Abstract
Feminist interpretation flourishes in fields of history, archaeology, social sciences. Integrating such learning enriches the biblical, historical and cultural analysis of the history of the Bible’s reception from the perspective of gender, presented in this collection of essays on the Gospels, Acts and Revelation. This is the first of two New Testament volumes in SBL’s The Bible and Women series.
A ‘feminist’ is understood to ‘speak for the equality of men and women, inasmuch as both are human beings, and for justice’ (p. 2). Contributors to this feminist project are drawn from around the world, women and men, protestant and catholic. From the preferred term cosmovisión—the Spanish preferred to the English ‘worldview’ —to its integration of approaches, this volume encourages affirming, diverse and flexible principles of scholarship.
Osiek and Schüssler Fiorenza set the scene with chapters on biblical studies and feminist criticism. ‘The active presence of women in the different early Christian groups, which in all probability began in the community formed around Jesus, prompts the questions’ (Arcari, p. 98) of Freyne, Schottoroff, Fischer and Arcari in the next chapters.
Levine explores the (dis)continuity of Jewishness in the community of Matthew’s gospel; chapters from Navarro Puerto and Perroni examine the portrayal of disciples in Mark and Luke; then Karlsen Seim and Tragán consider the gospel of John. Pezzoli-Olgiati discusses the book of Revelation, exploring the tension in history and culture between recollection and transformation of the ‘strongly stylized, polar opposite’ woman cities of Babylon and Jerusalem.
Penna returns to Christology, and Destro and Pesce together examine the change in roles for women across the early church. Drawing on apocryphal narratives, Novelli advocates for a nuanced understanding of the role of the virgin birth in the two canonical versions of the infancy narrative.
Before the final chapter’s return to the fourth gospel (Hartenstein), Mary of Nazareth, Martha, the unnamed women and Mary of Magdala receive attention from Petersen, Escaffre, Pellegrini and Tascht Erber. Pellegrini further qualifies women as ‘unnamed and blameless’, observin that although men who make positive contributions to the narrative are named (Zaccheus, Joseph of Arimathea), women (at the well, of Samaria) who do likewise are not.
In the conversation about how the bible has been received through exegesis, history and culture, this volume makes a significant contribution by placing gender clearly, honestly and, ultimately, positively in view.