Jewish Women Philosophers of First-Century Alexandria: Philo's "Therapeutae" Reconsidered

Modern scholarly accounts of Greek philosophical history usually exclude women. And yet, from Dixaearchus of Messana to Diogenes Laertius, classical writers record the names of women philosophers from various schools. What is more, pseudonymous treatises and letters (likely dating after the first century CE) articulate the teachings of Pythagorean women. How can this literature inform our understanding of Greek intellectual history? To take these texts at face value would be naïve; to reject them, narrow-minded. This book is a deep examination of the literary tradition surrounding female Pythagoreans; it envisions the tradition as a network of texts that does not represent female philosophers but enacts their role in Greek culture. Part I, “Portraits,” assembles and contextualizes excerpts from historical accounts and wisdom literature. Part II, “Impersonations,” analyzes pseudonymous treatises and letters. Texts are approached with a mixture of suspicion and belief, inspired by Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutics. Suspicion serves to disclose the misogyny of the epistemic regimes that produced the texts about and by women philosophers. Belief takes us beyond the circumstances of the texts’ production to possible worlds of diverse readers, institutions, and practices that grant agency to the female knower. In the process, the book uncovers traces of a fascinating dialogue about the gender of philosophical knowledge, which includes female voices.

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Second Temple Judaism, Jesus, and Women Yeast of Eden

Biblical Interpretation ◽

10.1163/156851594x00024 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 8-33 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Amy-Jill Levine

Keyword(s):

Social Context ◽

Second Temple ◽

First Century ◽

Second Temple Judaism ◽

Jewish Women ◽

Jesus Movement ◽

Liberated Women

AbstractReconstructions of first-century Judaism frequently depict a systemic patriarchy that oppressed and repressed Jewish women; such studies also argue that Jesus' message liberated women from their hierarchical, misogynistic social context and located them within an egalitarian community. Addressing the various data on women in formative Judaism and exploring the sayings material of the Gospels that might reflect the Palestinian Jesus movement, this article suggests revisions of both models.

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Visible and invisible women in ancient linguistic culture

Women in the History of Linguistics ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198754954.003.0002 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 31-58

Author(s):

Anneli Luhtala

Keyword(s):

First Century ◽

Classical Antiquity ◽

Greek Literature ◽

Christian Women ◽

Traditional Role ◽

Language And Literature ◽

Women Scholars ◽

Individual Contributions ◽

Women Philosophers

In Classical Antiquity, the study of language and literature was a crucial part of education. Girls generally only took part of primary education, and women who progressed further did so by private tuition. Women were expected to be married and produce children and to practice their virtue in the traditional role of the wife and mother. Many women were well read in both Latin and Greek literature, and some twenty female poets are known from antiquity. However, women lacked training in formal rhetorical skills, because they were expected to speak and write in a different style. Nor were women supposed to enter into the places where public lectures took place. All the same, we know of women who received higher education and even taught philosophy (probably in private houses) or occupied themselves with philology. The women philosophers were normally born into philosophic households or married to philosophers. When grammar—a discipline dealing with language and literature—gradually became an independent subject in the first century BCE, it was taught in secondary schools. From the first century CE on we can get glimpses of female teachers of letters, but their achievements were not recorded. Thus, we have neither grammatical nor philosophical doctrine attributed to a female scholar, and this article deals with the general conditions of women scholars rather than their individual contributions to scholarship. Many prejudices prevailed concerning the inferiority of women. Aristotle thought that women were weaker than men not only physically but also intellectually. This remained common consensus, even if the Stoics and Platonists argued that women’s souls are not as such inferior to the souls of men. The Christians reinforced these prejudices, although they thought that men and women share a common human nature. Yet the Apostle Paul had said ‘I do not permit a woman to teach’ (I Tim. 2:12). However, Christian women could refuse marriage and follow an ascetic life, which brought about new opportunities for them as prophets, deaconesses, patrons, and occasionally even as teachers.

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