung
Karthag. Inschriften, 153, 320,
213,
165, quoted by Baethgen, p. 21 ; so also trtwftmx ( CIS.
46),
tklmtH
(CIS. 231), tklmfn (CIS. 41).
PERITZ
WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 119
But
the most abundant evidence we find in the Old Testament
itself
in the numerous allusions to woman's participation in foreign
cults,
of which I treat further on. See p. 120.
(3) Woman as Cultic Official.--Meissner, in his Beitrkge zum
altbabylonischen
Privatrecht
(pp. 8 and I I I, § 12), speaks of financial
functions
of priests and priestesses, the latter's official position in the
temple
being indicated by SAL (or UD) Samas; cf. also Peiser,
Babylonische Vertrage d.
Berl. Mus.,
pp. xvii-xxix.
There were priestesses of Ishtar at
Uruk (cf. Jeremias, Izdubar-
Nimrod, p. 59 f.).
Prophetesses, who tell the messages
of the gods, are mentioned in
connection
with the 'seers' in the text of Gudea. Cf. Amiaud, "The
Inscription
of Telloh," Records of the Past,
New Series, i. 42, ii. 78.
To
the same class of officials belong, most probably, also the
priestesses
or prophetesses whose names are attached to the oracular
responses
of Istar of Arbela. Cf. Pinches, "The Oracle of Istar of
Rel., p. 195
These scattered references have led
me to go carefully through
Delitzsch's
Assyrisches Handworterbuch in quest
of designations of
these
female officials. To give this subject the thorough treatment
it
needs would require too, long a digression, and I therefore present
these
designations in a simple alphabetical order:--
(1)
uhatu, eine weibliche Hierodule,
naher Dienerin der Gottin Istar von Erech.
They
appear also as "Klagefrauen beim Tammuz-Fest" (Del., p. 41).
(2)
epistu, fem. of part, episu, Hexe (p. 119).
(3)
asiptu, fem. of asipu, Beschworer (p. 247).
(4)
zirznasitu, ein Epitheton, bez. Name
der Zauberin oder Hexe (p. 264).
(5)
harimtu auch harmatu, eine weibliche Hierodule, naher Dienerin der Gottin
Istar'zu Erech (p. 290).
(6)
kassaptu, fem. of kassapu, Zauberin, Hexe (p. 360).
(7)
mahhutu, fem. of mahhu, der von Ekstase befallene, von Sinnen seiende
(vgl. fGAwum;), Prophet, Wahrsager, ma<ntij, bez. Prophetin (p. 397).
(8)
kadistu (gadistu), Hierodule, eine dem Dienste der Gottin Istar geweihte
and
dadurch entweihte
the
Zauberin and Hexe (p. 581).
(9)
sabratu, fem. of sabru, eine best. Berufsart, viell. Magier, Seher (p. 639).
On woman's position as official in Phoenician
cult, the Eshmun-
azar
inscription furnishes a word that is of the highest import. The
Sidonian
king, naming his mother, calls her not only trtwfmx, but
he
designates her also trtwf tnhk, the feminine form of Nhk,
found
here for the first time. Cf. CIS. 3,
l. 14 f.
120 JOURNAL
OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
3.
Old Testament References to Woman's
Relation to other Semitic
Cults.
As furnishing us with a view of the
relation of woman to other and
especially
Semitic cults, the allusions in the Old Testament must not
be
overlooked. These allusions cover two points: (I) The worship
of
strange gods by devotees who were either Canaanites or immi-
grants
on Israelitish soil, and (2) the worship of strange gods by the
Hebrew
women themselves. The chief means by which the first
could
establish itself alongside of the Hebrew cult was intermarriage.
As
Professor
recognition
of one another's religion, and was naturally followed by
participation
in the cultus" (Judges, p. 83).
Hence, the result of
such
unions is uniformly stated to have been the establishment of the
foreign
cult (cf. Ju. 3:5f. 1 Ki. 11:1-8). But our chief interest here lies
in
the intense zeal which the strange wives of the Hebrews mani-
fested
in the observance and propagation of their native cults. Here,
of
course, Jezebel will first come to mind.5 But that she was by no
means
the only instance can be easily gathered from such notices as
that
which speaks of Solomon's readiness to provide the means for
the
worship of his "strange wives which burnt incense and sacrificed
unto
their gods " (1 Ki. 11:8), and more still from the numerous Deu-
teronomic
passages which ascribe the spread of idolatry to these
intermarriages,
and strictly forbid them on that ground (Ex. 34:15f
Dt.
7:3f; Jos. 23:12f) . It will be seen that these facts gathered from
the
Old Testament confirm the view arrived at from the more direct
sources,
that woman's part in the other Semitic cults was intensely
active.
But this activity was not confined
to non-Hebrew women. Even
before
Jezebel, Maacah, the mother of Asa (1 Ki. 15:13), had mani-
fested
her zeal for the Canaanitish cult of Astarte (cf. Stade, Gesch.
i.
355 ; Baethgen, Beitrage, p. 218 ;
Baudissin, PRE3. s.v.
Astarte,
Aschera)
by erecting to her worship a tclpm, which was probably
nothing
else than an hrwx, which Asa in the progress of a religious
reformation
hews down, and burns in the valley of the Kidron, and
at
the same time punishes his mother's idolatrous tendencies by
depriving
her of the rank of the queen-mother. As the Jezebel of
the
southern kingdom appears Athaliah, probably Jezebel's daughter
(cf.
Stade, Gesch. i. 524, note 2). That
her zealous endeavor to
establish
the Phoenician cult on Judoean soil was not void of suc-
5 Cf. 1 Ki. 16:31ff. 18:4,
13, 19; 19:2; 2 Ki. 3:13; 9:22b.
PERITZ
: WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 121
cess
is evident from the bitterness with which she is mentioned (cf.
2
Ki. 8:18, 26f; 2 Chr. 21:6; 22:2f; 24:7).
In the time of the prophet Jeremiah (7:18;
44:15ff) the Hebrew women
vied
with one another in their devotion to the Assyrian cult of Ishtar,
whom
they worshipped under the name of Mymwh tklm (cf. Bau-
dissin,
PRE3. s.v. Astarte),
claiming it to be a well-established cult,
the
practice of which had always been a source of prosperity, and its
neglect
the cause of adversity (44:17f.). One feature of the cult is
characteristically
feminine: while the children gather wood, and the
fathers
kindle the fire, the women knead the dough, and bake the
cakes
in the moon-shaped form to portray the goddess (cf. v. Orelli),
Jeremia, on 44:19; Wellhausen, Heid., p. 38 f.) .
To this cult most probably belongs the reference
2 Ki. 23:7b, where
the
Massoretic Mytb might well be corrected (on the basis of Cod.
Alex.
xettieim=Myytk probably for Myntk) to tOnTIKu
(Lucian
stola<j), tunica (cf. Klostermann in
loc.), pointing to an activity on
the
part of some of the women (perhaps the tvwdq) in providing
garments
probably used in the act of the worship of Astarte; for the
custom
of changing garments in preparation for the approach of the
divinity,
and of priests supplying such garments, finds illustration in
other
cults (cf. Wellh., Heid., pp. 52, 106;
Gen. 35:2; 2 Ki. 10:22). This
explanation
of the passage, it seems to me, will furnish the best
answer
to Stade's rather too ready expedient that the second half of
the
verse is a "naive Glosse eines Spateren " (Gesch. i. 653, note 4).
To Ezekiel (8:14) we are indebted for the bare
mention of the
Hebrew
women's devotion to the worship of Tammuz.6 The phrase-
ology
with which he describes the worship, "there sat the women
weeping
for Tammuz," leaves its identity with that of Adonis under
his
Babylonian name, the characteristic of which was lamentation,
without
a doubt (cf. Baudissin, Studien i.
35, 3ooff.).
Woman's part as devotee in the worship of Melek,
the sacrificing
of
children in the
Ahaz,
and reached frightful dimensions in the dark days of the
seventh
century,7 is not directly stated in the Old Testament. Pro-
fessor
xvi.
163), cites a passage from Plutarch (De
Superstitione, c. 13),
6 That Zechariah's "mourning for
Hadadrimmon " (Zech. 12:11) has no
connection
with Tammuz or Adonis worship has been shown by Baudissin
(Sludien
i. 295 ff.).
7 Cf. W. R. Smith, Encycl. Brit9. xvi. 696; Stade, Gesch. i. 609 f.; Driver,
Deut., p. 222 f.
122 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
according
to which the Carthaginians used to sacrifice their own
children,
and those who had no offspring of their own used to buy
children
from the poor, and slaughter them, as if they were lambs or
birds.
At these sacrifices the mother stood by, unmoved, without a
groan.
That there was also no distinction of sex in that cult as far
as
the victim itself was concerned is evident from the recurring
phrase
"to make one's son or daughter to pass through the fire to
Moloch"
(2 Ki. 23:10; Jer. 32:35, etc.). There is sufficient reason to
suppose,
then, that the general terms "children of
"inhabitants
of
prophets
condemning the practice include both men and women.
(Cf.
Jer. 32:32; Ez. 16:2ff, and compare Jer. 19:13 with 44:15.)8
It appears then that the facts thus collected
from the Old Testa-
ment
on woman's relation to the foreign cults give very clear testi-
mony,
and that it is throughout to the effect that woman, whether
native
or Hebrew, shared in all the religious activities, and often
excelled
in manifesting religious zeal. Well might the Deuteronomic
lawgiver,
aware of woman's religious interest and zeal, provide the
most
drastic measures for its destruction (cf. Dt. 13:7-12(6-11); 17:2-5).
