Women in Second Temple fiction

Abstract

During the tumultuous time of enormous threat, conflict, and change in the Second Temple period, a new literary genre emerged: works of fiction in which women take on new roles and serve as Jewish heroines. In addition to highlighting fantastic feats of women characters, these works provide insight into the everyday lives of women in the Second Temple period. These works also convey the rhetorical themes of protecting Jewish identity and purity. The heroines of the Second Temple period are remarkable in that they refuse to submit to “the tyrant” by eating forbidden foods, abandoning circumcision, the ancient sign of the covenant, or worshiping false gods. The portrayal of Mary in the Gospel of Luke draws upon these earlier traditions to present her as a heroine who has also found favor in God’s sight.

Research on women in Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity has surged in recent years, greatly advancing our understanding of the lives of women in antiquity, their life cycle, and their work in the public arena as well as in the home, often breaking down long-held assumptions. ¹ This article, inspired primarily by Meir Bar-Ilan’s observations regarding women in the apocryphal writings, ² necessarily focuses narrowly on the role of women in the fictional writings of the Second Temple period, especially from the second century BCE until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

This period was marked by events that shaped the rise of both classical Judaism and early Christianity, especially the Maccabean Revolt, the rise and fall of the Hasmoneans, and Herod the Great and his sons. As Jews fought to maintain their freedom and identity, they placed greater emphasis on certain traditions and practices, hardened attitudes toward foreign oppressors, and established boundary markers. They were influenced by new cultural trends, while subversively resisting them. During this period of enormous threat, conflict, and change, a new literary genre emerged: works of fiction in which women take on new roles and serve as Jewish heroines. To be sure, one can point to antecedents in the female matriarchs and judges of an earlier period (Deborah, Jael, Ruth), but the prominence of women in the fiction of this period is striking.

In the Book of Esther, Queen Vashti refuses to be paraded before the king’s guests at a banquet after the “drinking was by flagons, without restraint” (Esth 1:8). ³ For this act, the king removes Queen Vashti from her royal position, then sends letters to all the royal provinces, “declaring that every man should be master of his own house” (1:22). When Esther wins the beauty contest that followed, she is given “the best place in the harem” (2:9) and made queen in place of Vashti. Because Mordechai, Esther’s cousin and guardian, refuses to bow before the king, Haman conspires to destroy the Jews, charging that they refuse to obey the king’s laws (3:8). Esther determines that she must petition the king on behalf of her people, so she invites the king to a banquet at which she pleads for her life and the life of her people (7:3). The king, having learned of Mordechai’s loyalty and Haman’s treachery, orders that Haman be hanged, revokes his orders to destroy the Jews, and issues new orders allowing the Jews “to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them” (8:11). This much of the book probably dates to the late Persian period. At this stage, the threat is not the foreign king but the one who conspires against Esther’s people. The Additions to Esther that date to the second or first centuries BCE introduce an anti-gentile agenda, heighten the emphasis on God’s providence in delivering the Jews, and elevate Esther’s role as the heroine of this deliverance. ⁴

The Book of Judith, which dates to the Hasmonean period, likewise tells the story of a heroine who employs both her beauty and her courage to deliver her people. When Holofernes, Nebuchadnezzar’s general, sets out to exact revenge on the peoples (including those of upper Galilee) who refused to join the king in making war on the Medes, the Judeans, fearing for Jerusalem and their temple, pray and fast, preparing to confront Holofernes’s army. Judith, a beautiful and devout widow, maintains the estate of her deceased husband who left her “gold and silver, men and women slaves, livestock, and fields” (8:7). Judith sends her maid to the elders of her town, Bethulia, urging them not to put God to the test. Without disclosing her plan, Judith dresses in festive attire and goes out with her maid to Holofernes’s camp. Impressed by her beauty, Holofernes’s soldiers take her to his tent, where she declares that God has sent her to lead him to Jerusalem. When the banquet lasts well into the night, the general drinks more than he ever had and lies in a drunken stupor. Judith cuts off his head and returns to Bethulia with his head in her food bag. At daybreak they hang Holofernes’s head on the wall and march out to meet the Assyrians, who flee when they discover their general’s headless body. All the women of Israel bless Judith, and many men desire to marry her, but she remains celibate, and “No one ever again spread terror among the Israelites during the lifetime of Judith, or for a long time after her death” (16:25).

