Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- 1 The Creation Narrative and the Status of Women -- 2 Interpretations of the Fall Narrative -- 3 The Father’s Authority and Responsibility, and Their Limitations: A Debate with Scholarly Theories -- 4 Women’s Obligations to Fulfill Biblical Precepts -- 5 Were Women Members of the Eda–Yahad? -- 6 The Polygamy Rules of CD IV:20–V:2 and 11Q19 LVII:15−19 and Their Sources: Implications for Divorce and Remarriage -- 7 Asceticism in Scripture and in Qumran and Rabbinic Literature -- 8 Genealogy and Holiness of Seed in Second Temple Judaism: Facts or Creative Supposition? -- Epilogue: Some Reflections -- Bibliography of Works Cited -- Citations Index.

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Women in the Bible, Qumran and Early Rabbinic Literature: Their Status and Roles portrays the tension between the unity of husband and wife and their different legal and social status from a wide range of perspectives, as deduced from the texts of the three corpora. The volume discusses the related topics of divorce, polygamy, woman’s obligations to fulfill precepts, membership in the community, genealogy and attitudes toward sex, such as rejection of asceticism. Women in the Bible, Qumran and Early Rabbinic Literature begins with an objective interpretation of the biblical narratives of the Creation and the Fall, the intellectual basis of Jewish attitudes toward women, and then analyzes the divergent interpretations of Qumran and the Rabbis, the grounds of their distinct doctrines and halakhot .