Searching for an Inclusive Approach to Biblical Laws Relating to Women: Observing Innertextual Developments in the Dead Sea Scrolls as an Instructive Tool

Abstract

Despite the existence of biblical laws pertaining to women, Cheryl Anderson, in her work Ancient Laws and Contemporary Controversies, observes that these same laws do not take into account the perspectives of women. Instead, they are formed from a “male perspective” with which female readers learn to identify through “immasculation.” Anderson proposes an alternative, liberationist, and inclusive approach, in which the realities of the marginalized serve as the point of departure, and suggests that one way to perform this task entails observing innerbiblical development between texts, drawing on the work of Terence Fretheim. Similar innertextual changes are also observable between interpretations of scriptural law, in the Dead Sea Scrolls. This essay therefore expands on the work of Anderson to compare certain biblical laws concerning women with examples of rewriting within the Scrolls. In this way, contemporary readers can observe a range of responses that may spark readings in which the marginalized voices of women are included.