3. Woman as Devotee in the Jahveh Cult.
I.
The Presence of Women at the Sanctuary
and Religious
Gatherings.
Hannah and Peninnah, as also the daughters of
Elkanah, were
accustomed
to go up to the yearly religious gathering before Jahveh
in
is
indicated in the question which the husband of the Shunamite
woman
asks: "Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day? it is neither
new
moon, nor sabbath" (2 Ki. 4:23) . The rape of the Shilonite
maidens
is planned in expectation, and carried into effect in the
realization,
of the fact of the presence of the daughters of
the
annual feast of Jahveh (Ju. 21:6-25). At the feast that David
makes
in honor of the removing of the ark of Jahveh, the religious
character
of which is confirmed by the offering of sacrifices, women
are
present (2 S. 6:19). The legislation of Deuteronomy definitely
8 As the Philistine religion seems to have
been strongly influenced by Semitic
religions
(cf. Baethgen, Rel., p. 65), it is
not altogether irrelevant to call attention
to
the fact that, little as is known of the Philistine Dagon cult (cf. Baudissin,
PRE3. s.v. Dagon), it is
nevertheless evident from Ju. 16:23ff. that men and women
alike
mingled in the temple precincts and participated in the festive
occasions.
PERITZ:
WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 123
provides
for woman's presence at the sanctuary at festal seasons
(Dt.
12:12, 18; 14:26; 15:20; 16:11, 14).9 In like manner, at that great religious
gathering,
the reading of the law, in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah,
woman
appears side by side with man in all the solemnity and joy of
the
occasion (Neh. 8:2, 3; 12:43)
2. Woman's
Participation in the Sacrificial Meals.
There is full evidence that women were by no
means mere idle
spectators
at these religious gatherings, but that, on the contrary, they
shared
in every important cultic act. Chief among these were the
sacrificial
meals. When Elkanah sacrifices he gives to his wives and
daughters
"portions " (1 S. 1:4).10 If it were certain that rpwx in
2
S. 6:19 and its parallel I Chr. 16:3 means "a good piece of flesh,"
A.V.,
or "a portion of flesh," R.V., as some ancient versions render
it,
and as may well be expected here to complete the triad of such
festival
occasions, bread, flesh, and wine,11 it might furnish another
instance
in earlier times of woman's participation in the sacrificial
meal.
But the text is altogether too uncertain.12 But we have by no
means
need to depend upon uncertain data. The Deuteronomic
legislation
is as full as it is explicit upon woman's participation in the
sacrificial
meals and leaves it beyond any question. Regulating what
was
no doubt an antique custom, it specifies in a number of distinct
passages
that at the great sacrificial feast at the central sanctuary
woman
is to have her share (Dt. 12:12; 14:22-29; 15:19-23; 16:9-12,13-15).
An
important illustration on a large scale, that this custom existed not
simply
in law but in actual practice, even in post-exilic times, is
furnished
by the sacrificial meal at the publication of the law in the
time
of Ezra and Nehemiah (Neh. 12:43)
Additional evidence of a similar character comes
to us from a
somewhat
different source. The Levitical legislation is much con-
cerned
with the disposition of that part of the sacrifice which fell to
the
priest. The material is divided into Mywdq wdq and wdq.
9 In view of this definite
provision, the regulation “Three times a year shall
all
thy males appear in the presence of Jahveh" (Ex. 23:17; 34:23; Dt. 16:16),
can
not
possibly imply the exclusion of woman. But more on that subject below.
10 The word hnm is a technical term almost
exclusively used of the portion of
sacrifice
that falls to the priest, or of the sacrificial meal that falls to the wor-
shipper
(Ex. 29:26; Lev. 7:33; 8:29; 2 Chr. 31:19; 1 S. 9:23). When in later usage
the
term is widened to cover portions of other meals, the festival character of the
meal
is still apparent (Neh. 8:10, 12; Esth. 2:9; 9:19, 22).
11 Cf. Klostermann, Samuelis, in loc.
12 Cf. Driver, Text of Samuel, p. 207 f.
124 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
The
first class may be eaten by the male members of the Aaronic
family
only; the second class may be eaten by the female members
as
well (Lev. 10:12-15; 22:1-16; Nu. 18:8-19).
The question, why in the later
legislation
the women of priestly families were excluded from sharing
in
the most holy things, need not detain us at this point. The fact
that
they were permitted to share in the holy things, which was
strictly
forbidden to outsiders,13 is in line with the fact of their sharing
in
the sacrificial heals in general.
Woman's participation in the festal meals has,
of course, always
been
recognized; but its relation to her position in cult has so far
not
been deemed worthy of notice. The tendency has been to speak
of
these sacrificial meals, either in a general way, as of a ‘family’
feast,
without recognizing specially, or else ignoring, the female ele-
ment,
or else as of 'feasts' without any
particular religious signifi-
cance
(Keil, Deut., 359 f.; Oehler, O. T. Theology, Engl. Transl.,
p.
291; Driver, Deut., p. 143; Benz., Arch., 438 ; Nowack, Arch. ii.
213).
Woman's share in them clearly defined, it is yet necessary to
call
attention to and emphasize the cultic significance of these sacri-
ficial
meals.
Eating as an act of worship in connection with
sacrifice is a familiar
fact
in Semitic as well as in other religions. W. R. Smith has made
it
probable14 that Semitic religion, as it appears in historical times,
is
founded
on the conception of kinship between the god and the wor-
shipper,15
and the leading idea in the animal sacrifices of the Semites
is
that of an act of communion in which the god and his worshipper
unite
by partaking of the flesh and blood of a sacred victim.16 This
idea
finds its fullest expression in the Hebrew ritual. As is known, a
distinction
is made there between sacrifices which are wholly made
over
to the god and sacrifices which the god and the worshipper share.
To
the latter class, with which we are mostly concerned, belonged
the
MyHbz
and Mymlw,
that is, all the ordinary festal sacrifices,
vows,
and free-will offerings, of which the deity received the blood
and
the fat of the intestines, while the rest was left to the worshipper
for
a social feast.
The participation in these sacrificial meals, it
is to be noticed, is
hedged
about with severe restrictions, and invested with the utmost
13 Cf. Lev. 22. This stands out all the
more clearly when the exceptions are
taken
into account; viz., when the priest's daughter had married a stranger, or
was
a widow, or divorced and had a child, and so had retired outside of the
priestly
circle. Cf. Lev. 22:12f.
14 Rel. of
Sem.,
Lectures vi.-viii. 15 Ibid., p. 51. 16 Ibid., p. 209.
PERITZ:
WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 125
solemnity.
Levitical legislation emphatically provides that the food
must
be eaten within a specified time, that is, before there was any
danger
of putrefaction;17 otherwise it is to be burned; nothing
ceremonially
unclean must touch it; the person, ceremonially un-
clean,
who eats of it "shall be cut off" (Lev. 7:15-21; 19:6-8; 22:30).
Similar
precautions
surround the eating of the priest's portion. That the
eating
of the priest's portion of every sacrifice constituted a sacrificial
meal
like that of the worshipper may well be questioned (cf. Benz.,
Archaol., p. 456 f.), but is of
no essential importance in our inquiry.
Apart
from that, there is every evidence of the sanctity of the food.
It
is called wdq,
it must be eaten in a holy place, the ceremonially
unclean
are forbidden to eat it, and members of the Aaronic family
and
household only are allowed to partake of it.
The reason for all these precautions is obvious:
sacrifice and the
sacrificial
meal were acts of communion between the god and the
worshipper,
and approach to it, or partaking of it, was surrounded by
all
the possible safeguards that surrounded the approach to the god.
Yet
woman, as has been shown, had free access to it. It is obvious
that
the participation in an act of such cultic importance finds a far
better
explanation in woman's inclusion in the cult than any ignoring
or
belittling of such inclusion can possibly furnish.
3. Woman's
Participation in the Sacrificial Act.
In approaching this phase of the question it is
necessary to call to
mind
what is now well recognized, that the act of sacrifice in the
Hebrew
cult had its own history of development.18 At first all
slaughter
was sacrifice; no priest was needed to perform the sacri-
ficial
act, the worshipper was in this respect his own priest. Later,
with
the growth of the ritual and a priestly caste, sacrificing becomes
the
business of the priest, the worshipper recedes from the altar, and
his
share in the sacrificial act is confined to the laying of the hand
upon
the victim,19 which, if we may judge from the analogy of Lev.
17
The reason that W. R. Smith assigns for this requirement, viz., that the old
sacrificial
feasts occupied but a single day, or at most two days, and as the act of
eating
is part of the service it is to be completed before men break up from the
sanctuary
(Rel. of Sem., P. 221), does not seem
to me to be altogether plausible,
and
I prefer to follow his view on the same point as expressed in another connec-
tion.
See p. 203, note 8.
18 Smith, Rel. of Sem., p. 199f.; Nowack, Arch. ii. 87, 211, 218 f.; Benz, Arch.,
405
f.
19 Lev. 3:2, etc. On the meaning of the
custom cf. Smith, Rel., pp. 135 and
401f.;
Benz., p. 453.
126 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
16:21,
was, accompanied by a confession of sins. But, whether in its
earlier
simplicity or in its later limitation, the share of the worshipper
in
the act of sacrificing cannot but be regarded as an act of the
highest
cultic significance.
That women brought sacrifices in old
is
so evident that an attempt to prove it seems an act of supereroga-
tion.
But it is with this point as with many others connected with
the
whole question: facts otherwise well known have been either
forgotten
or ignored.
An illustration from old
wife
(Ju. 13:15-23), the latter's share in which is expressed in her words
[hHnmv]20 hlf
vndym hql-xl (vs.
