S.W. Crawford

Abstract: "'Mother' and 'Sister' as Titles: Literary and Inscriptional Evidence from Qumran to First Timothy"

Sidnie White Crawford

Two recently published manuscripts from Qumran present new evidence for special titles for women in an organizational structure outside of the traditional family and/or kinship structure. This evidence for women's special titles in Second Temple Judaism may be the most ancient now available, and will shed new light on the historical backgrounds for women's titles and offices in the later Jewish synagogue and the early Christian church.

The first instance of a specific woman's title occurs in 4QDamascus Documente (4Q270), frg. 7, col. i, ll. 13-15, which reads:

[One who murmur]s against the fathers [shall be expelled] from the congregation and not return; [if] it is against the mothers, he shall be penalized for ten days, since the mothers do not have authoritative status (?) within [the congregation.]

This passage is part of the "penal code," a list of offenses and punishments found in both the Damascus Document and the Community Rule. The second instance occurs in 4Q502, evidently a liturgical text of some kind. 4Q502 contains several examples of what appear to be titles for women: "daughter of truth" (Hebrew BT )MT; frgs. 1-3, l. 6); "female elder" (Hebrew ZQNWT; frg. 19, l. 2; frg. 24, l. 4) and "sisters" (Hebrew L)XYWT; frg. 96, l. 1). Although the contexts for all of these titles are fragmentary, they seem to point to some role for women in an organizational structure that is outside the bounds of the traditional family. In the case of the Damascus Document passage, the organizational structure is that of the MXNH or "camp," to which the penal code found in the Damascus Document applies. 4Q502 may be presuming the organizational structure of the Damascus Document, or it may be presuming another structure, such as that of the YXD in the Community Rule.

The first part of the paper will investigate these citations within their own manuscript context and as part of the Qumran corpus. The second part of the paper will discuss other evidence for the use of the titles "mother and "sister" in non-familial Jewish organizations in the Greco-Roman world, such as the synagogue inscriptional evidence assembled by B. Brooten. I will also consider literary evidence for women's participation in such organizations, such as Philo's description of the Therapeutrides. Finally, the paper will attempt to tie this new evidence to the use of the terms "mother" and "sister" as titles in early Christianity, particularly in the letters of Paul and the Pastoral Epistles.

(c) 2001
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