Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel are termed the “Matriarchs.” In contrast to these women, Bilhah, Zilpah, Tamar, and Aseneth/Asenath are the “Secondary Matriarchs.” They are “foreign wives.” Bilhah and Zilpah are Arameans and the mothers of the eponymous ancestors of the tribes of Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. Canaanite Tamar bears Judah’s son Perez, who becomes the link to the Judah tribal line. The Egyptian Aseneth, Joseph’s wife, bears the eponymous ancestors of the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim. The “foreignness” of these Secondary Matriarchs is not noteworthy in Genesis. Years later, however, Ezra/Nehemiah promote endogamy and reject foreign wives/exogamy. A similar pro-endogamy/anti-exogamy view is found in the Maccabean and Herodian times, although sometimes conversion – voluntary or forced – is another strategy. It is difficult to understand the growth of the Jewish people however defined or calculated – from the period of Ezra/Nehemiah to the destruction of the Second Temple – without these conversions.
In the pseudepigraphic writings of the late and then postbiblical Second Temple period, as well as in rabbinic literature, the ethnic origins of the Secondary Matriarchs becomes an issue; consequently they become co-opted into the “Abrahamic” family – they are shown to be Jews. This article begins with a wide variety of examples in the Pseudepigrapha and rabbinic writings (Talmud, midrash) to address how the Secondary Matriarchs are understood to be ethnically “family” and not “foreigners.” It then analyzes the issue of endogamy/exogamy in Ezra/Nehemiah, as well as in the Maccabean-Herodian and rabbinic periods, as an explanation for the creation of the “additional biographies” of Bilhah, Zilpah, Tamar, and Aseneth.
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11
Susan Ackerman, Warrior, Dancer, Seductress, Queen: Women in Judges and Biblical Israel (New York: Doubleday, 1998), p. 221.
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17
Shaye J.D. Cohen, The Beginnings of Jewishness (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), p. 260.
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24
Michael Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), p. 114.
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27
Julie Galambush, Jerusalem in the Book of Ezekiel: The City as Yahweh’s Wife (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992), pp. 61–88.
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31
Stuart Krauss, “The Word ‘Ger’ in the Bible and its Implications,” Jewish Bible Quarterly 34.4 (2006), 264–70.
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32
(OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969), pp. 305, 316. See also John L. McKenzie, Second Isaiah (AB 20; Garden City: Doubleday, 1967), pp. 150–51.
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33
Hamilton, “Marriage,” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, vol. 4, p. 565.
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34
Cohen, Beginnings, pp. 109–110. Also Shaye J.D. Cohen, “Religion, Ethnicity, and ‘Hellenism’ in the Emergence of Jewish Identity in Maccabean Palestine,” in Per Bilde et al. (eds.), Religion and Religious Practice in the Seleucid Kingdom (Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 1990), p. 204.
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35
Aryeh Kasher, Jews, Idumaeans and Ancient Arabs (Tubingen: JCB Mohr, 1988), pp. 59–60. See also Josephus, Antiquities 13:397.
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42
Bernard, J. Bamberger, Proselytism in the Talmudic Period (New York: Ktav, 1968), p. 274. See also Cohen, “Religion, Ethnicity,” pp. 212–18.
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43
Solomon Zeitlin, The Rise and Fall of the Judaean State: A Political, Social and Religious History of the Second Commonwealth (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1968), vol. 3, p. 323.
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45
Salo W. Baron, “Population,” Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter, 1971), vol. 13, p. 869. From Baron’s discussion, it appears that he includes self-defined Jews such as “God-fearers,” or what the Talmud called “fearers of heaven.” Baron estimates that the world Jewish population in the year 70 ce is about eight million, with perhaps seventy percent living outside of the area of Judea (p. 871). For a different view, see Brian McGing, “Population and Proselytism: How Many Jews Were There in the Ancient World,” in John R. Bartlett (ed.), Jews in The Hellenistic And Roman Cities (London: Routledge, 2002), p. 106.
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46
Sacha Stern, Jewish Identity in Early Rabbinic Writings (Leiden: Brill, 1994), pp. 139–98.
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Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel are termed the “Matriarchs.” In contrast to these women, Bilhah, Zilpah, Tamar, and Aseneth/Asenath are the “Secondary Matriarchs.” They are “foreign wives.” Bilhah and Zilpah are Arameans and the mothers of the eponymous ancestors of the tribes of Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. Canaanite Tamar bears Judah’s son Perez, who becomes the link to the Judah tribal line. The Egyptian Aseneth, Joseph’s wife, bears the eponymous ancestors of the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim. The “foreignness” of these Secondary Matriarchs is not noteworthy in Genesis. Years later, however, Ezra/Nehemiah promote endogamy and reject foreign wives/exogamy. A similar pro-endogamy/anti-exogamy view is found in the Maccabean and Herodian times, although sometimes conversion – voluntary or forced – is another strategy. It is difficult to understand the growth of the Jewish people however defined or calculated – from the period of Ezra/Nehemiah to the destruction of the Second Temple – without these conversions.
In the pseudepigraphic writings of the late and then postbiblical Second Temple period, as well as in rabbinic literature, the ethnic origins of the Secondary Matriarchs becomes an issue; consequently they become co-opted into the “Abrahamic” family – they are shown to be Jews. This article begins with a wide variety of examples in the Pseudepigrapha and rabbinic writings (Talmud, midrash) to address how the Secondary Matriarchs are understood to be ethnically “family” and not “foreigners.” It then analyzes the issue of endogamy/exogamy in Ezra/Nehemiah, as well as in the Maccabean-Herodian and rabbinic periods, as an explanation for the creation of the “additional biographies” of Bilhah, Zilpah, Tamar, and Aseneth.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 467 | 233 | 8 |
| Full Text Views | 217 | 5 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 56 | 16 | 0 |