Susanna, one of the additions to Daniel, presents a different model: not an empowered heroine but one who simply remains virtuous and trusts in God. Susanna was “a very beautiful woman and one who feared the Lord” (Sus 1:2). Her parents “trained their daughter in the law of Moses” (1:3). When two elders seek to force her to submit to their sexual desires, threatening to bring false charges against her, Susanna refuses and cries out loudly. The judges believe the elders rather than Susanna, but God delivers Susanna by stirring Daniel to defend her. When Daniel exposes the elders’ false testimony, Susanna’s reputation is restored.

Although the provenance of Tobit is uncertain, it is generally dated in the third or early second century BCE (pre-Maccabean). Still, Tobit exhibits characteristics similar to the other examples of Second Temple fiction in its historical setting, imaginary history, devotion to the law of Moses, and deliverance of a virtuous daughter from false charges and a demon’s lust. Sarah has been married seven times and each of her husbands has been killed by the demon Asmodeus on their wedding night. When her father’s maids accuse her of killing her bridegrooms and urge her to kill herself, she starts to hang herself but does not do so to spare her father grief (Tob 3:10). Instead, she prays that God, who knows she is innocent, will take her life: “You know O Master, that I am innocent of any defilement with a man and that I have not disgraced my name or the name of my father in the land of my exile” (3:14–15). The rest of the story relates how God answers both her prayer and Tobit’s and delivers Sarah from the demon’s curse.

Joseph and Aseneth, a romantic legend that has affinities with Esther, Tobit, and Judith, as well as Ruth, ⁵ was probably composed in Egypt between 100 BCE and the Jewish revolt under Trajan (115–117 CE). Aseneth’s role is prominent. The plot revolves around her marriage to the patriarch Joseph and her conversion to Judaism, so again Jew–gentile relations are a central concern. The sand that generated this pearl is the report in Gen 41:45 that the virtuous patriarch married the foster daughter of an Egyptian priest of On. At the beginning of the story, the beautiful Aseneth furiously rejects her father’s proposal to marry her to Joseph. When she sees Joseph, however, she is smitten by him, love at first sight (Jos. Asen. 6), but Joseph fears she too will try to seduce him. He does not even eat with the Egyptians (7.1). When her father introduces them and urges Aseneth to kiss Joseph, he refuses her kiss, saying,

It is not fitting for a man who worships God, who will bless with his mouth the living God . . . to kiss a strange woman who will bless with her mouth dead and dumb idols and eat from their table. (8.5) ⁶

Seeing that Aseneth is cut to the heart, Joseph prays for her conversion. Aseneth repents, spurns her idols, and clothes herself in sackcloth and ashes for 7 days. She will no longer eat her idolatrous food (10.13). God’s angel comes to her, accepts her conversion, and promises that she will be known as “City of Refuge” because in her, “many nations will take refuge with the Lord God, the Most High, and under your wings many peoples trusting in the Lord God will be sheltered” (15.7). The wedding of Joseph and Aseneth follows.

Esther, Judith, Susanna, Tobit, and Joseph and Aseneth form a significant collection of Second Temple Jewish writings in which strong, virtuous, faithful women have prominent roles. The stories are set in the indeterminate past but in settings that would have been recognizable to their early readers. Yet, efforts to ascertain a historical core in these stories have been futile, yielding only a mix of folklore, legend, romance, and scriptural motifs.