23). Of like import perhaps
are
the words about Hannah (I S. 2:19) Hbzl h.wAyxi-tx,
h.tAOlfEBa21
Mymyh Hbz tx. A valuable testimony
to the prevalence of the cus-
tom
is furnished by the prophet Jeremiah, who speaks of the women
of
his time as performing the various acts pertaining to sacrifice
they
bake cakes, pour out drink offerings, and burn incense (Jer. 7:18;
44:15,
17ff). It is true they do not do this in the service of Jahveh;
but
it will be observed that they are censured by the prophet, not
because
they as women overstep their prerogative, but rather because
they
do it "unto other gods."22
For later times we have the clearest testimony
to the custom in the
Levitical
legislation which provides, as is well known, for sacrifices
of
purification for women (Lev. 12 and 15:19-33).
In the absence of definite information on the
point, it is not easy
to
say precisely with what action on the part of the worshipper in
bringing
a sacrifice according to the Levitical ritual the strictly cultic
act
began. Oehler, with good reason, as it seems to me, maintains
that
the sacrificial act began with the presentation of the victim.
Benzinger
considers it to begin with the laying on of the hand. But
in
view of the fact that in the sacrifice when the victims are birds the
"pressing
on of the hand" vdy jms (Maimonides, HaKo-lkAB;) was
omitted,
as Benzinger rightly supposes, and as the priest in that case
also
did the slaughtering (Lev. 1:15), and there would so be left
nothing
of cultic significance for the offerer, it seems better to regard
20 Cf. Moore, Judg., in loc.
21 The construction of the sentence, it
seems to me, makes Hannah the subject of HaBoz;li.
22 That the emphasis is on this is evident
from the terms of 44:3 and the
numerous
repetitions of the phrase "unto other gods" (4:45, 8, 15, 25; 7:18).
23 Oehler, O. T. Theology, p. 274.
PERITZ:
WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 127
the
presentation itself as a part of the sacrificial act.24 But whether
the
presentation itself was a cultic act or not, it is agreed by all that the
laying
on of the hand was. If there were any need of evidence on
this
point, it might be furnished by the fact that the Mishna25 explic-
itly
denies woman the right to perform this act. This is characteristic
of
the Mishna's treatment of woman's position in the cult, on which
more
will have to be said in another connection. Here it is sufficient
to
say that however valuable the Mishna is as a witness to the views of
the
tradition, it is not a safe guide in the exegesis of any particular
passage
of Scripture. There is no basis in the text for such a dis-
crimination
against woman. The laying on of the hand is the regular
feature
of the hlf
(Lev. 4:24), and woman's offering is an hlf
which,
judging from the words xybt and hHql, she herself was to
present
dfvm lhx htp lx (Lev. 12:6-8). The absence of the
specific
mention of the laying on of hands cannot be urged against
it
here any more than it can where the offerer is a man (Lev. 14:19, 20)
From
a source of greater value on this particular point than the
Mishna
it would seem that we have direct testimony that women
did
touch their sacrifices. In the complaint over the idolatry and
sinfulness
of the women (Baruch 6:29, the Epistle of Jeremy), the
statement
occurs: "The menstruous woman and the woman in
child
bed touch their sacrifices." The reference here is evidently26
to
what is prohibited in Lev. 12:4, and may point to the custom
that
the women like the men laid hands on the sacrifices which
they
offered. It is possible, however, that the term "touch," as
Professor
Toy suggests to me, may have reference to the eating of
the
sacrifices by the women of priestly families. But neither the
context,
which deals with such a variety of cultic acts, nor the term
itself,
a!ptomai (in LXX generally for fgn,
fygh),
necessarily requires
that
meaning. We find, therefore, in ancient
to
which the Levitical legislation bears witness that in the act of
sacrifice
women enjoyed equal rights with men.
4. Woman's
Participation in the Vow, Naziritism, and the Func-
tion of the Kedesha.
The intimate relation which the terms wdqth and the Arabic
24 The difficulty raised by
Kohler (quoted by Professor Day in Oehler's
O.T.
Theol., p. 275), that the
fitness of the animal was not decided until after the pres-
entation,
is easily overcome by the simple supposition that such examination pre-
ceded
the more formal presentation. 25 Menachoth 9:8.
26 Cf. Zockler, Kugef. Kom., on Baruch 6:29
128 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
nadhara (Heb. ryzn, rzn, rdn), sustain to each
other, as Wellhausen.
has
pointed out,27 makes it best to consider them together.28
The cultic significance of the vow, Naziritism,
and the Kedesha
are
too well acknowledged by all to require restatement; we simply
confine
ourselves to woman's relation to them.
I begin with the Nazirite vow as furnishing the
fullest and clearest
illustration
of woman's participation in the cult. The Levitical legisla-
tion
contained in Nu. 6 aims evidently to regulate a custom that is very
ancient
(cf. Dillmann, in loc.). Now it is a
remarkable instance of the
truth
of my contention that no discrimination is made against woman
in
her relation to the cult that the whole elaborate ritual with its solemn
requirements,
its abstinence from all products of the vine, the conse-
cration
of the hair, the separation from all defilement, the appear-
ing
before the door of the tabernacle with offerings, txFHl
hlf
Mymlw, and hHnm, and more especially
the hair offering (vs.18), all
this
is introduced with hwx vx wyx (vs. 2). The same fact
meets
us
in the regulation of the estimation" by which a vowed male or female
may
be redeemed. The female is there, indeed, valued less than the male,
but
that this has no bearing on the question of cult is very evident.
In view of this clear evidence of woman's
participation in the
Nazirite
vow, we have reason to suppose that woman is included in
27 Heid, p. 118.
28 In doing this, and doing it
here, I deviate, in the interest of what seems to me
correcter
method, from Stade, followed by Benzinger and Nowack, who treat of
vows
under the head of cultic actions, and of Nazirites and Kedesha under the head
of
holy persons. This is evidently due to a tacit following of the opinion that
the
Nazirite and the Kedesha were officials. Oehler, who favors such a view (O. T.
Theol., p. 295), asserts
clearly that Naziritism involved no priestly service, but
urges
Philo's and Maimonides' inference that there is an intimate relation between
the
Nazirite vow and the commands of abstinence imposed upon the priesthood.
But
this similarity appears to me slight ground on which to base the official
character
of Naziritism. These restrictions are evidently of the nature of taboos
incident
to a state of consecration, and similar to others, viz., the abstinence from
women.
(Cf. W. R. Smith, Rel. Sem., p. 462
ff.) They are of too general a
character,
covering the cases of worshipper and priest alike, to allow such an
inference.
On the other hand, the evident absence of any priestly service in
Naziritism,
the tenor of the laws, and the historical illustrations, point to the
Nazirite
as a devotee rather than an official. The single instance of Samuel, where
the
Nazirite vow is found in combination with prophetic and priestly functions is
counterbalanced
by the case of Samson and the Rechabites. The case is somewhat
different
with the Kedesha. Yet on foreign soil the Kedesha was mainly a devotee,
and
only in some cases became an official, of which there is no illustration in
Hebrew
cult.
29 Lev. 27:2ff.
PERITZ
: WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 129
the
legislation of the ordinary vow (Nu. 15:1-16), although we find it
in
a general way addressed to man without specific mention of
woman.
In fact, this must be the case of the legislation in general,
unless
we should suppose that the decalogue which is addressed to
man
has no application to woman. That woman made the ordinary
vow
is not only seen in the case of Hannah (I S. 1:11), but is taken
for
granted and regulated in Nu. 30. The restriction this legislation
places
upon woman's power to vow is of interest in that it affords a
glimpse
of a contrast between her relations to society and to the
cult.
If woman is independent, that is, a widow or divorced, her vow
is
as binding as that of man; if she is still unmarried in her father's
house
and her father hears her vow without opposing it, or if she be
married
and her husband hears her vow without opposing it, it is
equally
binding, but if her father or husband "disallow her in the day
that
he heareth; none of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she
hath
bound her soul, shall stand; and Jahveh shall forgive her, because
her
father (or husband) disallowed her" (vs.6). The meaning of all
this
is clear: the cult knows here no distinction between man and
woman;
it is the position of woman in society that introduces the
difference.
While it is very evident that the institution of
the Kedeshim owes
its
existence in the Jahveh cult to adoption, its prevalence is well
attested.30
It is not necessary to our purpose to do more at this
point
than to call attention to the fact that in this lowest and most
unnatural
form of devotion, as we have found it already in some of
the
higher, woman appears side by side of man, the tvwdq by the
side
of the Mywdq.
5. Woman's
Participation in Prayer.
If, as Stade does (Gesch. i. 487 ff.), we regard prayer equally
ancient
with sacrifice, usually accompanying the latter, and while
permitted
and practised elsewhere, properly offered at the sanctuary,
it
is another important cultic act in which women participated. And
I
gladly follow Stade in referring to Hannah (I S. 1:10ff.; 2:1) as an
example
illustrating a number of important points connected with
the
ancient custom of prayer.
And if again we may follow Stade in associating
with prayer as
30 Cf. Stade, i. 479 f.; Benz., p. 428;
Nowack, ii. 132; Driver, Deut., p.
264;
Dillmann,
Deut., p. 349; W. R. Smith, Rel. of Sem., p. 133; Baudissin, REP3, S.V.
Aschera, etc.
130 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
cultic
acts fasting, the blessing, the curse, and the oath,31 we find
woman
again participating in them.32
6. Woman's
Participation in Consultation of the Oracle and in
Theophanies.
