She Dared to Reprove Her Father: Miriam's Image as a Female Prophet in Rabbinic Interpretation
This article discusses rabbinic references to Miriam's prophetic speaking and the question of her value as a female prophet. The focus is on specific passages in the Babylonian Talmud Sotah and Exodus Rabbah and their portrait of Miriam as a female prophet. Other rabbinic texts add some further...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
[2015]
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| In: |
Journal of ancient Judaism
Year: 2015, Volume: 6, Issue: 3, Pages: 335-357 |
| IxTheo Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion BH Judaism HB Old Testament NBE Anthropology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This article discusses rabbinic references to Miriam's prophetic speaking and the question of her value as a female prophet. The focus is on specific passages in the Babylonian Talmud Sotah and Exodus Rabbah and their portrait of Miriam as a female prophet. Other rabbinic texts add some further aspects to this picture. In contrast to the biblical accounts in Exod 2 and 15, the rabbinic texts transfer Miriam's prophecy to her childhood and focus on Moses alone. Furthermore, Miriam's prophecy is restricted to family affairs and the birth of children, in particular Moses's birth. She is elaborately depicted as a motherly and caring midwife. Rabbinic interpretations of Num 12 criticize her speech as improper for a woman. Thus, Miriam's image as a female prophet in rabbinic texts remains ambivalent, estimating her role as a prophet and, at the same time, criticizing her as a woman and restricting her to the female sphere of family and care. |
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| ISSN: | 2196-7954 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of ancient Judaism
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.13109/jaju.2015.6.3.335 |