<HTML>A fairly good summary of the Rabbinic, and the much more interesting
inscriptional evidence, about the bat kohen is found in _Women Leaders in
the Ancient Synagogue_, by Bernadette Brooten (Scholars Press, 1982),
chapter 5, pp. 73-103. She discusses the passages from Hullin and Mishnah
Sotah 3:7 fairly thoroughly, and she'll give you a perspective that
traditional commentaries probably won't. Brooten does not prove that
women had leadership roles, but she does make the case that you can't
simply assume that women had no roles in the ancient synagogue. Clearly,
from inscriptional evidence, women were making donations to synagogues and
they were identified as being a kohenet (at least in Greek). Professor
Brooten teaches at Brandeis.
B'vrakhah,
Jeffrey Spitzer</HTML>
