Jewish Women Philosophers of First-Century Alexandria

• Opens up new dimensions of Jewish life and thought in ancient Alexandria
• Provides a model of women philosophers that were previously little known
• Sheds new light on Hellenistic and Roman Egypt
• Provides new insights into Philo of Alexandria
• Original feminist approach - shows how feminist historiography can be used productively
• Thorough analysis of the Greek and Latin sources
• Includes a new translation of De Vita Contemplativa

Readership: Scholars of religious studies; Jewish studies; ancient history; church history; classics; ancient philosophy; and women's history.

Joan E. Taylor, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Waikato University, Hamilton, New Zealand and Honorary Research Fellow, Departments of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and in History, University College London

"Review from previous edition 'This book is very well researched and original ... The lasting value of this book is twofold. It explores the status and activities of the Therapeutrides in more detail than earlier scholarship, thus reconstructing an important aspect of first-century Judaism. It also raises intriguing questions regarding the spreading of this phenomenon, which thus far cannot be answered with certainty. Beyond these issues related to women, the book is important because it reads one text of Philo against the grain and attempts to reconstruct a type of Judaism that differed in some significant respects from his own. This contributes to our understanding of the diversity of Alexandrian Judaism and may perhaps invite others to recover yet more forms of Judaism between the lines of Philo. " - Scripta Classica Israelica

1. Philo's 'Therapeutae' Reconsidered
1: On Method
2: Philo's De Vita Contemplativa in Historical Context
3: Identity: the Name 'Therapeutae' and the Essenes
4: Placements: The Geographical and Social Locations of the Mareotic Group
5: The Philosophia of Ioudaismos
6: Allegory and Asceticism
7: A Solar Calendar
2. Women and Gender in De Vita Contemplativa
8: Paradigms of 'Women' in Discourses on Philosophia
9: Women and Sex in De Vita Contemplativa
10: Gendered Space
11: Moses, Miriam, and Music
Conclusion