Judaism,
Outline:
- women in pre-scriptural Judaism
- biblical history of Judaism
- persecution
- beliefs
- women in scriptures.
1. Women in pre-scriptural Judaism
The jewish scriptures = the Hebrew Bible = old testament was written beginning in the 10th c. BCE to the 2nd c. BCE.
Before the 10th century BCE
Women were prophets, priests, and judges: such as Miriam, Deborah, and women who served as Levitical priests at the ancient Jewish shrine at Shiloh.
- Just as in other religions, women lose status as scriptures and laws are written, as patriarchy develops.
History of Biblical Judaism
1800 BCE Abraham and Sarah settle in Canaan (which is later called Israel, later called Palestine). Abraham's son Lsaac marries Rebekah they have twin sons: Jacob & Esau.
2. Persecution:
After the Romans destroyed Jerusalem & the temple in 70 CE, the Jews fled and were scattered all across the globe.
Jews were persecuted by Christians, when the Christians gained political power in the 4th c.
Persecutions in 4th century:
Jews could not have any social interactions with Christians, no business, no inter marriage, they could not build synagogues.
By the Medieval period,
They could not buy land, they had to wear identifying badges, were forced to live in the poorest sections of town (ghettoes) expelled from countries.
The French revolution
In 1789, the people of France overthrew their monarchy. They drew up a constitution based on the principles of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.
Napoleon,
First protected the new government, then later, after taking over much of Europe declared himself Emperor of France
However, he got rid of the Spanish Inquisition and granted Equal rights to Jews across Europe.
In this Age of Resons,
Jews developed Reformed Judaism, which was more liberal.
Jewish scholars saw that Judaism changed over the centuries; their laws in the Bible showed changes as well.
Reformed Judaism regards the written Jewish law as from the hands of men, not God,
Though it is inspired by God, the Jewish laws were not written by God. They were not free to slowly change laws.
Among all the reforms,
- One important one was the first ordination of a female Jewish rabbi in 1935
- Her name was Regina Jonas of berlin, Germany.
Germany in 1930s - the rise of Hitler, The Holocaust
Jews suffered severe persecution under Hitler:
- Jews were forced to live in ghettoes
- Required to wear Jewish identification badges on clothing
- Could no longer be employed or practice their religion
- Were rounded up and put in work camps
- Work camps became death camps
- 6 million Jews were killed across Europe
after WWII and the defeat of Nazi
Due to the Holocaust, the United Nations gave the land of Israel (Palestine) to the Jewish people as a homeland.
This was for their safety, and so they would not be persecuted in a foreign land.
This caused problems with the people of Palestine who were displaced. Jewish - Muslim problems in the Middle East today stem from this decision. Previously, Jews and Muslims got along better than Jews and Christians.
3. Beliefs: Monotheism
- Judaism is known for its monotheism.
- Monotheism is the belief in one god.
- The world's monotheistic religions come from Judaism: Christianity and Lslam.
In the Bible, written in Hebrew
- God is known by two names:
- Yahweh - translated as lord in English
- Elohim - translated as god in English
Elohim is a plural word
- It literally means gods, but in the Bible Elohim is referred to as He in the singular.
- Both Yahweh and Elohim stem from the Canaanite gods - Ya and El
- In Canaanite literature, El is male and his wife is Asherah.
Both linguistically from the Biblical context, Elohim includes gods, male and female
- Genesis 1: "So Elohim said let us make humankind in our image... so Elohim created human beings in the image of God, male and female he created them."
- Therefore, women are also made in the image of God.
- According to biblical scholars, the "us" is not the Trinity (father, son, holy Ghost). They trinity is a Christian concept developed approximately 1000 years after this passage was written. the "us" is the divine assembly of gods & goddesses which make up the one god Elohim.
4. The scriptures and women
- Hebrew bible written from 10th c. - 2nd. C BCE
Three sections: Torah, PROPHETS, WRITINGS.
- TALMUD WRITTEN FROM 200 CE- 500 CE
Discussions from rabbis on Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs, history after 1st c.
The most damaging scripture against women in the Hebrew Bible occurs in Genesis ch. 2-3
It is about the creation of the first couple Adam & Eve.
It states that Adam was created first, then plants and animals then Eve out of the rib of Adam.
Yet, if we compare this to Genesis 1. It says the order of creation is first plant, then animals, then male & female at the same time: the simple to the complex.
The Lord Yahweh placed the couple in the Garden of Eden there was a forbidden tree, & told them not to eat the fruit
- A talking snake tells the women: eat the fruit & you will become wise like god.
- Eve eats the fruit. She then gives some to Adam
- Yahweh finds out, and all 3 are cursed, and kicked out of the garden. They are not fit for paradise.