The Maccabean literature also features pious heroines. When mothers circumcised their children, the Seleucids hung the infants from their mothers’ necks, paraded them around, then put them to death (1 Macc 1:60–61; 2 Macc 6:10). In response, faithful Jews told the story of the martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons. When the mother and her sons are brought before “the tyrant” for refusing to eat defiling foods, the tyrant tempts them:

Trust me, then, and you will have positions of authority in my government if you will renounce the ancestral tradition of your national life. Enjoy your youth by adopting the Greek way of life and by changing your manner of living. (4 Macc 8:7-8)

Each son refuses and in turn is martyred, yet their mother remains steadfast, even after witnessing their deaths. For this, the author praises her as a model of devotion:

O mother of the nation, vindicator of the law and champion of religion, who carried away the prize of the contest in your heart! O more noble than males in steadfastness, and more courageous than men in endurance! (4 Macc 15:29-30)

In 2 Maccabees’s rendering of this story, the mother is “especially admirable and worthy of honorable memory” (7:20). She is “filled with a noble spirit” and “reinforced her woman’s reasoning with a man’s courage” (2 Macc 7:21).

These stories from the late Second Temple period not only depict women as models of virtue in their adherence to the laws of Moses at a time when they were under attack from foreign oppressors, they also preserve incidental glimpses into the lives of women during this period, especially their maid servants, weddings, and marriage.

Fiction as a source for history

Although the stories are in a broad or narrow sense fiction and at times include fantastic elements, such as driving off a demon by burning fish guts (Tob 6:17–18; 8:2–3), they also make reference to activities, circumstances, and rituals drawn from everyday life at the time. These stories may have their origins in oral storytelling and folklore, but they were probably written by literate men for the instruction and entertainment of other literate elites.

The heroines are rich and beautiful. They are attended by slave maid servants, as would have been common for women of their status. Esther is of course attended by maids in the king’s palace, “seven chosen maids” (Esth 2:9; cf. Add Esth 15:2, 7), who fast when she fasts (Esth 4:16). Two maid servants attend Susanna when she goes to bathe in the garden. When she sends them out to bring her olive oil and ointments, the lecherous elders see their opportunity to accost her (Sus 1:16–21, 36):

One of Sarah’s servants taunts her,

You are the one who kills your husbands! See, you have already been married to seven husbands and have not borne the name of a single one of them. Why do you beat us? Because your husbands are dead? Go with them! May we never see a son or daughter of yours! (Tob 3:8-9)

Later, since Sarah’s father cannot go into the bridal chamber to see if Tobias is still alive, he sends one of the maid servants to check on the couple (Tob 8:12–14).

Judith’s maid servant plays a central role in her story. When Judith’s husband, Manasseh, dies of a heat stroke during the barley harvest (Jdt 8:2–3), he leaves her “gold and silver, men and women slaves, livestock, and fields; and she maintained this estate” (8:7). Judith put her maid in charge of all she possessed (8:10). Her maid helps her prepare for her mission into Holofernes’s camp and accompanies her, carrying her skin of wine, flask of olive oil, roasted grain, dried fig cakes, fine bread, and her dishes (10:5, 10, 17). On the fateful evening, Judith’s maid spreads the lambskins on which Judith will recline in the general’s tent (12:15). Judith eats and drinks what her maid prepared for her, while Holofernes watches (12:19). Then, Judith sends her out to stand watch outside the bedchamber (13:3). After the gory deed is done, Judith gives Holofernes’s head to her maid, who puts it in her food bag and carries it back to the city (13:9). For her loyal service, Judith sets her maid free (16:23).

Aseneth’s foster father, Pentephres, has a steward and servants who prepare the meal and announce Joseph’s arrival (Jos. Asen. 3.4; 5.1). At the family estate, Aseneth is left alone with seven virgins who had been with her from birth (17.4) and attend her during her week of mourning and repentance (10.2). Aseneth loves them as her sisters, but one is her favorite (10.4). At Aseneth’s request, the Lord’s angel blesses them also: “You shall be seven pillars of the City of Refuge” (17.6). Her favorite, her “foster sister,” then helps her bathe in preparation for her wedding, bringing fresh water from the spring (18.8). The seven virgins stand with Aseneth when she meets Joseph (19.2). When Joseph protests that Aseneth should let one of the virgins wash his feet, she responds, “No, my Lord, because you are my lord from now on, and your feet another (woman) will never wash” (20.4).

