Gentile Women in Qumran : Female Converts in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Gentile Women in Qumran examines whether and how female converts may have entered the Qumran movement affiliated with the Dead Sea Scrolls. The study assesses Scrolls that may refer to female converts and compares them to a variety of sources including Biblical, Greek and Latin, early Christian, and rabbinic sources. As the Scrolls contain no term for a female convert, initial investigations problematize use of the Essene accounts of Josephus and examine use of membership language.

That marriage seems an important step for any woman’s inclusion subsequently offers a point of departure to consider possible mechanisms of entrance for gentile women. This analysis concludes that while it appears that only enslaved women may join as female gentile converts, their existence is nevertheless likely, and is made possible through the mechanisms of marriage and timed integration. Other hypothetical mechanisms are also considered, including immersion and adoption or fosterage as slaves.

The study is relevant to all those interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran, women in ancient Judaism, Christianity, and the ancient Mediterranean more broadly, as well as in concepts of membership, identity, and conversion in the ancient world, and Hebrew and early Christian scriptures and rabbinic writings.