Cherchez la femme: Ancient Israelite Women’s Religion in Light of their Personal Names

Authors

  • Mitka Golub The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • Anat Mendel-Geberovich

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33063/os.v73.595

Keywords:

women, names, archaeology, Bible, Ancient Israel, religion

Abstract

In order to add new insights to recent research on women’s religion in ancient Israel, we investigated women’s names that appear in two categories of evidence: names on excavated Iron Age II epigraphic artifacts and names mentioned in First Temple narratives in the Bible. The two groups of names were quantitatively analyzed according to their theophoric content, chronology, and political affiliation. We found only five women’s names on the epigraphic artifacts, all on seals or seal impressions from Jerusalem, reflecting the limited participation of women in the official public sphere. The 40 names of women mentioned in the Bible reveal that while most women’s names do not have a specific form to distinguish them from men’s names, as a group they are different: non-theophoric or non-hypocoristic-theophoric names dominate women’s names, while theophoric, mainly Yahwistic names dominate men’s names. In addition, the prevalence of non-theophoric or non-hypocoristic-theophoric women’s names increases throughout the First Temple period, while among men, the frequency of such names decreases, and the frequency of theophoric, Yahwistic names increases. These results may be interpreted as indicating that while men mostly participated in the cult of the Israelite national god, YHWH, women performed ritual activities related mainly to gods other than YHWH.

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Published

10.10.2024

How to Cite

Golub, M., & Mendel-Geberovich, A. (2024). Cherchez la femme: Ancient Israelite Women’s Religion in Light of their Personal Names. Orientalia Suecana, 73, 142–153. https://doi.org/10.33063/os.v73.595

Issue

Section

Research articles