Much of what we know about Jewish weddings in Second Temple Judaism comes from these stories. As discussed here, several of the stories focus on the wedding of the heroine, in the process relating rituals that may have characterized the weddings of daughters in elite families during this period. A woman’s primary role was to marry and bear children, and as a mother her duty was to guard her daughter’s virginity and prepare her for marriage (Sir 7:24–25; 42:9–11). No man outside the family had ever seen Aseneth (Jos. Asen. 7.7), but that would not have been common, especially for non-elite daughters. Mother–daughter relationships were particularly complicated. The mother was expected to raise her daughter in such a way that she avoided bringing shame on her husband, while grooming her daughter for the best possible bridegroom. Then, after as little as 12–15 years, she had to relinquish her daughter to the bridegroom and his family. The frequency with which allusions preparing a daughter for marriage appear in our sources confirms both the importance of this parental duty and its poignancy. In Tobit, when Sarah’s mother, Edna, prepares the bridal chamber, she weeps, prays for Sarah, and encourages her daughter to take courage (Tob 7:15–17; see 3 Macc 4:6).

Weddings were joyful occasions with extended festivities. Both families played well-defined roles. The financial terms were settled at the betrothal or at the time of the marriage and formalized in a marriage contract, which was signed and witnessed. Haggling over the marriage contract, the ketubba, was probably common since it represented the bride’s value and her family’s honor (Tob 7:9b–16). Because a ketubba was a legal document, a betrothal could be terminated only by divorce. When Tobias reached an agreement with Raguel, Sarah’s father, Raguel called in his daughter and said to Tobias, “Take her to be your wife in accordance with the law and decree written in the book of Moses” (7:12); then Raguel wrote out the marriage contract (7:13).

Both families contributed financially to the couple’s welfare. ⁷ The bride’s father and family contributed a dowry, while the groom contributed an “indirect dowry” to the bride and/or her family. During the Maccabean period, Alexander Balas proposed marriage to Ptolemy VI’s daughter, promising an appropriate gift: “Now therefore let us establish friendship with one another; give me now your daughter as my wife, and I will become your son-in-law, and will make gifts to you and to her in keeping with your position” (1 Macc 10:54). Ptolemy VI accepted the proposal and took his daughter to Alexander at Ptolemais, along with a reciprocal gift: “He gave [Alexander] his daughter, and, for her dowry, as much silver and gold as a king was expected to give” (Josephus, Ant. 13.82). ⁸

In Tobit’s account of Tobias’s marriage to Sarah, after the marriage contract is signed (Tob 7:13) and after the couple survives their wedding night by repelling the demon, Sarah’s father orders his servants to prepare the wedding feast and gives Tobias half of Sarah’s inheritance:

Take at once half of what I own and return in safety to your father; the other half will be yours when my wife and I die. Take courage, my child. I am your father and Edna is your mother, and we belong to you as well as to your wife now and forever. (Tob 8:21)

Weddings generally followed the betrothal by a year or longer (m. Ketub. 5:2) and involved preparation of the bride, public transfer of the bride from her father’s home to the groom’s, and blessings and extended festivities in the husband’s home. ⁹ Joseph and Aseneth admonish, “It does not befit a man who worships God to sleep with his wife before the wedding” (21.1). In Tobit, where Tobias travels to another country, the marriage is consummated at the bride’s home. The wedding procession, carrying the bride to the groom’s home, was a public announcement of the marriage. First Maccabees describes such a procession:

The family of Jambri are celebrating a great wedding, and are conducting the bride, a daughter of one of the great nobles of Canaan, from Nadabath with a large escort. . . . [It was] a tumultuous procession with a great amount of baggage; and the bridegroom came out with his friends and his brothers to meet them with tambourines and musicians and many weapons. (9:37, 39; see Josephus, Ant. 13.20, which adds, “as is usual for a wedding”)

A typical village wedding would have been less elaborate but probably involved the same elements.

