The 2020 digital edition of Women Leaders in the Ancient Synagogue: Inscriptional Evidence and Background Issues is a reprint of Bernadette Brooten’s 1982 study. Brooten uses nineteen Greek and Latin inscriptions that name women with the titles “head of the synagogue,” “leader,” “elder,” “mother of the synagogue,” and “priestess,” to argue that women served as functional, not merely honorary, leaders in some Roman and Byzantine period synagogues. The inscriptions range in date from 27 B.C. to the sixth century and were found in Italy, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Palestine. In her introduction to the digital edition, Brooten presents six newly discovered inscriptions that reinforce her thesis. She challenges historians of religion to question the prevailing view of Judaism in the Greco-Roman period as a religion that excluded women from leadership roles and even from attendance at synagogue services.
The first half of the book is divided into five chapters, each dealing with a different leadership title used for women in the inscriptions: Chapter I. Women as Heads of Synagogues; Chapter II. Woman as Leader; Chapter III. Women as Elders; Chapter IV. Women as Mothers of the Synagogue; and Chapter V. Women as Priests. Each chapter begins with citations and analyses of the inscriptions, followed by a compilation of ancient references that clarify the meaning of the term used as title.
The second half of the book considers background topics: Chapter VI. Did the Ancient Synagogue have a Women’s Gallery or Separate Women’s Section? and Chapter VII. Further Background Issues Relating to Women Leaders in the Ancient Synagogue, which discusses women’s participation in synagogue worship services, women as donors to synagogues, and women proselytes.
In three Greek inscriptions (41–45), women have the title archisynagōgos / archisynagōgissa (arch– plus an element formed from the institution over which the officer stands, in this case the synagogue.”1 In another inscription (35), Peristeria is called archēgissa, “leader.” Six ancient Greek inscriptions have been found in which women carry the title “elder” (presbytera/presbyterēsa = presbyterissa) and one in which a woman is called presbytis. Women are called “mothers of the synagogue” in six Greek and Latin inscriptions (57–62) and “priest” (hierea/hierissa) in three Jewish inscriptions (73–77).
A white marble sepulchral plaque from Crete dating to the 4th or 5th century (11) exemplifies the inscriptions that Brooten cites:
Sofia of Gortyn, elder (presbytera) and head of the synagogue (archisynagōgissa) of Kissamou (lies) here. The memory of the righteous one for ever. Amen.
Ancient Christian inscriptions and literature from the 4th and 5th centuries mention female elders (presbyteras) in churches of southern Italy, parallel to Jewish inscriptions naming female elders (presbyteras) of synagogues from the same time and region. Parallelization of Christian clerics with heads of the synagogues, the patriarchs, and the elders in official Roman government documents shows that elders were official synagogue functionaries, not honorific titles, and the functions are specifically religious ones (49).
Brooten states that it is inappropriate to reject the possibility of women leaders in the ancient synagogue on the grounds that women were not admitted into the main prayer hall (138). Biblical references, as well as writings from Jewish historian Josephus and rabbinic teachings, indicate that Jewish women were present and often prominent in synagogues. The author painstakingly reviews archaeological reports of excavations of ancient synagogues that reconstructed galleries or side rooms where women purportedly worshiped separately from men. She concludes that the vast majority of ancient synagogues in Israel do not seem to have possessed a gallery, and there is no archaeological or literary reason to assume that side rooms were for women (123). There is no Diaspora synagogue in which a strong archaeological case can be made for a women’s gallery or a separate women’s section (129). The analogy of a separate room as a woman’s section in modern synagogues is anachronistic (123).
The author acknowledges various scholars who devoted time to reading the manuscript, commenting on it, and helping and encouraging her. Catherine Kroeger, founder of CBE, is named among them. Brooten also mentions Dorothy Irvin, a fellow CBE contributor, as among the scholars who broke the tradition of interpreting the titles borne by Jewish women as honorific.
The book is heavily academic, detailed, and sometimes repetitive reading, probably most appreciated by those familiar with classical languages and ancient Jewish sources. When discussing the archaeology of ancient synagogues and the inscriptions themselves, the author sometimes uses technical vocabulary for Jewish symbols and Greco-Roman architectural features. Those who know the Bible will be surprised and pleased with how a Jewish scholar cites and interprets it. The message is encouraging and important to those of us who advocate for women in leadership, especially in church ministry.
- It should be noted that the Greek term arch- that Brooten translates “head” is not the same as the much-debated word kephalē that occurs in 1 Cor. 11:3 that is better translated “source.”