- Jewish understanding: sin is corporate, contagious.
- We all descend to a lower spiritual level.
Rabbis in the Talmud identify 7 curses based on Gen 3
1. the curse of menstruation
2. the blood of virginity
3. pain of pregnancy
4. pain of childbirth
5. pain of raising children
6. the pain of desire for a man brings heartache
7. the woman can only desire intercourse, while the man can demand it (the men writing this)
these "curses" are all natural aspects
- yet they are presented as divine punishments
- even the fact that human beings die is blamed on women by the rabbis, again a natural physical consequence of life.
What Crandall adds to this discussion as a medical doctor:
- regarding Eve being made from Adam's rib
- if this were true, Adam and Eve would be clones: absolutely identical, the same sex.
- Eve would not be a female with two X chromosomes,
- She would have one X and one Y like Adam, making her a male.
- They could not have children and be the progenitors of humankind.
The Genesis 2-3 story is an adaptation of the earlier
Bronze Age story about Gilgamesh from Mesopotamia.
1. Gilgamesh sought immortality.
2. Found the plant of immortality
3. Set it down & fell asleep exhausted.
4. A snake come along, eats it & sheds his skin.
5. The snake is young again, but has stolen our immorality.
6. Having a snake in this story makes perfect sense.
7. Also, there is a woman in the Gilgamesh story who heals the rib of Gilgamesh's friend.
8. The Genesis story shows, not only that it is dependent on the Gilgamesh story and therefore comes later, but also the Iron Age devaluing of women.
The women provides a nice scapegoat to blame for everything that is wrong in life.
Women have no voice in this story:
Women's perspective is not represented.
There is however a second creation story
- Genesis 1, written in the 6thc. BCE, 400 years later.
- In this story, women are created simultaneously with men
- Both are made in the image of god.
Positive statements in the Talmud about women
- When god created Eve, he gave the women more wisdom than the man."
- "any man who has no wife lives without goodness, without help, without joy, without blessing, without atonement. "
Bible stories of strong women:
In the book of Judges, Deborah is presented as a wise person who can solve disputes.
She is called a judge and a prophet.
She encourages the military commander Barak to take action against the Canaanites. He says that he will lead the battle if she is present. At the end of the story, it is not Barak who defeats the commander of the Canaanites, but another woman, Jael.
Story of Queen Esther,
Esther, who has been captured by the Persians, finds herself in the Persian royal court. She is one of the many wives of the Persian king. Her uncle tells her of an upcoming scheme to kill all the Jews. She requests to speak to the king, which could get her killed, usually one waits for the king to talk to you. He agrees to speak to her and in the end, the Jews are not killed, the official in the king's court who devised the scheme is killed.
The massage of the book of Esther is God works through people who is stand up for the rights.
The story of Ruth
- after Ruth's husband dies, who's also Naomi's son, Ruth decides to stay with Naomi, instead to returning to her father's house, which was typical back then.
- Ruth stays with Naomi out of compassion, because Naomi is old and has no sons to care for her.
- Eventually, Ruth ends up marrying a long lost relative of Naomi's and all is well. Ruth gives birth to Obed, who will be the great grandfather of the future Kind David.
- Ruth's compassion is important not only for Naomi, but for the true of Israel.
The story of Judith
The Assyrians are invading Judah (the southern part of Israel).
- The men do not know what to do.
- The only thing they can think of is to pray.
- Judith says no, we need to act.
- She then seduces and kills the general of the Assyrians.
Stories in the Hebrew Bible
Portray women as intelligent, brave, wise, compassionate, and strong.
After much effort through the 1900s.
The first female Jewish rabbi was ordained in America in 1972
Today, there are over 7,000 female rabbis in America, which means that within a generation, half of all rabbis in America will be women.
Purim
- The Celebration of Queen Esther
- Online go to "Purim celebration"
- Youtube 5:39 newsman with golden wall of masks
11/18/16
Christianity
Begins in Israel in the 1st century with the life of Jesus the Christ
The scriptures of Christianity: the old testament (Hebrew Bible) & the New Testament
The New Testament includes 27 writings originally written in Greek
- 4 gospels (biographies of the life of Jesus)
- 1 history
- 21 letters
- 1 apocalypse
life and teachings of Jesus
- Jesus lived in Palestine/Israel in the 1st century
- In Galilee, a northern province.
Palestine was ruled by the Roams in the 1st century
The culture was Greek. In the 300s BCE, Alexander the Great had spread the Greek culture throughout the Mediterranean.
The Apocalyptic worldview was also prominent in Israel at the time,.
This is the belief that the end of the world was coming soon, god would vindicate Israel, and a Savior/ MESSIAH would appear and lead the Jewish people to military victory over their oppressors (the romans).