There was no formal wedding ceremony before a priest, but there are hints of the formalities for solemnizing the wedding. In Joseph and Aseneth, the Pharaoh puts crowns on their heads, sets Aseneth on Joseph’s right side, puts his hands on their heads, and blesses them, saying, “May the Lord God the Most High bless you and multiply you and magnify and glorify you forever” (21.6), which may have been a common blessing for a newly married couple. Then they kissed each other, and the Pharaoh gave a wedding feast for 7 days.

The marriage would be consummated at the groom’s home or his father’s home, where the wedding feast (see Matt 22:1–14; John 2:1–11) would continue for 7 days (Tob 11:18; Jos. Asen. 21.8) or even 14 days (Tob 8:20; 10:7). At times, several families pooled their resources to help each other pay for such festivities (m. B. Bat. 9:4).

Beyond glimpses of life during this period, the fictional books of the Second Temple period also convey rhetorical agendas that helped shape Jewish practice during this period.

Rhetorical themes in Second Temple fiction

In response to the threats of Hellenism and Roman culture, Jews defended their identity as Jews ever more fiercely. Mattathias, the father of Judas Maccabaeus, voiced the rallying cry of the Hasmoneans:

Even if all the nations that live under the rule of the king obey him, and have chosen to obey his commandments, everyone of them abandoning the religion of their ancestors, I and my sons and my brothers will continue to live by the covenant of our ancestors. Far be it from us to desert the law and the ordinances. We will not obey the king’s words by turning aside from our religion to the right hand or to the left. (1 Macc 2:19-22)

But the women rallied also, marrying Jewish men, circumcising their infant sons, preparing and eating only clean foods, washing and maintaining purity, and raising their children to observe “the covenant of our ancestors.” The prominence of these themes in the stories surveyed here demonstrates that this body of folklore, legend, romance, and fiction carried the freight of this cultural and religious Jewish agenda of the late Second Temple period.

Preserving Jewish identity was critical. If Jews did not marry other Jews and raise their children to do the same, they would be absorbed under the powerful influence of Greek culture and Roman power. Endogamy, marriage within their kinship group, ensured various social values: “retaining property and wealth within the kin-group, consolidating power, maintaining cultic purity, and protection from outsiders.” ¹⁰ The prohibition against marrying foreign women is deeply rooted in Israel’s traditions and scriptures (Gen 24:3; 28:1, 6; Deut 7:3–4; Neh 13:25–27) and it reemerges in the Hellenistic period. Tobit, of the tribe of Naphtali, married “a member of our own family” (Tob 1:9). In Media, Sarah laments, “I am my father’s only child; he has no other child to be his heir; and he has no close relative or other kindred for whom I should keep myself as wife” (3:15). Meanwhile, Tobit instructs his son, Tobias,

Marry a woman from among the descendants of your ancestors; do not marry a foreign woman, who is not of your father’s tribe; for we are the descendants of the prophets. Remember, my son, that Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, our ancestors of old, all took wives from among their kindred. They were blessed in their children, and their posterity will inherit the land. So now, my son, love your kindred, and in your heart do not disdain your kindred, the sons and daughters of your people, by refusing to take a wife for yourself from among them. (Tob 4:12-13)

As Sarah’s closest relative, Tobias “was entitled to have her before all others who had desired to marry her” (3:17), a claim that is repeated in 6:12, 13; 7:10 (cf. Ruth 2:20; 3:12–13; 4:1-12).

The underlying theme in the romance of Joseph and Aseneth is Joseph’s faithful adherence to his religion: his virginity, his revulsion to foreign women, and his refusal to have any contact with Aseneth until she converted to Judaism and they were married. Every time he was approached by one of the daughters of the Egyptians, he remembered his father’s words, “For Jacob would say to his son Joseph and all his sons, ‘My children guard strongly against associating with a strange woman, for association (with) her is destruction and corruption’” (Jos. Asen. 7.5).