That the oracle and its consultation occupied a
very important
place
in the ancient Hebrew cult is a matter of course.33 The
intimate
relation in which the oracle stood to the priesthood speaks
for
the act of consultation as a cultic rite. That women were accus-
tomed
to go to inquire of the oracle is shown by the story of
Rebekah
(Gen. 25:22f), which furnishes us not only with the statement
hvhy tx wrdl jltv, but also with the
quotation of a very ancient
oracular
response that could have been addressed to a woman only.
Even
if Stade's view,34 that the oracular response represents simply
the
legend of the origin of the oracle at
lished,
which is rather doubtful,35 the legend itself would remain
equally
forceful as an evidence of the custom of women's participa-
tion
in the consultation of the oracle.
In this connection, and as pointing to the same
fact, that in the
conception
of the writers of the period no hindrance existed to
the
free approach of woman to the divinity, may be mentioned the
theophanies
to women, of which we have not a few illustrations
(cf.
Gen. 3:13ff.; 16:8ff; 18:9f, 15; 21:17ff.; Ju. 13:3ff.).
7. Other
Indications.
There are some other facts in the Old Testament
which, while not
dealing
directly with woman's relation to the cult, yet furnish indi-
rectly
an evidence that is very valuable. They are the evidences of a
religious
consciousness and influence of woman that are difficult to
account
for on the supposition of woman's exclusion from the cult,
and,
on the other hand, best accounted for by the fact that she shared
in
the general religious life.
(I) The
Women's Naming of their Children.--It seems to have
been
a somewhat general practice in Old Testament times for women
to
give the names to their children.36
31 Cf. Stade, Gesch. i. 489 ff.; Nowack, Arch. ii. 259-263, 270 ff.
32 Cf. Jer. 36:6; Lev. 16:29;
23:26-32; Est. 4:16; Gen. 24:60; 1 S. 1:17; 2:20;
Ruth
1:9.
33 Cf. Stade, i. 471 ff.;
Nowack, ii. 272; Benz., 407 ff.
34 Gesch. i. 474, note 2.
35 Cf. Dillmann, Genesis, in loco.
36 The following statistics on
the point may not be without some interest.
PERITZ
: WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 131
The reason for this custom we need not here
discuss. For we
are
interested at this point not so much in the fact of the naming
itself
as in the contents of the names given. A number of the
names
given by the mothers contain a decided religious element
lxvnmf, lxvmw, lxfmwy.37 But the most striking illustration is the
naming
of dvbkyx
(1 S. 4:21). A very early tradition represents the
wife
of Phineas as being crushed by the news of the capture of
the
ark, and the death of her father-in-law and her husband. And
when,
in the moment of her death, she gives birth to a son, she names
him
with her dying breath dvbkyx, “Inglorious,"38 saying dvbk
hlg
lxrWym. Three times in the short passage is the
emphasis laid
upon
the loss of the ark. There is no good reason to doubt this
feature
of the tradition. But, to say the least, we have here clear
evidence
that in the thought of the narrator of this early tradition it
was
quite natural for a woman so to feel the loss of the ark as to
hand
down to posterity her pain in the very name of her son. Can
such
deep religious feeling be associated with an exclusion from the cult?
(2) The
Influence ascribed to Hebrew Women in Matters of
Religion.--The Deuteronomic
sentiment against women's prose-
Out
of 44 cases in which the naming of the children is mentioned in the Old
Testament,
in 26 it is ascribed to women, in 14 to men, and in 4 to God.
Women name in Gen. 4:25; 16:11; 19:37, 38; 29:32f.,
35 (all J) 30:6, 8 (E)
30:11.13
(J) 18, 20 (E) 21, 24 (J); 35:18a (JE); 38:3, 4, 5 (J); Ju. 13:24; I S. 1:20;
4:21;
I Chr. 4:9; 7:16; Is. 7:14; Ruth 4:17; ( hnAxr,qTi ).
Men name: Gen. 4:26; 5:29 (J); 5:3; 16:15;
17:19; 21:3 (P); 35:18b (JE); 41:51,
52
(E); Ex. 2:22 (J); 2 S. 12:24; I Chr. 7:23; Job 42:14; Gen. 25:25 (Uxrpyy) (J).
God names: Is. 8:3; Hos. 1:4, 6, 9.
From the fact that P in the only three
cases uniformly ascribes the naming to
the
father, and does so in the case of Seth (Gen. 5:3) in contradiction to J, who
ascribes
it to the mother (Gen. 4:25), it might be supposed that P represents a
later
custom or tendency. But J and E, and the other early sources, are by no
means
uniform in ascribing the naming to the mother, as may be seen from the
enumeration
above. All that can he justly claimed is that in the majority of cases
the
naming was done by the mother.
37 Since writing this my attention has
been called to Mr. Gray's valuable
Studies in Hebrew Proper
Names. I find my view on the value of the Hebrew
names
as expressive of religious thoughts, and as throwing "light on the Hebrew
religion,
and more especially on the popular religion," fully corroborated by him.
Cf. p. 10 ff.
38 It seems to me far better
to take the yx as the negative than with Kloster-
mann
(in loc.) as the exclamation yx. Cf. Driver, Text of Samuel, in loco.
Gray,
Studies, expresses it as his opinion
that it is not quite clear what yx, as an
element
in a proper name, means. Cf. p. 246, note I.
132 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
lytism
(spoken of more fully elsewhere) is here in point. While, of
course,
this proselytism is in behalf of foreign cults, it yet indicates
an
intense religious interest and influence, scarcely conceivable apart
from
her share in the cultic life.
Neither may we pass over lightly such
expressions as Ruth's
yhAlox< j`yihaloxve. It was hardly an empty
phrase. If it may be taken,
as
well it ought to be, and as is so generally done, as an evidence of
the
early conception of the close union of the god with his land, the
personal
pronouns are an equally strong indication of woman's share
in
the religious life.
4. Woman's
Relation to the Jahveh Cult as affected by Some
Ritualistic
Legislation.
I. The
Female in Sacrificial Victims.
According to the researches of W. R. Smith, a
very vital principle
underlies
the selection of the sacrificial animal, which determines not
only
the species of the animal but also its sex.39 It is therefore not
without
meaning to our inquiry to note whether the sacrificial animal
in
the Hebrew cult was limited to the male.40 We should expect that a
cult
that proscribes woman on account of her sex would also not per-
mit
the use of a female victim in sacrifice. But that the latter is not
the
case in the Hebrew cult is very evident. In earlier practice the
female
victim predominates (Gen. 15:9[E] 1 S. 6:14; 16:2). In the Leviti-
cal
legislation a discrimination is made in favor of the male in that it
is
preferred in the more solemn sacrifices, but even there the female
victim
is by no means excluded. A male is required as a passover-
lamb
(Ex. 12:5), for the hlf (Lev. 1:3, 10; 22:19); in the txFH a male
is
required from an "anointed priest" (Lev. 4:3), from the whole
people
(vs.14), from the ruler (vs. 23), while in the case of an ordinary
Israelite
a female is accepted (vs. 28. 32 and 56); in the Mymlw the
victim
may be either male or female (Lev. 3:1, 6; cf. Mal. 1:14). I defer
the
discussion of the reason for this discrimination; for the present,
let
it suffice to mention this as simply another fact pointing to the
conclusion
that the Hebrew cult is not pervaded by any principle
that
excludes the female sex.
2. Woman
as ceremonially "defiling."
Both the sexual approach to woman and her
condition in childbed
or
during her courses are regarded in Hebrew custom and legislation,
39 Rel. of Sem., Lecture viii.
40 As was the case among the
Harranians, quoted by W. R. Smith, p. 280, note 2.
PERITZ
: WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 133
as
among many other nations, as ceremonially defiling (I S. 21:5f
Ex.
19:15; Lev. 12; 15:19ff.; Ez. 36:17; Is. 64:6 Baruch 6:29). The original
ground
for this legislation lies most probably, as is suggested by
Stade,41
in animism, which regards as unclean and defiling all such
persons
who are under the influence, that is, possessed by spirits,
viz.,
those that suffer from certain diseases or have done certain acts
that
stand under the protection of certain spirits. It is, however,
perfectly
evident that this condition of ceremonial unfitness is only
temporary:
its removal can be effected. And the very exception of
woman's
fitness for the cult under those conditions proves the rule of
her
ordinary inclusion.
3. Woman
not excluded from the Three Yearly Feasts.
"Three times in the year shall all thy
males see42 the face of the
Lord
Jahveh" (Ex. 23:17; 34:23; Dent. 16:16). That this is an old law,
and
has reference to the three yearly feasts, is evident from the
connection
in which it is found. But it may well be remembered
that
its origin, like the origin of all the earliest legislation, was not
theoretic
but consuetudinary, the result of actual cases presented to
the
priest for decision. And it may well have had its occasion in the
fact
that such a law could not be put in effect in the case of woman
as
easily as in the case of man, and not without contravening the
other
custom and legislation that excluded her from the approach of
holy
things at certain periods, just considered. To infer, therefore,
from
this law woman's exclusion from all cult would be more than it
can
bear, and is contradicted by all the facts so far adduced. Neither
is
it a parallel case, as it seems to me, to be cited in connection with
the
custom that certain holy parts of an ox must not be eaten by
women.
Smith, Rel. of Sem., p. 281, note 3.
4. The Law
of the Firstlings.
The law of the firstlings with its emphasis upon
the firstborn male
might
at first sight appear as a very formidable objection to woman's
inclusion
in cult; but upon careful examination the facts here will be
found
in harmony with those already adduced.
