© 2007 Jan Herca (license Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0)
The role of women in the eastern world of that time and in particular in Israel was much more suffocating than one might think today. The contempt of the men of those times The fact that the Jewish women were allowed to wear their clothes on their days was something that is difficult to understand today.
For example, when a Jewish woman left her house, no matter what the reason, she had to always wear a headdress that included two veils on her head, a headband, and a headscarf. over the forehead, with ribbons hanging down to the chin, and a mesh of cords and knots. In this way the features of his face could not be recognized. The woman who left her house in this way without covering her head offended “good customs” to such an extent that her husband had the right and, according to the doctors of the law, even the duty to send her away, without being obliged to pay her. the sum stipulated in the case of divorce. And on this it must be said that there were women so strict that they did not appear in their own house. Only on the day of the wedding, and if the woman was a virgin and not a widow, did they appear in courtship with one’s head uncovered.
Needless to say, Israelite women, especially those from the cities, had to remain inconspicuous in public. The “Jewish” rules followed at the time held that it was preferable not to speak to women in public. for the good of the soul. These rules of “good manners” even prohibited meeting a Hebrew woman alone, looking at a married woman, or greeting her. It was a disgrace for a student of the scribes to speak to a woman in the street.This rigidity reached such an extreme that a Jewess who entertained everyone in the street or who spun at her own door could be repudiated without receiving the payment stipulated in the marriage contract.
But we must not generalise. There were exceptions too. These rules were only observed by the more puritanical groups, especially the Pharisees. In fact, twice a year, on the 15th of April and the Day of Atonement, there were dances in the vineyards in the fields, and the girls would show off to the young men. These regulations were especially applicable to well-off families, where women could lead a secluded life, but not to working-class families, where economic reasons prevented this: women often had to help their husbands with their work. Moreover, in the countryside there were freer and healthier relationships than in the big cities, where manners and customs were more important. In the villages women go to the fountain to get water, join the men in the work in the fields, sell harvested produce, serve at table, etc. The custom of covering one’s head in the fields was not so strictly observed either.
The status of women in the home was not altered by this public conduct. Daughters, for example, were always expected to give up first place and even the right of way through the door to boys. Their training was strictly limited to housework, sewing and knitting. They cared for the younger siblings and, with regard to the father, they had the obligation to feed him, give him water, clothe him, cover him, take him out and put him in when he was old, and wash his face, hands and feet. Their rights, as regards inheritance, were not the same as those of the males. Sons and their descendants preceded daughters.
Paternal authority was very great with regard to younger daughters before their marriage. They were in the power of their father. Jewish society at that time distinguished three ages: the youngest (qatannah, up to the age of twelve years and one day), the young (na’arah, between twelve and twelve and a half years), and the eldest (bôgeret, after twelve and a half years). Until this last age, the head of the family had all the authority, unless the young woman was already engaged or separated. According to this social code, daughters had no right to own anything: neither the fruits of their labour nor anything they could find, for example, on the street. Everything belonged to the father.
The daughter, up to the age of twelve and a half, could not refuse a marriage imposed by the father. The father could sell his daughter into slavery, provided she was not yet twelve years old. The betrothal usually took place very early. When she was a year older, the daughter celebrated the wedding, then passing from the father’s power to that of the husband. And really, one did not know what could be worse. After the contract of sale, for that was basically the ceremony of betrothal and marriage, the woman went to live in the husband’s house. This generally meant a new burden, as well as the confrontation with another family foreign to the new arrival, to which open hostility was almost always expressed.
To tell the truth, the difference between the wife and the slave or a concubine was that the former had a marriage contract and the latter did not. In exchange for very few rights, the wife was burdened with duties: she had to grind grain, sew, wash, cook, nurse the children, make the husband’s bed and, in exchange for his support, spin and weave. Others added to these obligations those of washing the face, hands and feet, and preparing the husband’s cup. The power of the husband and the father reached such an extreme that, in case of danger of death, the husband had to be saved first. Since polygamy was permitted, the wife had to put up with the presence and constant insults of the concubines. But polygamy could only be undertaken by the wealthy and was not common. As for divorce, which was permitted according to the Mosaic Law, the right was solely and exclusively on the part of the husband. Only he could initiate the procedure. This naturally gave rise to constant abuses.