The stress on Jewish identity following the Maccabean Revolt may well have been an expression of social protest as Jews in Judea and Galilee built miqva’ot, stepped, plastered pools for washing to maintain their ritual purity, refused to use coins with images of gods, temples, or political leaders, and used stone vessels while refusing gentile ceramics. ¹¹ The sheer number of miqva’ot—by one count 850, many of which are in Galilean homes ¹² —illustrates the heightened concern for purity among Jews generally during this period. ¹³ Liquids, especially, transmitted uncleanness. Consequently, Jews avoided olive oil produced by gentiles, preferring locally produced olive oil. The oil production facilities at Yodefat and Gamla were equipped with miqva’ot, ¹⁴ so that the workers could bathe before handling the olives. Such miqva’ot were found exclusively in Second Temple period contexts, however, and rabbinic sources imply the gradual disappearance of stringencies regarding purity of oil. ¹⁵

The women in the stories surveyed here also practice purity and do not eat gentile foods. Susanna was caught while bathing (Sus 15, 17). Tobit and Tobias wash regularly (Tob 2:5, 9; 6:3; 7:9). Maintaining purity is especially important in Judith, the tale of the widow who assassinates the gentile general who intended to defile the sanctuary in Jerusalem (Jdt 9:8). Ending her mourning, Judith bathes and anoints herself (10:3). Because she would not eat unclean foods, she has her maid prepare and carry with them the food, wine, and dishes she will need (10:5). Judith lies to Holofernes, saying that God sent her to guide him to Jerusalem to bring judgment upon her people because of their sin: “Since their food supply is exhausted and their water has almost given out, they have planned to kill their livestock and have determined to use all that God by his laws has forbidden them to eat” (11:12). When Holofernes orders his men to set a table for her, she responds, “I cannot partake of them, or it will be an offense; but I will have enough with the things I brought with me” (12:2). Each night she goes out and bathes in the spring, and prays for God’s direction. Then, “she returned purified and stayed in the tent until she ate her food toward evening” (12:9). On the fourth day, Holofernes sends his eunuch to “persuade the Hebrew woman who is in your care to join us and to eat and drink with us” (12:11). Even then, however, “she took what her maid had prepared and ate and drank before him” (12:19). After their great victory over the Assyrian army, the people of Jerusalem return to Jerusalem, purify themselves, and offer their sacrifices and offerings to God (16:18).

While washing is not emphasized in Joseph and Aseneth, Joseph’s abstention from eating with the Egyptians is (Jos Asen 7.1). Aseneth’s rejection of her Egyptian food is a sign of the genuineness of her conversion to Judaism:

And Aseneth took her royal dinner and the fatlings and the fish and the flesh of the heifer and all the sacrifices of her gods and the vessels of their wine of libation and threw everything through the window looking north, and gave everything to the strange dogs. For Aseneth said to herself, “By no means must my dogs eat from my dinner and from the sacrifice of the idols, but let the strange dogs eat those.” (10.13; cf. 13.8)

For 7 days, she laments that her “mouth is defiled from the sacrifices of the idols” (11.9; 12.5). At the end of her mourning, the Lord’s angel commands her to wash her hands and face with “living water” (flowing water) and dress in a new, clean linen robe (14.12, 15).

The women in the fiction of the Second Temple period are remarkable for their refusal to submit to “the tyrant” by eating forbidden foods, abandoning circumcision, the ancient sign of the covenant, or worshiping false gods. Like Abraham, they will even sacrifice their children for the sake of their religion. Like Joseph, they flee from sexual defilement. Like Zipporah, they circumcise their sons. Like Jael, they bravely deliver the people of Israel from their enemies, and like Ruth they embrace Israel and her God: “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). Meir Bar-Ilan makes the salient point: “A woman here sets an example of an ideal role model for Jewish women in similar circumstances.” ¹⁶

The Maccabean literature recounts how the Jews suffered for their faithfulness:

But many in Israel stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food. They chose to die rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die. Very great wrath came upon Israel. (1 Macc 1:62-64)

Following the story of the martyrdom of the mother and her seven sons, 2 Maccabees records the defeat of the Seleucid general, Nicanor, who takes off his uniform and makes his way “alone like a runaway slave across the country until he reached Antioch,” where he proclaimed “that the Jews had a Defender, and that therefore the Jews were invulnerable, because they followed the laws ordained for them” (2 Macc 8:35–36). No less than the Maccabees, the women in the fiction of this period embodied the ideals and hope of the faithful Jews.

