Historical Precedents and Contexts
Historical Precedents and Contexts
This chapter analyses the rabbinic traditions that were inherited from four women who were called by the title of prophetess: Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, and Noadiah. It discusses how the Bible recognizes the phenomenon of the prophetess without pondering its validity and how rabbinic literature views it as problematic. It also explores the status of the Bible's prophetesses that conflicts with the Sages' fundamental exclusion of women from public activity and from positions of ritual, spiritual, or scholarly leadership. The chapter describes the classical rabbinic sources that increased with the number of biblical prophetesses known by name and who were acknowledged by the authenticity of their prophetic powers. It explains how prophetesses tend to deprecate their character by means of an exegesis that cast aspersions on their moral integrity or put them in the shadow of their husbands.
Keywords: rabbinic tradition, prophetess, Bible, Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, Noad, prophetic powers, moral integrity
Liverpool Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