That the later legislation counts the males only
as firstlings cannot
be
questioned (Nu. 3:40ff. [P]). But it seems to me altogether doubt-
41 Gesch. i. 483 f.; cf. also Smith's "Notes on Holiness,
Uncleanness, and
Taboo,"
in Rel. of Sem., p. 426 ff., and
"Taboos and the Intercourse of the Sexes,"
ibid., p. 435 ff.;
Wellhausen, Heid., p. i t6.
42 Not "appear
before"; cf. Driver on Deut. 16:16.
134 JOURNAL
OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
ful
whether this was also the case in the earlier legislation. But as
this
has been assumed, without a dissenting voice, to have always
been
so, one feels the need of much courage to call it in question.
Yet
there are weighty considerations against this assumption that
have
a right to a hearing.
The origin of the consecration of
the firstlings is found, as W. R.
Smith
has pointed out (Rel. of Sem., p.
444), in something of the
nature
of taboo of the first produce, having its proper parallel in the
vegetable
kingdom in the law of Lev. 19:23ff, which ordains that for
three
years the fruit of a new orchard shall be treated as ‘uncircum-
cised'
and not eaten. This being the case, and as we have found no
discrimination
against female victims in offerings in general, we might
argue
on general grounds against the probability of an original dis-
crimination
here. There is, however, far more direct evidence that
no
such discrimination existed in earliest times. I mention
(a) The term MH,r,
rF,P,, or rG,w,
rF,P,. It
is repeated so often
that
we can scarcely go amiss in seeing in it the central idea of the
custom
and the law. But if this be so, its limitation to a rkAzA prac-
tically
annuls it by introducing an entirely different element which
takes
its emphasis. If there be any meaning or force in the rFp,
the
rkz
dissipates it. It does, therefore, seem improbable that they
both
belonged to the original idea, and far more probable that that
was
contained in the rFp, irrespective whether it was male or female,
in
agreement with the idea of the taboo of the first produce. Cf.
also
the lKA
in MHr rFp lk (Ex. 13:12; Ez. 20:26).
(b) W. R. Smith has also called
attention to the fact that "in the
period
immediately before the exile, when sacrifice of firstborn chil-
dren
became common, these grisly offerings were supposed to fall
under
the law of firstlings (Jer. 7:31; 19:5; Ez. 20:26)." 43 But,
this being
so,
the passage in Jeremiah, stating that that which was done to
Mhynb was also done to Mhytnb shows that still at
that time the
female
was included in the law of the firstling.
(c) A careful examination of the
wording of the texts of the law
reveals
the fact that the word rkz has only a very doubtful place in
them.
To facilitate such examination, I present the following tabu-
lated
form of the law
1-- JE. Ex. 13:2:
:xvh yl hmhbbv Mdxb lxrWy ynbb MHr lk
rFP rkb lk yl wdq
43 Ibid., p. 445.
PERITZ
: WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 135
2.
-- JE. Ex. 13:12, 13:
:hvhyl [Myrkzh ] jl
hyhy rwx hmhb rgw rFp lkv hvhyl MHr rFp lk trbfhv
:hdpt jynbb Mdx rvkb lkv vtprfv hdpt xl
Mxv hwb hdpt rmH rFp lkv
3.
-- E. Ex. 22:28: :yl
Ntt jynb rvkb
4.
-- JE. Ex. 34:19, 20:
:hwv rvw rFp [rkzt ] jnqm
lkv yl MHr rFp lk
:hdpt jynb rvkb lk vtprfv hdpt xl Mxv
hwb hdpt rmH rFpv
5.
-- D. Dt. 15:19:
:jyhlx hvhyl wdqt [ rkzh ] jnxcbv
jrqbb dlvy rwx rvkbh lk
6.
-- P. Nu. 3:40ff:
:vgv lxrWy ynbl
rkz rvkb lk dqp hwm lx hvhy rmxyv
It is to be noticed, in the first
place, that in passages 3 and 1,
evidently
the oldest form of the law, no specification is made that the
consecrated
firstborn must be a male. For I take it that jynb may
stand
for "thy children" as well as for "thy sons," and, as the
term
rkb has a feminine as well as a masculine plural,
it may be either
masculine
or feminine. Cf. Ges.-Kautzsch, ed. 26, § 87, 3; and the
feminines
in vgv NhblHmv vnxc tvrkbm xvh Mg xybh lbhv in
Gen.
4:4
We note, secondly: If the
syntactical position of Myrkzh in 2 and
the
corrupt rkzt
in 4 be examined, and compared with the position
of
rkz
in 6, it will be seen that in the first two passages, as well as
in
5, the word has all the appearance of not being an original part of
the
sentence but of being an afterthought, a gloss.
And, thirdly, the term rkz is peculiar to P. JE,
it is well known,
uses
vtwxv wyx in the place of P's hbqnv rkz (comp. Gen. 7:2 and 9),
and
the term nowhere else occurs in JE (cf. Brown and Driver's
Gesenius's Lex., s.v. rkz).44 The
three facts together, as it seems to
me,
can lead to but one conclusion, namely, that the term rkz in
Ex.
13:12; 34:19, and probably also in Dt. 15:19, is due to a later glossing
by
a source related to P, and that its object was to bring into har-
mony
the earlier with the later custom.
And altogether our examination of
the law of the firstlings, far
from
pointing to an exclusion of the female from cult, is but another
indication
that in early times no discrimination was made against the
female,
but that perfect parity existed between the sexes in matters
of
the cult.
44 This does not apply to
the peculiar form rUkz; found in Ex. 23:17; 34:23.
136 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
5. Circumcision in its Relation to Woman's Position in Cult.
The prominence given to the rite of
circumcision in the Old Tes-
tament
will scarcely permit us to pass it without an inquiry as to such
a
relation. Von Orelli is probably right in his contention that cir-
cumcision
was practised among the Hebrews in the pre-Mosaic times
(cf.
PRE3, s.v. " Beschneidung," against Nowack, Arch. i. 168).
But,
as Smend says (Alttest. Rel., p. 37),
it was not in ancient
a
sign of a servant of Jahveh, nor did Moses make it such. Its mean-
ing
and application in Arabic heathenism is of service to us here.45
The Arabs circumcised the girls
also, and made a feast as at a
boy's
circumcision (Wellh., ibid.).
Wellhausen's supposition, that the
circumcision
of girls was not as generally practised as that of boys,
seems
very likely. But why it may not be regarded in the same light,
and
why it "hat eher eine naturliche Veranlassung and einen medi-
cinischen
Nutzen gehabt," is not apparent. In the absence of definite
evidence
on this point, the most reasonable supposition is that what-
ever
cultic significance the act had in the case of man it also had in
the
case of woman. All the evidence we have to form our judgment
on
the question whether circumcision was practised on girls in early
it
seems to me, is stronger than the silence. At any rate, there is no
ground
to construe that silence into exclusion from the cult. Cir-
cumcision,
with its religious significance as the sign of Jahveh's cove-
nant
with
than
the preceding case of the law of the firstborn, for the condition
of
ancient
exclusive
prominence given to "males" in the priestly genealogies47
and
laws of temple service.48
5.
The Hebrew Woman's Relation to the Cult
of the Dead and the
Worship
of Ancestors.
Attention has long since been called
to the traces of an extensive
cult
of the dead in the ancient Hebrew religion, originating most
45 According to Wellhausen (Heidenth., p. 154 f.; cf. also W. R.
Smith, Rel.,
p.
319), the etymology of NtH and its Arabic equivalent points to a
connection
of
circumcision with bridegroom. But perhaps the practice is, like the hair-offer-
ing,
a representative sacrifice, by which recognition is made of the divine owner-
ship
of human life (cf. T. K. Cheyne, Encycl.
Britannica, s.v. "Circumcision").
In
either case we may suppose it to be of cultic significance.
46 Cf. Smend, Rel., p. 38 f.; Nowack, i. 169 f.
47 Jos. 17:2; Ezra 8:3ff.; 2
Chr. 31:16, 19.
48 Lev. 6:18, 29; 7:6; Nu. 3:15,22;
1 Macc. 2:18ff., etc.
PERITZ
: WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 137
probably
in ancestor worship (Stade, Gesch. i.
387 ff. ; Nowack,
Arch. ii. 300 f.; Benzinger,
Arch., p. 165 ff. ; Smend, Alttest. Rel.,
p.
112 f.), and finding its analogies in other religions, and particularly
in
Arabic heathenism (Wellh., Heidenth.,
pp. 159-164; Goldziher,
"Ueber
Todtenverehrung im Heidenthum and im Islam," Muham-
rnedanische Studien i. 229 ff.).49
I. Woman's Participation in the Various Mourning Rites.
Apart from such actions as were the
natural expressions of grief
over
the dead, there are certain features in the prevalent mourning
customs
that had evidently cultic significance, in which women promi-
nently
participated.
Jer. 16:6-8 gives us a pretty
complete list of the numerous mourning
customs
in vogue in
(a)
The Lamentation.. The variety of terms used for the act of
lamentation
over the dead, hnx, lbx, dps, hhn, hmh, points to its
general
practice, but the specific technical meaning of hnyq, with its
peculiar
rhythm and exclamatory beginning hkyx, jyx, yx, which has
furnished
the technical term a tvnnvqm (Jer. 9:16) for the professional
mourning
women,"50 met with both
in ancient and modern
(cf.
Goldziher, p. 251;
Stade,
Gesch. i. 388), and in ancient
(Records of the Past, Second Series, ii.
78; Maspero, Dawn of Civil-
ization, p. 684), points
particularly to woman's principal share in
the
act.
(b) Laceration, ddeOGt;hi (Dt. 14:1; I Ki. 18:28;
Jer. 16:6; 41:5; 47:5; Mic.