What historians know of the life of Jesus comes form the gospels.
Although gospels are biographies, they are not as fact-centered as biographies today because ancient people did not have the data storage and retrieval systems that modern people have.
- They sought to convey the character of the person.
- The gospels are like paintings, rather than photographs:
- Each gospel writer gives his perspective of who Jesus was and why he is important
- Originally there were over 80 different gospels of Jesus.
- In the new Testament we only have 4
The gospel of Mark is the earliest written (70 c.e.)
- For Mark, Jesus if "a son of god" according to our earliest manuscript of the New Testament, papyrus 46.
- In later hand written manuscripts, "a" is changed to "the"
What Mark was saying.
- Only makes sense in ancient Greek society.
- A son of god was a hero who sacrificed himself for others, was courageous and of noble character.
- And after death was said to be "a son of a god"
- Miracles were associated with the Greek sons of god.
Gospel of Matthew is the 2nd gospel (80 C.E.)
Matthew declares Jesus to be the son of god, but also a new Moses.
Matthew draws many parallels between Jesus and the Jewish prophet Moses.
In Matthew's gospel Jesus came to start a Church, but in none of the other gospels (in the earliest manuscripts)
The Gospel of Luke is the 3rd gospel written (90 C.E.)
Jesus is portrayed as the expected apocalyptic Messiah who will bring in, not a military kingdom, but a spiritual kingdom, with god as ruler.
With the destruction of the Jewish temple by the Romans in 70 CE, Luke regards Jesus as bringing in a new age of miracles and ethics based on the teachings of Jesus.
The gospel of Jogn is the latest gospel in NT (100 C.E)
John's gospel is the only one that perceives of Jesus as pre-existent. He is a divine man, a god, who has been sent down to earth by god to make us children of god ( sons and daughters of god).
Jesus's words convey light, that will enlighten us, and make us sons and daughters of the god of light.
Teachings of Jesus
1. As a Jewish man, a rabbi (which means spiritual teacher) Jesus overturns some Jewish beliefs and practices
The gospel of Mark highlights rules Jesus broke to show that being spiritual is not just about following the rules.
He ate with Non-Jewish people, he "worked" on the Sabbath, plucking grain, healing people, and offending religious authorities.
As a prophet, Jesus foresaw that the temple would be destroyed, and he was teaching that religion was about a one-on-one relationship with God, and not about the place one worships. Also, this relationship is about spiritual principles not just blindly obeying religious rules.
Jesus' teachings:
- Love God and love neighbor
Jesus taught the golden rule
- Do unto others what you would have the do unto you.
In the 4 gospels Jesus says to follow him
- What he did was stand up for oppressed
- He died for his beliefs to treat one another with forgiveness and love which is a very radical idea.
Following Jesus means doing what he did. We will look at how Jesus treated women
He spoke to women openly in public:
This was not allowed in ancient middle eastern societies and still is against the law in some middle eastern countries today
Jesus had women disciples
- The term disciple means followers
- Women disciples of Jesus: Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, Joanna, Susanna, and Salome
- In the gospel of Luke, it says that it was
- Women who provided for Jesus out of their own finances.
According to the Jewish law, women & men caught in adultery were to be stoned to death
- In one scene, a crowd is about to stone a woman caught in adultery.
- Jesus stands up for her. He said, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
- He then wrote something in the dirt, possibly a list of sins, and one by one each person waked away
- Jesus spoke out against bad laws, saving the woman's life.
Jesus met a Samaritan woman at the well.
He talks to her, finds out that she is living with a man (against law). He says live spiritually if you want true happiness. She tells others about Jesus & how he helped her.
Her story about Jesus is a sermon.
The first preacher in the Gospel of John was a woman.
Jesus was executed by the political/ religious authorities
After this:
1. Jesus' brother James led a Christian movement in Jerusalem
2. Peter started a Christian community in Capernaum in Galilee and later went to Rome.
3. Thomas had a Christian community in Syria
The Romans destroyed the Jewish temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE (as Jesus predicted)
Jews and Christians (there was no distinction yet) had to flee and scattered across the Mediterranean region.
Before this happened, The Apostle Paul
- Was the most successful Christian missionary in the 1st C.
- Originally he was a Jewish Pharisee persecuting Christians
- He had a conversion on the Road to Damascus where he met the resurrected Jesus
- Paul then worked to spread Christianity form Palestine throughout Syria & Greece.
For the first 30 years,
Early Christians met in houses, not churches.
- Paul would start a house church in one city, then move on to another city and start another house church.
Paul, like Jesus, had women who worked with him to spread the Christian message:
Chloe, phoebe, Priscilla, Euodia, Syntyche, Mary, Junia
Because women managed the houselhold & churches met in homes, women were prominent in early Christianity, in fact, priests, speaking the world of God.