Naturally, within these limits, the situation of the woman varied according to individual cases. Two factors were of particular importance: on the one hand, women found support in their blood relatives, especially their brothers, which was essential for their married life; on the other hand, having children, especially boys, was very important for women. Childlessness was considered a great misfortune, even a divine punishment. A woman, being the mother of a child, was considered better: she had given her husband the most precious gift.
A widowed woman was also sometimes bound to her husband: when he died without children. In this case she had to wait, without being able to intervene in anything herself, for her deceased husband’s brother or brothers to enter into a levirate marriage with her or to declare their refusal, without which she could not remarry.
Of course, from a religious point of view, the Israelite woman was not equal to the man either. She was subject to all the prescriptions of the Torah and to the rigor of civil and penal laws, including the death penalty, but she had no access to any kind of religious instruction. One ruling by Rabbi Eliezer, for example, stated that “whoever teaches the Torah to his daughter teaches her debauchery,” and another said: “It is better to burn the Torah than to transmit it to women.” The woman was not obliged to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the festivals of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, to live in tents on the festival and shake the lulab, to blow the sopar on New Year’s Day, to read the Book of Esther (Magillah) on the festival of Purim, to recite the Shema every day, etc. Of the two parts of the synagogue, the sabbateion and the andron, the first, which was devoted to liturgical services, was also accessible to women; on the other hand, the other part, which was devoted to the lessons of the scribes, was accessible only to men and boys, as its very name indicates. But this was not strictly followed, for in high-ranking families the daughters were given a secular education, being made to learn Greek.
The religious rights of women, as well as their duties, were limited. Women could enter the Temple only in the court of the Gentiles and in that of the women; during the days of monthly purification and for a period of 40 days after the birth of a boy and 80 days after the birth of a girl, they could not even enter the court of the Gentiles. During this period women were considered sources of impurity and had to stay away from places of worship. It was not customary for women to lay their hands on the heads of the sacrificial victims and shake their portions. Women were allowed to enter the part of the synagogue used for worship, but there were barriers and a grating separating the place designated for women. Later, a platform with a separate entrance was even built for them. At the liturgical service, women were limited to listening. They could not do the reading, because it was extremely rare for them to know how to read, and much less were they expected to do public teaching.
At home, women were not counted among the number of those invited to pronounce the blessing after the meal, nor did they have the right to testify in court. They were simply considered liars by nature.
In conclusion, it was very significant that the birth of a boy was a cause for joy, while the birth of a girl was accompanied by indifference, and even sadness. Rabbinical writings went so far as to proclaim: “Woe to him whose children are girls!”
With all these precedents in mind, one will more fully appreciate the value of Jesus’ surrounding himself with women, his conversing freely with them and treating them as men (UB 143:5.2); and even his instilling these same new spirits and feelings into the minds of the men who knew him (UB 125:5.4, UB 127:1.5). In the story of Jesus of Nazareth[1], the teacher, in an action unprecedented for the time, went so far as to appoint a group of women as preachers (UB 150:1.1), even ahead of our time. This attitude brought the Rabbi nothing but enormous headaches and failures, and the first Christians were quick to silence these attitudes so as not to lose followers.
¶ References
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Joachim Jeremiah, Jerusalén en tiempos de Jesús (Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus), Ediciones Cristiandad, 1977.
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Emil Schürer, Historia del pueblo judío en tiempos de Jesús (History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus), Ediciones Cristiandad, 1985.
¶ External links
¶ Notes
In the novel «Jesus of Nazareth», a biography of the Master based on The Urantia Book which is in preparation by the author. ↩︎