4:14),
finding its parallel in the custom of Arabic heathenism, where
the
women beat or scratched their faces till the blood flowed.51
(c) The Hair-offering, hHrq (Am. 8:10 Mic. 1:16;
Dt. 14:1 and others),
especially
of women (Is. 3:24). See Goldziher, p. 247 ff.; Wellh.,
Heid., p. 161 ; Smith, Rel., p. 306 ff.
(d) The Sacrifices to or for the
dead, and the sacrificial meal con-
nected
with it (Jer. 16:7, 8). See Stade, Gesch
i. 388 f., 425; Driver,
Deut., p. 291 f. ; Benz., Arch., 165 ff.; Nowack, Arch. i. 196 f.
That these cultic rites were
performed by men and women alike,
and
for men and women alike, is already clear from the references
adduced.
It will, however, not be altogether
superfluous to empha-
49 Add W. R. Smith, Rel. of Sem., p. 304 ff.
50 Cf. also the term (2 Chr. 35:25), and yhin,
yfed;Oy (Am.
5:16).
51 Cf. Goldziher, p.
246f., 253; Wellh., Heid., p. 160; W.
R. Smith, Rel. of
Sem., p. 304 ff.; Driver, Deut., p. 156; Smith, Kinship, 214 ff.
138 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
size
the force of Jeremiah's words on this point. The calamity of
unceremonial
burial of which the prophet speaks is one "concerning
the
sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place,
and
concerning their mothers that bare them and concerning their
fathers
that begat them" (vs.3), and for their fathers or for their
mothers
(vs .7).
If, while at this point, I may also
call attention to the care and
interest
ascribed by tradition to the patriarchs in the burial of their
wives
(Gen. 23:2; 25:10; 35:8, 19f.; 48:7; 49:31f), and to Barzillai's words to
David:
"Let thy servant, I pray thee, turn back again, that I may
die
in mine own city, by the grave of my father and my mother" ( 2 S.
19:38),
it will appear how utterly unfounded and erroneous Benzinger's
statement
is that “ebensowenig wurden der Frau nach dem Tod
kultische
Ehren zu teil" (Arch., p. 140).
It will appear also that
the
phrases like "to be buried with one's fathers " (1 Ki. 14:31; 2 Ki
12:22
(21), etc.) may be too narrowly interpreted.
The mourning customs just
considered, on account of their being,
cultic
rites, have been taken as the evidences of early ancestor wor-
ship
among the Hebrews. See the references cited on p. 137. It
is
not at all of moment to our inquiry to come to a decision on this
question
one way or the other. But as Stade, followed by Nowack
and
Benzinger, invariably and specifically asserts woman's exclusion
from
the cult of the ancestors," I shall endeavor to show that every
fact
taken by him as pointing to ancestor worship at all points with
equal
force to woman's inclusion in it. To woman's participation in
the
various cultic mourning rites, I add now
2. The Sanctity of the Tombs of Female Ancestors.
The grave, as is well known, became
in some cases a religious
shrine
in ancient
cincts
a te<menoj (hima) as in Arabic heathenism (Goldz., p. 235 f.),
we
do not know. As this sanctity of the grave is taken as pointing
strongly
to ancestor worship, it is important to call attention to the
fact
that prominently by the side of the accounts of the sacred burial
places
of the patriarchs, of Joseph, of Moses and Aaron, we read of
the
grave of Rachel with its hbcm (Gen. 3520), of Miriam in Kadesh
(Nu.
20:1), and of Deborah under the sacred tree near
Allon-bacuth
being most probably identical with the Deborah-Palm
in
Ju. 4. See Dillmann, Genesis, in
loco, and
52 Stade, Gesch. i. 390 f.; Nowack, Arch.
i. 154, 344, 348 ; Benz., Arch., p.
140.
PERITZ
: WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 139
loco.
In fact, there are more graves of female ancestors mentioned
of
pre-Mosaic times than of male, including besides those already
mentioned
those of Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah at Machpelah (Gen.
49:31).
It is evident, therefore, that whatever religious significance
there
is, in the sanctity of the graves of the ancestors, woman shares
in
it. This appears also in another fact that may be mentioned here.
If
we may, with Nowack (i. 177), consider that the ceremony of
boring
the ear with an awl to the doorpost (Dt. 15:12ff.; Ex. 21:2ff),
whereby
a slave becomes a permanent member of the family, is best
explained
as a remnant of ancestor worship, the Myhlx in these pas-
sages
referring to the ancestors of the family, we have but another
instance
of woman's share in the cult, for Dt. 15:17b prescribes: "And
also
unto thy bondwoman shalt thou do likewise."
3. Woman's Access to and Possession of the Teraphimn.
While it may be true that the
evidence that the teraphim were the
images
of the ancestors of the family, and their consultation a species
of
manes oracle (Stade, Gesch. i. 467;
Nowack, ii. 23; Baudissin,
Studien i. 57), is not
altogether full enough to be conclusive, yet it
seems
to be going too far to the other extreme to say (Moore, Judges,
p.
380) that there is no evidence. The inference from Gen. 31:19, 30, 34
I
S. 19:13; Ju. 17:5 that the teraphim were household gods seems to me
not
much weakened by the reference to Ez. 21:21. At any rate, that
they
were images legitimately used in divination in ancient
(I
S. 19:13; Ho. 3:4; Zech. 10:2; Ez. 21:21) is generally admitted. It is in
this,
after all, that the significance of the teraphim in our inquiry lies.
Twice
women are mentioned in the Old Testament in connection
with
the teraphim. Of course, Michal's use of the teraphim (1 S.
19:13)
contains nothing of cultic significance; all that we may legiti-
mately
gather in this direction is that she evidently had free access
to
the image. But it is entirely different with the case of Rachel
(Gen.
31:19, 30, 34). Why did Rachel steal the teraphim, the god (it was
probably
only one image, cf. Dillmann, in loc.) of her father (yhlx,
vs.
30)? We may hardly ascribe it to any other than a religious motive,
finding
its most plausible explanation in the similar case of the
Danites
(Ju. 18), whose spies had consulted the oracle of Micah
and
had received a favorable reply (vs. 5, 6), and then had given the
hint
to the rest of the tribe to carry it away with them (vs. 14). The
teraphim
was employed as an oracle53: this explains Rachel's interest
53 Zech. 10:2; Ez. 21:21
140 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
in
it, and so we meet here the Hebrew woman for the first time in
our
investigation not only as a worshipper but in the possession of the
sacred
objects employed in oracular inquiry.
This leads us to consider next the
intimately related question,
4. Woman's Relation to the Oracle of the Dead, Necromancy, and
the other Cognate Forms
of Divination.
As performing oracular functions cf.
Wellh., Heid, p. 126 f.;
Stade,
i. 505 ; but especially W. R. Smith, Journal
of Philology xiii.
276
ff.) of the oracle of the dead (described in Is. 8:19; Dt. 18:11 as
Mytmh lx wrd) woman appears
officially, as the bvx tlfb one
who
has a familiar spirit, in the woman of Endor (I S. 28). This
official
character of woman is worthy of special notice. That necro-
mancy
was a religious cult is clear from the terms which are used in
connection
with it. The woman of Endor describes her vision as
seeing
Myhlx
(vs.13), wrd
and Msq
are the terms used in speaking
of
the consultation; the opposition to the cult brands it as a hbfvt
(Dt.
18:12) and its approach with the technical terms ll.eHi (Ez. 13:19)
and
xmF
(Lev. 19:31) as ceremonially defiling.54 The opposition it
met
with and its frequent mention show how widely and how deeply
the
cult had entrenched and retained itself in the popular faith.
Whether
its origin lies in ancestor worship, as Stade supposes, need
not
be here discussed. This is certain, that we find woman acting
in
a widespread popular cult in an official capacity, and, judging
from
the fact that Saul's order is bvx tlfb twx yl vwqb, occupy-
ing
the leading position. The latter is confirmed also by the fact
that
in the often recurring phrase Mynfdyhv tvbvxh (Lev. 19:31; 20:6;
Is.
8:19; 19:3 etc.) the feminine tvbvxh invariably comes first.55
The ‘wise woman,’ hmkH
hwx, and
the use made of her (2 S. 14:2;
20:16,
also Ju. 5:23; Ex. 35:25), contains nothing of cultic significance (cf.
Smend,
Alttest. Rel., p. 91).
But here unquestionably belongs the
practice of divination by
54 For these reasons I cannot
follow Driver (Deut., p. 226) when he
says that
the
opposition to the cult was not due to its being considered idolatry but a
super-
stition.
It was a rival cult that the opposition fought, and one that was not
altogether
of foreign origin. Cf. Stade, Gesch.
i. 425; W. R. Smith, Jour. of Phil.
xiii.
273 f.
55 Schwally arrives at the
original meaning of rkz, viz. "Todtenbeschworer,"
by
a combination of it with the Targumic the translation of the Hebrew
bvx, ynifod;yi; and Mynin;fom; (ZATW. xi. 179 ff.),
but he never mentions the Hebrew
bvx tlfb and the numerous references to woman's
activity in this religious
sphere.
PERITZ
: WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 141
some
women mentioned in Ez. 13:17ff. Upon this obscure form of
divination
the investigations of W. R. Smith (Jour.
Of Phil. xiii. 286 f.)
have
thrown considerable light. The object of the practice was
oracular.