Conclusion

The writings surveyed in this article represent a distinctive moment in literary history. Clearly, they are rooted in and draw upon earlier biblical narratives, yet they were composed in a relatively short period of time, in the late Second Temple period, between the late third century BCE and the end of the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 CE. They have no clear successors, as the Jewish materials surviving from the next several centuries are legal traditions, primarily those collected in the Mishnah (ca. 200 CE). They also predate the Greek novels by Achilles Tatius, The Adventures of Leucippe and Cleitophon (second c. CE); Chariton, Chaereas and Callirhoe (not later than second c. CE); Heliodorus, Aethiopica (ca. 220–250 CE?); Longus, Daphnis and Chloe (date uncertain, second to sixth c.); and Xenophon Ephesius, Anthia and Habrocomes (date uncertain, second to fifth c.). They also predate the early Latin short stories by Lucius Cornelius Sisenna (119–67 BCE) and the novels by Seneca, Apocolocyntosis (4 BCE/1 CE – 65 CE); Petronius, Satyricon (first c. CE); and Apuleis, Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass, ca. 123–180 CE?). ¹⁷

Did these Second Temple Jewish writings change the perceptions of women or the ideals for women? At least in one pivotal case it seems they did. The characterization of Mary in Luke 1-2 bears the literary DNA of these earlier Jewish heroines.

The annunciation of portentous births is a common motif in the Hebrew scriptures (Ishmael, Isaac, Samson), but the appearance of an angel to a not-yet-married young woman takes on a special note of terror against the background of Sarah’s loss of seven bridegrooms, each on their wedding night. When Gabriel spoke to Mary, she “pondered what sort of greeting this might be” (Luke 1:29). The angel reassured her, “You have found favor with God” (1:30). The book of Esther says repeatedly that Esther “won the king’s favor” (2:9, 17; 5:2, 8; 7:3; 8:5). Joseph prays for Aseneth, “Lord, bless this virgin” (Jos. Asen. 8.9). After Aseneth confesses her idolatry and pleads for God’s mercy, “a man came to her from heaven” (14.3). Aseneth “was filled with a great fear” (14.11), but the angel assures her that God has heard her confession, that her name is in the book of life, and that he has given her to Joseph, who will be her “bridegroom for ever [and] ever” (15.2–6). She will no longer be called Aseneth but “City of Refuge, because in you many nations will take refuge with the Lord God” (15.7). When Judith departs from Bethulia to go to Holofernes’s camp, the elders of the town say to her, “May the God of our ancestors grant you favor and fulfill your plans, so that the people of Israel may glory and Jerusalem may be exalted” (Jdt 10:8). Similarly, when Judas Maccabeus prepared to lead his men out against the gentile army that was “strong and fortified, with cavalry all around it; and these men were trained in war,” he said to those who were with him,

Do not fear their numbers or be afraid when they charge. Remember how our ancestors were saved at the Red Sea, when Pharaoh with his forces pursued them. And now, let us cry to Heaven, to see whether he will favor us and remember his covenant with our ancestors and crush this army before us today. Then all the Gentiles will know that there is one who redeems and saves Israel. (1 Macc 4:7-11)

Luke connects the motifs of fear, assurance of favor in God’s sight, and deliverance of Israel in a similar manner. Following Gabriel’s declaration that Mary has found favor in God’s sight, he announces that she will bear a son, and “the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David,” and “he will reign over the House of Jacob forever” (1:32–33). Mary declares in response, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38), just as Aseneth promises to be “a slave for [Joseph] and serve him for ever [and] ever” (Jos. Asen. 13.14).

When Mary goes to visit her kinswoman, Elizabeth says, “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord” (Luke 1:45). When the Pharaoh marries Joseph and Aseneth, he pronounces the blessing, “May the Lord God the Most High bless you and multiply you and magnify and glorify you forever” (21.6). Mary sings,

My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,

according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his

descendants forever. (Luke 1:47-55)

And when Mary sings these words, we hear the voices of Jewish heroines in the generations past.