Was Ancient Israel a Patriarchal Society

The term "patriarchy" denotes the social-science concept of male dominance. This concept was formulated by nineteenth-century anthropologists using classical literature, especially legal texts, in their attempts to understand the history of the family. Biblical scholars interested in Israelite family structures soon took up the term. By the early twentieth century, sociologists (notably Weber) extended the concept of patriarchy to include society-wide male domination. This too entered scholarship on the Hebrew Bible and ancient Israel. However, the validity and appropriateness of this concept to designate both families and society have recently been challenged in several disciplines: in classical scholarship, by using sources other than legal texts; in research on the Hebrew Bible and ancient Israel, also by using multiple sources; and in the work of third-wave feminists, both social theorists and feminist archaeologists. Taken together, these challenges provide compelling reasons for abandoning the patriarchy model as an adequate or accurate descriptor of ancient Israel.The title of this paper is not a rhetorical question meant to elicit the response "of course it was." Rather, it is a call to reexamine a concept-patriarchy-that has long been used as a descriptor of ancient Israel. Since the late nineteenth century, if not before, the term "patriarchy" has been invoked by those seeking to understand the cultural context of biblical texts. And more recently, it frequently appears in feminist discourse that examines and often critiques the presentation of female figures in narratives and other texts in the Hebrew Bible.This concept deserves closer examination for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the slippery nature of the term itself, which is rarely defined by biblical scholars who use it. The term does not appear in the Hebrew Bible, which has a vocabulary for family units but lacks a term that might be translated as "patriarchy."1 Thus, patriarchy is to be understood as a social science theory rather than a biblical construct. Consequently, its value as a model for understanding any society, let alone a premodern one, must be examined in light of changing perceptions of the patriarchal theory as well as increased knowledge about the societies to which it is applied. I argue that the validity of the patriarchy model for understanding the biblical past is problematic and that using it is no longer as compelling as when it first emerged in the scholarship on ancient Israel.In this paper I will consider the concept of patriarchy by first looking at its place in the study of ancient Israel (section I)-its nineteenth-century origins and then developments in twentieth- and twenty-first-century scholarship. Next (section II) I will consider challenges to the patriarchy model in three areas: classical studies, research on women in ancient Israel, and feminist theory. Finally, a brief conclusion (section III) will include a suggestion for an alternative model.The matter of definition must first be addressed. Patriarchy, literally "rule of the father" from the Greek words pater (itaTTip) and archo (ap^co), has multiple meanings and is notoriously difficult to define.2 Some definitions, claiming that women have the status of slaves in a patriarchal system, are harsher than others, which simply refer to a system of male dominance. A better approach is to acknowledge that patriarchy has two manifestations: the disproportionate control of the father in families or clans; and, by extension, the organization of an entire society in ways that exclude women from community positions.3 The first manifestation relates to the nineteenth-century origins of the concept, and the second is part of twentieth-century developments.I. The Concept of Patriarchy in Scholarship on Ancient IsraelNineteenth-Century OriginsThe use of the patriarchy model in studies of ancient Israel did not emerge in an intellectual vacuum. …