According to vs. 22, it was the means of obtaining responses,
which
according as they were assurances of divine favor or the oppo-
site
made man glad or sorry. The means employed were some kind
of
appurtenances tied to the arm and put on the head. The word
tvtsk Ephrem Syrus explains as ‘amulets,’ and o[ [Ebrai?oj in the
Hexapla
renders it fulakth<ria. Now, as the Jewish phylacteries
were
amulets to make prayer more powerful, "we must take it here,"
says
Smith, "that these women invoked the deity--obviously for an
omen."
Of the nature of the omen the explanation is found in the
words:
"Ye profane me with my people for (or with) handfuls of
barley
and crumbled pieces of bread" (vs.19). These were the
a]parxai<, the altar gifts, or,
perhaps more likely, the pay for divining,
of
the same elements as in Syriac divination, and pointing as in that
case
to "a kind of omen which in its first origin was drawn from
the
gift of firstfruits at a--Canaanite or Hebrew--sanctuary, with
the
aid of prayer, such as habitually accompanied rites from which
an
oracle was sought" (Smith, ibid.).
If we now associate with this
official
capacity as the dispenser of the oracle that of the bvx
tlfb
and
Rachel's possession of the teraphim, we have found strong indi-
cations,
to be corroborated later on, that not only did woman share
in
the cult as worshipper, but that she also occupied an official
position
in it.
The term tvxbntmh
used by
Ezekiel to describe this activity of
the
women suggests naturally a probable connection of it with the
most
important phenomenon in the question of woman's relation to
the
cult, namely, the order of the prophetesses.
6. Women as Officials in the Jahveh Cult.
I. The Prophetesses.
While the existence and activity of
women as prophets in Hebrew
religion
cannot but be recognized by all, it is of interest to note how
variously
the fact is treated by moderns. Nowack, in his paragraph
on
"Seher and Propheten," passes it in silence (Arch. ii. 130 f.).
Stade
(Gesch. i. 178) and Montefiore (Hibb. Lect. 1892, p. 75) doubt
its
existence in ancient
wirkende
weise Frau," and the latter says, " if Deborah was a seer."
Professor
Moore regards Deborah as a prophetess in the older sense
142 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
of
the word, an inspired woman, and compares her with the German
Veleda
and Joan of Arc. Smend (Alttest. Rel.,
p. 90f) more readily
acknowledges
the religious character of the earlier prophetesses. Of
Miriam
he significantly says that she was probably more prominent
than
the tradition represents. The only mention of the prophetess in
relation
to woman's position in religion is made by Benzinger (Arch.,
p.
140), and he dismisses it with the curt remark that it is the excep-
tion
that only proves the rule of woman's exclusion from the cult.
But it is a matter of course that no view of
woman's relation to the
cult
can have any weight that leaves out of due consideration such
an
important fact. And it is no wonder, on the other hand, in view
of
the isolation with which the phenomenon of the prophetess has
been
treated, that it should appear as it does to Professor McCurdy
(Hist. Proth. and the Monuments ii. §
423) as an anomaly (which
he
mentions only with a word), yielding itself only a little more
readily
to an explanation (which explanation, however, he does not
attempt
to give) than her position as judge and queen. It will,
therefore,
prove no mean confirmation of the correctness of my view
of
the relation of woman to the cult if it furnishes an explanation,
and
the only one offered, of this anomaly. That we must in the
consideration
of this question draw the important modern distinction
between
the earlier and the later character of prophetesses is very
evident.
There is exactly the same difference between a Huldah
and
a Deborah as there is between a Jeremiah and a Samuel.
Of later prophetesses Huldah is the
principal example. Noadiah
is
simply known to us by name (Neh. 6:14)
(1) Huldah (2 Ki. 22:14ff).--This
prophetess comes into the
foreground
as the chief religious authority at the time of a most
intense
religious excitement, and in connection with an event that
stands
without a parallel in its effect upon the development of the
religious
thought and life of
the
person to whom, at the order of the King of Judah, Hilkiah the
priest
and Shaphan the scribe, and others equally prominent in state
and
church, should direct themselves to inquire concerning the
meaning
of the discovery of the Book of the Law, should be a woman.
Equally
significant is the nature of the oracular response. For, it
must
be remembered, it is not a political or moral issue that is up;
neither
does it concern religion in general. Deuteronomy has chiefly
to
do with the cult; it is therefore a question of the cult that is
brought
before the prophetess, and her response is altogether con-
cerned
therewith. This interest and authority of the prophetess
PERITZ:
WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 143
Huldah
in such a question, being also in perfect accord with the leg-
islation
of Deuteronomy itself, which, as has been pointed out above,
recognizes
woman's share in worship, has a momentous bearing on
the
question at issue. But important as this testimony is, the full
force
of it will be best perceived when the office of the prophetess is
viewed
as it existed in its earlier stages.
(2) Office of the Earlier Prophetesses.--There seems to me no
sufficient
ground to call in question the activity of women as seers in
the
pre-monarchic period in
Stade,
Montefiore, and others. If early Hebrew tradition is of any
historical
value whatever, it certainly speaks of a prophetess Deborah
as
distinctly as of a prophet Samuel, whatever meaning that term may
have.
In like-manner do the earliest traditions prominently associate
with
Moses and Aaron as head of the Israelitish community their
sister,
the prophetess Miriam (Mi. 6:4 Ex. 15:20f. [E] Nu. 12; 20:1 [JE]).
But
how are we to interpret the term hxybn as used here? There
can
be but the one way, it seems to me, which has its basis in the
explanation
in 1 S. 9:9, and according to which the earlier Hebrew
xybn was a hx,ro or hz,Ho. To say this in the
case of Samuel, and to
call
Deborah “eine weise Frau,” seems an inconsistent choice of
terms
in order to convey a different meaning of the word when used
in
speaking of woman. There is not the slightest reason for such a
distinction,
and, in fact, none is assigned; so it seems but fair to ask
that
the word be allowed to mean the same thing in both cases, in
that
of Deborah as in that of Samuel. And all the more so because
the
principal function of 'judge,' whether in the earlier sense of ‘vin-
dicator’
or in the later sense of ‘giving
judicial decisions,’ is ascribed
to
the one as much as to the other (compare Ju. 4:5 and 1 S. 7:16ff.;
cf.
Moore, Judges, in loco). If, as may
be therefore justly claimed,
Deborah
was a seer, then all the light which recent investigation
has
thrown upon the origin and function of the seer is at our service.
If
the office of seer, as is held by Stade (Gesch.
i. 468-473), had its
origin
in the belief that some persons were specially possessed by the
divinity;
if its function was, by means of visions, to reveal the divine
will;
if, as is illustrated by the case of Samuel, it was intimately con-
nected
with the sanctuary; if, as is indicated by the relation of the
Hebrew
and Arabic terms, Nhk, kahin,
the offices of priest and seer
were
once identical, and the old Israelitish priesthood originated in
the
settlement of some seers at a permanent sanctuary (cf. Wellh.,
Heid., p. 130 ff., 167),
then the function of the prophetess had an
origin
in common with the highest cultic function in
144 JOURNAL, OF BIBLICAL
LITERATURE.
hood,
and this function was, at one time, open to some extent to
women.
To claim this for Samuel seems perfectly natural, for, of
course,
we find in his case clear indications of such a fusion of seer
and
priest. But the inference that such was the case also when
woman
filled the same office is perfectly reasonable, and by no means
lacks
more definite confirmation. Woman's relation to the teraphim,
the
oracle of the dead, and divination, as developed above, is here in
point,
but additional evidence in the same direction and within the
jahveh
cult comes to us in the case of Miriam.
(3) Miriam.--In Nu. 12 (referred to also in Dt. 24:9), belonging
to
the earliest tradition (JE), we have a detailed account of an inci-
dent
which purports to involve the question of the relative official
rank
of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. The contention was occasioned
by
the marriage of Moses with a Cushite woman, and partakes of the
nature
of a family quarrel. "Hath Jahveh indeed spoken only with
Moses?
hath he not spoken also with us?" (vs. 2), say Miriam and
Aaron;
and as Dillmann has pointed out (in loc.), the feminine
rbdtv would show that Miriam was the instigator.
The claim that
her
words imply is prophetic rank and authority for herself and Aaron
equal
to those of Moses. In the settlement of the dispute by the
intervention
of Jahveh, it becomes apparent that her claim of pro-
phetic
rank is not denied, and she, as well as Aaron, bears the title
of
‘prophet’; only to Moses is ascribed the official preeminence,
while
she, as the instigator of the insubordination, has to bear the
brunt
of the punishment. While the incident thus brings out Moses'
preeminence,
it at the same time asserts the official equality of
Miriam
with Aaron. That the whole incident is brought into inti-
mate
connection with the dfeOm lh,xo the centre of the
religious cult,
is
certainly significant. If to this be added the facts, that occasion is
taken
to state that Miriam is the sister of Aaron (Ex. 15:20), and that
in
the earlier genealogical list her descent is traced back to Levi (Nu.
26:59;
1 Chr. 6:3; Ex. 6:20 [P] does not mention her), while throughout
she
is conspicuously associated with Aaron and Moses as a leader of
the
religious community, the conclusion can scarcely be avoided that,
as
Deborah like Samuel, so Miriam like Moses and Aaron, is an
example
of a seer in whom, in the manner of that time, the functions
of
prophet and priest are combined. The probability of this infer-
ence
is heightened, if in this connection again we call to mind the
activity
of prophetesses in other Semitic religions, and woman's part
as
diviner in connection with the oracles later proscribed by the relig-
ion
of Jahveh.
PERITZ
: WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 145
2. Women as Officials in the Tabernacle and the
I must now call attention to the
direct testimony on woman's
official
position in the Jahveh cult as contained in the repeated men-
tion
of woman's service in the tabernacle.
