Leviticus 1:3 - On the gender of worshipers

(The above rendering and its footnote come from the RJPS translation, an adaptation of the NJPS translation.)

The instructions in this chapter are rendered in the second person so as to be gender-inclusive. (The Hebrew employs the second-person plural in verse 2, followed by the third-person singular thereafter.) Women are in view throughout this passage as worshipers, by virtue of both the non-specific language employed and the nature of the activities involved.

The key noun that is used to label the worshiper is אָדָם (NJPS: “any”) in verse 2; subsequent references to the worshiper are masculine as required for grammatical gender agreement. Such wording allows for the inclusion of women (Stein 2008; Stein 2013). In the Bible, אָדָם is a standard label for counterposing human beings with the Deity; it often evokes a sense of mortality (e.g., Gen 1:26; Num 19:14; Deut 5:20; Isa 17:7; Ezek 34:31; Ps 124:2). As Alison Grant noted, the use of אָדָם downplays human social relations (Alison M. Grant, “’Adam and ’Ish: Man in the OT,” Australian Biblical Review 25 [1977]: 2–11).

That function and those nuances of אָדָם explain its usage in verse 2: the passage is concerned with maintaining an individual’s proper relationship with the nation’s deity, mainly via rituals involving animal slaughter and consumption.

Women worshipers are mentioned in the Bible with regard to several types of sacrificial offering (Lev 12:6; 15:29–30; Num 6:13–14, cf. v. 2; Prov 7:14). There is no evidence that they were excluded from other types.

A typical offerer was expected to undertake several steps, including slaughtering and flaying their animal—just as if it were being prepared for food (Baruch Schwartz, The Jewish Study Bible [Oxford Univ., 2004] at Lev 1:3–9; 1:6). The impersonal construction does not specify the gender of the performer of these acts.

The Bible itself depicts women in the role of slaughterer and dresser, in 1 Sam 1:24–25 (Hannah); 28:24 (the medium in En-dor). Women are likewise portrayed in ancient Near Eastern art as slaughterers for sacrifice, and mentioned as such in Mari texts (Mayer Gruber, “Women in the Cult according to the Priestly Code,” 1992, p. 65 n. 37).

In ancient Israel, a rural society, nearly everyone both lived and worked with livestock. Each household slaughtered and dressed its own animals. Thus the text here can presume that most Israelites performed their own slaughter at the sanctuary.

True, the head of the household was often expected to act as its representative. That being said, Georg Braulik is surely correct when he reasons that “if there was no father of the house in a family, then … his functions during the sacrifice were taken over by the mother of the family” (“Were Women, Too, Allowed to Offer Sacrifices in Israel?” p. 922).