- Chloe and other women had churches in their homes
- Junia was called an "Apostle" by Paul
- Ancient fresco showing a women priest
Paul's teachings:
1. the kingdom of god was coming soon
2. love of god and love of your fellow human beings
3. Jesus is a model to follow
4. Equality is the ethics of the new kingdom of god: slave & free, male & female, rich& poor are the same
Paul's writing
- Biblical scholars identify 7 writings in the New Testament as genuinely from Paul based on style, content, and vocabulary:
- 1. Thessalonians
- 1&2. Corinthians
- philippians
- philemon
- galatians
- romans
other letters in New Testament claim to be by Paul
- however, since they differ in terms of style, language, and content most scholars do not believe they are Paul's:
- these are called the Deutero - Pauline writings:
- 2 Thessalonians
- Colossians
- Ephesians
- 1 &2 timothy
- Titus
Important differences between Paul and Deutero-Paulinist writings in terms of women:
Paul:
Galatians 3.28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, There is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians 7.21-23 salves, if you can get your freedom, do so.
Deutero- Paulinsit writer
Colossians 3.11
Here there cannot be Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised. Barbarian or Scythian, slave or free ( the writer leaves out male/ female)
Ephesians 5.22-6.9
Wives be subject to your husbands in everything.
Slaves be obedient to those who are your earthly masters.
Paul wrote in 50s of the 1st century and was executed by the Roman government in the 60s.
- In the decades following his death, letters popped up claiming to be by Paul, these letters which include Colossians and Ephesians ended up being put into the new Testament which was compiled in the 4th c.
- At that point, no one suspected or noticed the difference.
- It was not until the 17th century when the letters could be analyzed in a university setting that scholars began to see the differences.
Note on 1 Corinthians 14.34-35
- This letter of 1 corintians is from Paul
- 14.34-35 state that women should be silent in the churches.
- However, when comparing the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament, this verse is not there.
- It was inserted later by another writer.
- This verse is not by Paul.
Although women started out with power in early Christianity in house churches
- Over the centuries, women lost power
- For 2 reasons:
- Because of scriptures such as Colossian & Ephesians and the insertion into 1 Corinthians 14
- Because Christianity gained legal status.
Due to the legalization of Christianity in the 4th c.
Christians could meet in churches (outside of homes)
Since the Iron age, women had less power outside the home than inside, while Christianity first began to transform society based on the ethics of equality, over time society suppressed Christianity's radical ethics of equality.
In the 4th c.
The Roman Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity.
There was so much diversity in early Christian beliefs that Christians would not stop fighting Constantine convened councils of bishops to decide theological doctrine
This begins the Catholic church, though of course Christian traditions stem back to 1st century
What the councils decided became doctrine
But it did not stop the arguing. From the 4th to the 16th century, Christianity was under the authority of the Catholic church and its doctrines.
From the 12th to the 17th c.
- Hundreds of thousands of women were executed by the Church for being witches.
They were not witches,
Some were still followers of goddess religion, others were simply knowledgeable in the healing powers of plants. They were midwives & healers. These were viewed as miraculous healings.
From the churches' point of view, only the church could do miracles. Anyone else, was considered a witch and sentenced to death.
The protestant reformation began in the 16th c.
In the opinion of the Reformers, the Church had moved too far away from what Jesus had taught.
The first to break away was
- The Lutheran church in Germany
- Next came the reformed church in Switzerland
- Presbyterians in Scotland
- The church of England
- Puritans
- Quakers
- Baptists
- Methodists
In the 19th and 20th c.
- 7th day Adventists
- Mormons
- Jehovah's witnesses
- Pentencostal churches
- And on and on
Many Christian churches
- Teach the second class status of women based on the Edutero- Paulinist letters
- Women have not been allowed to be priests in the Catholic church
- There are however, some exceptions .
Christian churches which teach equality between men and women
- Quakers
- Shakers
- Methodist
- Episcopal church
- Presbyterians
- Women in these churches are priests/ preachers
- And have been outspoken leaders in the women's movement in England and America
Quaker & Methodist women were leaders in:
Women's equal rights movement in 19th c.
Women's right to vote; equal pay
The anti-slavery movement & underground railroad promoting education
Women have started Christian churches:
Ann Lee started the shaker church in 1774
Mary baker Eddy started the church of Chirst, Scientist in 1879
Aimee Semple McPherson started the foursquare church, 1923 and many others.
In general, Christian teaching strengthen values in individuals and in culture
Concerning gender issues: while some branches of Christianity
Have oppressed women over the centuries over branches of Christianity have empowered women.