The passages are dfEOm
lh,xo Htap, Uxb;cA rw,xE txob;c.oha (Ex. 38:8)
and
dfeOm lh,xo HtaP, txob;c.ha MywinAha (I S. 2:22b). The text
in
Samuel
beginning with rwx txv is almost unanimously regarded
as
an interpolation. (See Driver, Text of
Sam., p. 26; Kittel in
Kautzsch's
Heilzge Schrift d. A. T.;
Klostermann's Samuel; Budde's
Samuel.) The evidence that the
context speaks of a lkAyhe and not
of
an lhexo,
and that the passage in question ascribes to the sons of
Eli
a sin entirely different from that of vs. 12ff. (see Stade, Gesch. i.
199,
note 2), is far stronger than the absence of the passage from the
LXX
in Codex Vaticanus, which is, moreover, somewhat counterbal-
anced
by its presence in Codex Alexandrinus and in Lucian's recen-
sion.
The fact of the insertion of the passage in Samuel seems best
explained
as originating in a marginal note suggested by Ex. 38:8.
There is no such question of text
connected with the reference in
Exodus;
it belongs to P, and is definite and clear enough for our
purpose.
We must first determine, as far as
possible, the meaning of the
word
xbc
as used here. The versions exhibit a marked variation in
translating
the word. The LXX has for vxbc rwx txbch in Ex.
38:8
tw?n nhsteusasw?n ai{ e]nh<steusan; Cod. Alex. translates Mywnh
txbch in I S. 2:22b by ta>j
gunai?kaj ta>j parestw<saj (Swete, in loc.).
The
Vulgate translates in Ex. quae excubabant
and in S. quae observa-
bant; in Targ. and Pesh. it
is paraphrased ‘who prayed’ and ‘who
came
to pray’ (see Driver, in loc.). But there can be no question
that
xbc
has in the Priest's Code the very decided technical signifi-
cation
of ‘to render service in connection with, the tabernacle in a
Levitical
capacity’ (cf. Nu. 4:23, 30, 35, 39, 43, 47; 8:24, 25); by its side
is
usually found the synonym hdAbofE, and the LXX translates
it by leitourgei?n
and
leitourgi<a. The attempts, therefore, of the ancient
versions, as
also
the A.V.'s ‘assemble’ (the R.V. correctly
renders in Ex. 38:8
“the
serving women which served at the door of the tent of meet-
ing,”
and refers in the margin to Nu. 4:23 and 8:24), must be regarded
as
inadmissible, and evidently due to a hesitancy to allow the word to
mean
the same thing when used in reference to women as when used
in
reference to men. And such attempts are not any more admissible
when
the term is limited to express the performance of "menial
146 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
duties"
by the women (Driver); or when there is simply added to
these
the duties of performing the sacred dances and choral songs
(Dillmann,
Strack). The fact is, we do not know in what particular
the
service of the women consisted, but we do know that, whatever
the
nature of the service, it is described by the same term used for
the
Levitical service rendered in connection with the tabernacle.
The remark of Nowack (Arch. ii. 69, note) that we do not hear
in
the
older accounts of women who serve in the sanctuary, suggests.
the
inquiry whence the information contained in Ex. 38:8 and per-
petuated
in 1 S. 2:22b originated. To regard it as haggadic, late Jewish
fiction
(Popper; Wellhausen, Composition des
Hexateuchs u.s.w.,
1889,
p. 147) is out of the question. There is in late Jewish history
no
indication of a tendency to place women in positions of the
cult;
both the low estimation in which woman is held and the high
estimation
with which increasingly the ritual is regarded are against
such
an idea; the tendency is all the other way. It seems to me
that
the reference to the service of woman in the passage in Exodus
is
to something antiquated, something that had long passed even in
the
time in connection with which it is mentioned. It seems a futile
effort
to contend, like Dillmann and Keil, over the notion of time
the
participle txob;co conveys: Keil claiming that it does not
imply
that
they had served there before the erection of the sanctuary, but
only
from that time forward they did perform service there ; and
Dillmann,
that it does not mean that they served later, but that they
served
until now. It is the Uxb;cA that will more readily render ser-
vice
here, yielding itself easily to the tense of the pluperfect ; the
passage
can be rendered: "And he made the laver of bronze, and
the
base thereof of bronze, of the mirrors of the serving women
which
had served at the door of the tent of meeting." In accord-
ance
with this, it is not to be supposed that the txbc contributed
their
hand-mirrors as a hmAUrT; (Dillm.), but on the analogy of Nu.
17:2-5
(
because
of their sanctity through former use, are beaten out into
plates
for a covering of the altar, and are so turned into another
sacred
use, so here, the mirrors left behind by the women are put
to
another sacred service. It is very probable that in both cases we
have
to do with reminiscenses, embodying Levitical traditions;
attached
to the sacred utensils of the sanctuary, which were in some
cases
termed NOrKAzi (Nu. 17:5). And, although this notice is found
in
P and is probably a later addition even there, that does not pre-
clude
its being based upon very ancient tradition. The dfvm lhx
PERITZ:
WOMAN IN THE ANCIENT HEBREW CULT. 147
in
the Priest's Code is an elaborate affair and not historical, but E
knows
of an dfvm lhx, tells us of its erection, and gives its name
(Ex.
33:7-11), and also, as has been shown above, brings Miriam in
close
connection with it. In view of these facts, it is safe to say that
the
passages in Exodus and Samuel, though late themselves, are in
perfect
harmony with, and probably embody, an ancient tradition
according
to which, in early times, women held some official position
in
the sanctuary of Jahveh.
A side light upon woman's official
position in the Jahveh cult
comes
to us also from the references in the Old Testament to the
women
singers. There are four distinct classes of these, one of which,
the
tOrwA,
mentioned in passages like 2 S. 19:35; Jer. 31:4; Ec. 2:8 and
Is.
23:16, sang evidently only for social amusement, and may here be
passed
by with the mere mention. The other three classes will find
the
simplest explanation when considered in their relation to the
religious
cult.
(I) The tOnn;Oqm; who chant the tOnyqi.--Their official
relation to,
and
prominence in, the cult of the dead have been considered above.
See
p. 137.
(2) The tr,W,.bam;, eu]aggelizome<nh, is mentioned by that
name only
in
Ps. 68:12(11), and the term is also applied to
but
the function of the trwbm to announce and celebrate a victory
by
vocal and instrumental music and dances, finds frequent mention
in
the Old Testament (Ex. 15:20; Ju. 5:1; 11:34; 1 S 18:6; Ps. 68:26 (25); cf.
also
2
S. 1:20). That these choral dances were at least of a semi-religious
character
will scarcely admit of doubt. These were the "wars of
Jahveh,"
and He Himself is tvxbc hvhy: the celebration of victory56
must
have partaken of a religious character. This becomes all the
more
evident from the religious element contained in some of these
songs
preserved to us (see Ex. 15:21; Ju. 5:3ff. Ps. 68; Judith 15:12ff.; 16:1f.)
These
facts have naturally enough led some to suppose that the par-
ticular
service that the women according to Ex. 38:8 and 1 S. 2:22
rendered
was the sacred choral dances. It is very probable that the
term
xbc
may cover, but there is no reason to suppose that it
exhausts,
this part of woman's service.
(3) Women Singers in the
allel
passage in Ezra 2:65 furnish a more direct reference to woman's
participation
in public religious song. In Neh. 7:67, a register which
has
every appearance of having been drawn up under Zerubbabel
56 "The Hebrew phrase for opening war
is ‘to consecrate war’ (hmHlm wDq),
and
warriors are consecrated persons."--W. R. Smith, Rel. of Sem., p. 383.
148 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
and
incorporated by Nehemiah in his Memoir (cf. Driver, Introd.,
p.
513, and Stade, Gesch. ii. 98), the
statement occurs that among
the
returning exiles were found "245 singing men and singing
women."
(In the parallel passage in Ezra, probably derived imme-
diately
from Neh., the number given is 200.) There is not the
slightest
reason to suspect the text, and Oettli's suggestion (Kurzgef.
Komm., Die
geschichtlichen Hagiographen, Ezra, in loco) that the
context
would lead us to expect `animals' viz. Myrvw which, by a
misunderstanding,
was corrupted into Myrrwm and to which was
then
added the feminine, is entirely uncalled for and too clumsy.
Neither
is it a happy suggestion that the function of these singers
was
secular. Is it likely that this company of religious enthusiasts,
returning
to a desolate home, had carried with them this number of
singers
for secular amusement? Rashi supposes that they furnished
the
music during the glad procession in the return from the exile.
If
this be not more ideal than real, their service would scarcely have
ceased
with their arrival at
This reference to women singers, it
seems to me, finds its simplest
explanation
in the supposition that not only did women in early
Hebrew
history participate in religious song, but that they furnished
such
sacred music as was used in sacred worship, and that, even in
this
later time, women still held positions in the temple choirs.
There
is some Jewish tradition to this effect. Schechter (Studies in
Judaism, p.. 316) makes the
statement that "if we were to trust a
certain
passage in the ‘Chapters of R. Eliezer,’ we might perhaps
conclude
that during the first temple the wives of the Levites formed
a
part of the choir." (Unfortunately Schechter's reference is too
indefinite
for verification.) It is therefore altogether probable that
when
we read of music at the religious festive occasions, e.g. the
dedication
of the walls of
monize
with the statement concerning those ‘singing women’ to
suppose
that they contributed their share of music as members of
the
singer's guild, the Myrir;wom;.ha yneB; of that time. We have
here,
therefore,
an additional indication of women's official position in the
Jahveh
cult.
Please
report any errors to Ted Hildebrandt at: