Rabbinic Sources: The Mishnah And The Babylonian Talmud

Questions How did Babylonian law try to reconcile the needs of the state with the fact that it could not afford a large professional bureaucracy? How did the state use “volunteers”? How did it arrange for public works? Babylonian law try to reconcile the needs of the state with the fact that it could not afford a large professional bureaucracy by making it a problem between the accused and the accuser. They put set laws and whoever is wrong is the one who receives the punishment.

A woman’s role on the other hand does not consist of such significance and does not grant the power that the male role does. Rather, the female role consists of women acting modest and submissively; women are expected to be confined to being in their home, care for their family and depend on their spouses’ or males relatives.

All over the world, societal roles of women are different. This has not changed despite centuries of time passing. Roman and medieval women, though parts of different cultures and separated by distance, were very similar.

These beliefs about the roles did not come out of nowhere. Confucius, the teacher of the religion of Confucianism, taught that women's roles were to look after the men in their families. Most did not question his teachings and continued to live with these “rules”. Not only the fact that they believed women were inferior to men and should stay at home, "people believed that women were both morally and intellectually inferior to men and thus needed men's control and guidance" (Tsai). While men were valued for their hard work and getting the money, women were disparaged because they “couldn’t live” without a man’s work.

Gender roles of diverse cultures have differed immensely throughout history. The evolution of gender roles first began in the Paleolithic Age and then began to transform with the transformation of the Paleolithic Age to the Neolithic Age. Women in Mesopotamia, India, Greece, China, and Rome were not treated as equals and viewed as inferior to men. Cultures like Egypt and Persia had similar laws for women and treated them with more respect out of any of the other cultures.

The Babylonian definition of justice was a harsh and especially a burden on the accuser and judges. For example, the laws clearly state that not only is there a burden on the accused but also on the accuser should they be unable to prove their case. For instance, the penalty for homicide states that “if a man has made allegations against another man, and he has laid a charge of homicide against him but is unable to substantiate his guilt, the one who made the allegations against him shall be killed.” ( ) Hammurabi ruled a vast empire and would not have been able to rule on every case himself. () notes that in the king’s absence, a committee of men from the communities involved could act as a judge in Hammurabi’s place. The penalties for a judge

In contrast to boys, girls were taught to be self-denying, and to be helpers to men. Corporal Punishment of children was even condemned even though practiced in the home.

The way women have been treated varies throughout time, in some time periods women were oppressed and fighting for rights, in others they were queens. In the ancient societies of Egypt and India, women were treated differently than men, although in different ways. In Egypt, women were still treated with respect and dignity, while in India the roles of women were to be submissive and compliant.

and obey the word of God just as much as men are, but they still are denied the

To each society, there is its own set of rules. Many of these rules separate the women from the men or the children from the adults by creating certain duties for each individual. There are many comparisons between the women of Islamic and Roman societies. The roles that are given to these two groups of women show what is expected of them as a wife, the mother of the family, and where they stand politically.

Most of the gender expectations stemmed from the Church and biblical history. There were many anti-feminist feelings due to Eve causing the fall of Man. Women were perceived to be responsible for most of the suffering to man, and

Once a faith centered on priesthood, sacrificial rituals, communal gatherings and oral traditions, the people of the Jewish religion decided to restructure the faith around written scripture. Although it is argued that rabbis began work on compiling the oral histories prior to the fall of the Second Temple, there was a marked resurgence in documentation of the important history and moral laws of Judaism after the fall (Molloy, 291). The Jewish people felt a sense of urgency to finish the written works. They believed the incorporation of written word into Judaism would help to solidify their place in the religious world, as well as make the faith easier to correctly interpret among their own vastly dispersed people (BBC, 2009).

Majority of the ancient societies portrayed similarities in the presentation of women and girls. In other words, women and girls in the traditional communities were given similar roles and were regarded as the inferior members of the society. Men were viewed as members of the superior gender and due to this; they were given the primary responsibilities in the society and were also regarded as the heads of the family and the entire community. In most cases, women took the roles and responsibilities of housewives, caretakers, nurturers, reproducers, and mothers while men were given the responsibility of managing the society. The classification of diverse roles for women and men was destructive on the side of the females as men sought to dominate them, take advantage of them and even oppress them and this resulted in the case of gender imbalance and inequality. It is clear that men were insensitive about this division and hence scholars rose to represent the fate of women through writing. The Tale of Kieu by Nguyen and the Separate Ways by Chiyo portray women as oppressed, voiceless and members of an inferior gender.

The Holy Bible is full of advice on every issue known to humanity. This advice varies in topics from society's functions to foreign policy and even gender roles. Today's western culture is very confused when it comes to gender roles, swinging over the last over 50 years from a male-dominated society to a large portion of the feminist society fighting for female dominance and the disappearance of chivalry. Society is always searching for answers from science and philosophy but constantly fails to look in the right places. The Bible is the foundation of truth and it requires the ultimate amount of attention if any community plans to be successful for any length of time. The education of modern society on what the Bible says about gender roles is necessary to achieve mutual understanding of beliefs.

this point in time, as they were believed to be inferior to men. The works of female authors were not as