Bat Asher and the Disclosure of Special Knowledge: A Second Temple Interpretive Tradition?

Abstract:Critical scholarship on tannaitic midrash has long postulated that aggadic traditions common to works associated with the schools of Rabbi Akiba and Rabbi Ishmael stem from a shared collection of midrashic traditions, some of which may date to the Second Temple period. One such tradition is the collection of legends that grew up around Serah, the long-lived daughter of the patriarch Asher, first appearing in the Mekilta and the Tosefta. In this research note, I examine additional evidence to support the claim for the prerabbinic nature of the traditions at the root of the legends associated with Serah, notably the brief mention of Anna the prophetess in the Gospel of Luke (2.36–38) and a Samaritan tradition about Sherah, the Samaritan Aramaic form of Serah, found in the fourth-century c.e. strata of the Samaritan compilation, Tibat Marqe. The similarities between these texts suggest that they may be extant examples of an earlier interpretive tradition of connecting the genealogy of a long-lived Israelite or Jewish woman with the tribe of Asher to signify her as one who discloses special or forgotten knowledge, a tradition with likely origins in the Second Temple period.