Overview

"Although the theme of bloodied nuptial sheets seems pervasive in western culture, its association with female virginity is uniquely tied to a brief passage in the book of Deuteronomy detailing the procedure for verifying a young woman's purity; it seldom, if ever, appears outside of Abrahamic traditions. In Signs of Virginity, Michael Rosenberg examines the history of virginity testing in Judaism and early Christianity, and the relationship of these tests to a culture that encourages male sexual violence. Deuteronomy's violent vision of virginity has held sway in Jewish and Christian circles more or less ever since. However, Rosenberg points to two authors-the rabbinic collective that produced the Babylonian Talmud and the early Christian thinker Augustine of Hippo-who, even as they perpetuate patriarchal assumptions about female virginity, nonetheless attempt to subvert the emphasis on sexual dominance bequeathed to them by Deuteronomy. Unlike the authors of earlier Rabbinic and Christian texts, who modified but fundamentally maintained and even extended the Deuteronomic ideal, the Babylonian Talmud and Augustine both construct alternative models of female virginity that, if taken seriously, would utterly reverse cultural ideals of masculinity. Indeed this vision of masculinity as fundamentally gentle, rather than characterized by brutal and violent sexual behavior, fits into a broader idealization of masculinity propagated by both authors, who reject what Augustine called a ""lust for dominance"" as a masculine ideal."

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9780190845896

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Rosenberg proves himself to be a master at analysis and interpretation of not only rabbinic texts, but also pre-rabbinic sources and early Christian sources, both east and west. His close readings are insightful, compelling, revisionist, if not revolutionary. --Christine Hayes, author of What's Divine about Divine Law: Early Perspectives The intriguing paradox in Rosenberg's argument is that female virginity was critical to the making of ancient Jewish and Christian masculinities. The scholarship is insightful, and the implications profound. Breaking with the Hebrew Bible's model of aggressive male sexuality, some late antique voices made room for a manhood that was gentler and, frankly, far less bloody. This new model of masculinity forever changed gender ideals and possibilities. --Beth A. Berkowitz, author of Defining Jewish Difference: From Antiquity to the Present Michael Rosenberg writes fluently and smoothly, progressing through a series of close textual readings that culminate in a rich and deeply layered overview of an important chapter in the histories of gender and sexuality in the biblical tradition. He is at his most insightful when dealing with these texts, but nonetheless displays a clear mastery of a wide range of ancient materials and their modern studies, from Greco-Roman medicine to feminist interpretation to Christian poetry. --Andrew Jacobs, Mary W. and J. Stanley Johnson Professor of Humanities & Professor of Religious Studies, Scripps College

Author Information

Michael Rosenberg is assistant professor of rabbinics at Hebrew College.

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