Finding a History of/for Women in Ancient Literature

152 SHOFAR Fall 1995 Vol. 14, No.1 live in. Missing are stories about women who show their strength in small, /' less unusual ways. The book would have more clearly echoed the voices of "our mothers" if the editors had told us why they chose to publish /these stories among the myriad of choices, or discussed how these stories ./ fit into the context of other Yiddish stories by women. Klepfisz describes these stories: "resistant to nostalgia, they provide a past which cannot be romanticized and which, for women, does not differ in many ways from the "liberated" present in its contradictions and challenges." This is partially true. Certain forms of communal memory have nostalgically rendered a past that is coherent and whole. In that story, one finds only intact Jewish families and happy mothers. I am grateful to the editors of Found Treasures for countering this by bringing women writers, women's perspectives on the past, and stories about female heroines to our attention. The book is dedicated "To the memory of our mothers and sisters, and to continuity." In my search for continuity between myself and those who have come before me, I am emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually reassured to find common themes and struggles. But, in our much-needed search for lost "treasures," we should acknowledge when we privilege some women's voices over others, and take note of the differences between our lives and those of our foremothers. If we want a more complete picture of the past, through which we construct our present identities , we need to honor these differences and listen to all the voices we can. Finding a History of/for Women in Ancient Literature by Kim Haines-Eitzen Department of Religious Studies University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "Women like This": New Perspectives on Jewish Women in the Greco-Roman World, edited by Amy-Jill Levine. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1991. 260 pp. $15.95 (P). Review Essays 153 This collection of essays stems from a panel discussion, entitled "Testament ofJob 46-55 andJoseph andAseneth: The Possibility ofFemale Authorship and Its Exegetical Implications," at the 1987 Society of Biblical literature annual meeting. Two overarching concerns implicitly unify the volume: 1) the anti-Judaism inherent in some Christian feminist scholarship and 2) the question ofwomen's authorship of ancient literature. With the exception of the last article, each of the essays is devoted to literary analyses ofancient literature in which women characters figure prominently . The essays are as follows: "Understanding a patriarchy: Wom~n in Second Century Jerusalem Through the Eyes of Ben Sira," by Claudia V. Camp (pp. 1-39); "Philo's Portrayal of Women-Hebraic or Hellenic?," by Judith Romney Wegner (pp. 41-66); "The 'Woman with the Soul of Abraham': Traditions about the Mother of the Maccabean Martyrs," by Robin Darling Young (pp. 67-81); "Portraits of Women in Pseudo-Philo's Biblical Antiquities," by Betsy Halpern-Amaru (pp. 83-106); "Revelatory Experiences Attributed to Biblical Women in Early Jewish literature," by Randall D. Chesnutt (pp. 107-125); "Patriarchy with a Twist: Men and Women in Tobit," by Beverly Bow and George W. E. Nickelsburg (pp. 127-143); "Aseneth and Her Sisters: Women in Jewish Narrative and in the Greek Novels," by Richard I. Pervo (pp. 145-160); "From Narrative to History: The Resurrection of Mary and Martha," by Adele Reinhartz (pp. 161-184); "Women in the Third Gospel and the New Testament Apocrypha ," by Steven Davies (pp. 185-197); "Did Ancient Women Write Novels?," by Mary R. Lefkowitz (pp. 199-219); "Women's Authorship of Jewish and Christian literature in the Greco-Roman Period," by Ross S. Kraemer (pp. 221-242). In the history of scholarship in this field, some Christian theologians and feminists have claimed that Christianity "liberated" women from Judaism's "oppressive" and "restrictive" traditions. In part the present volume succeeds because it undermines these triumphal claims of early Christian egalitarianism. Contributors in this volume argue that female figures in Jewish literature appear as agents of God (Halpern-Amaru), as receivers of revelations (Chesnutt), as progenitors akin to Abraham (young), and as "imperious, independent, resourceful, and powerful" women (Pervo). Several essays concede the patriarchy at work in the...