Abstract
This book is the first of its kind. While there has been increasing interest in masculinity studies among biblical scholars, this book is the first to treat masculinity across both testaments in the same edited collection (p. 3). The contents of the volume are divided into four sections. Part I is introduces the volume, Part II treats masculinity in a variety of Hebrew Bible texts, Part III treats the New Testament, and finally Part IV contains two responses to the essays.
Ovidiu Creangă's “Introduction” provides an overview of biblical masculinities and why such an approach is warranted. Acknowledging that much of the history of the academic study of the Bible has focused on male figures, Creangă notes that a critical masculinity studies approach, like feminist approaches, raises significant questions about the social construction of gender. “For feminist scholars, the major problem is the Bible's patriarchy and androcentrism; for masculinity scholars, it is the hegemony of certain expressions of masculinity that discriminate not only against women but also against other men who do not fit, or like, those images” (p. 6). Importantly, Creangă insists that masculinity scholars whose work focuses on the Bible must go beyond an effort to “critique and deconstruct” to “offer viable models of masculinity” which offer alternatives to patriarchal and androcentric hegemonic masculinities (p. 10).
Part II contains essays by Alan Hooker (” ‘Show Me Your Glory’: The Kabod of Yahweh as Phallic Manifestation”), Milena Kirova (“When Real Men Cry: The Symbolism of Weeping in the Torah and the Deuteronomistic History”), Marcel V. Măcelaru (“Saul in the Company of Men: (De)Constructing Masculinity in 1 Samuel 9–31”), Stuart Macwilliam (“Athaliah: A Case of Illicit Masculinity”), and Hilary Lipka (“Masculinities in Proverbs: An Alternative to the Hegemonic Ideal”). Hooker argues that Yahweh's “Glory” is phallic in that it shows his strength and authoritative in battle, causing Yahweh's people to “desire him and he them because of his Glory” (p. 30). Kirova reads the weeping of Joseph and that of David as related to public expressions of their manliness. Though weeping is normally a collective ritual act in the Hebrew Bible, Joseph's weeping is often a private affair. while David's weepingis always a public display (e.g. when lamenting Saul and Jonathan). Măcelaru shows how Saul's manliness degenerates throughout 1 Samuel, a description which serves to heighten David's manliness. Saul's appearance, his health, his attire, his military actions, and his speech all move from dominant to subordinate positions throughout the text. Macwilliam argues that, by presenting Athaliah as a usurper who aspires to a masculine role (ruler) rather than a feminine one, the author of 2 Kings protects the manliness of male Israelites by reasserting that a masculine plot overthrew Athaliah in the end. Lipka argues that Proverbs provides an alternative to a violent hegemonic masculinity, constructing a masculine ideal based on the attainment of wisdom, reflected substantially in writings of the Second Temple and Rabbinic periods, “likely reflecting evolving societal norms, mores, and expectations” when the ideal of a warrior masculinity receded ever further into the past (p. 99).
Part III contains essays by Hans-Ulrich Weidemann (“Being a Male Disciple of Jesus According to Matthew's Antitheses”), Susanna Asikianen (“‘Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven’: Matthew and Subordinated Masculinities”), Justin Glessner (“The Making(s) of an Average Joe: Joseph of Nazareth vs. Empire, in Three Rounds”), Karin B. Neutel and Matthew R. Anderson (“The First Cut is the Deepest: Masculinity and Circumcision in the First Century”), and Peter-Ben Smit (“Thecla's Masculinity in the Acts of (Paul and) Thecla“). Weidemann argues that the androcentric instruction of the Sermon on the Mount borrows from Greco-Roman descriptions of masculine performance rooted in self-control and dominance. Jesus’ instructions stress the male disciple's control of himself, but Jesus calls his male followers to resist dominance over others and domination from others. Asikainen describes several interpretative possibilities for Jesus’ saying about “eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom” before arguing that Jesus uses the concept as a “costly-to-fake” signal (p. 181) of commitment to voluntary marginalization on the part of Jesus’ followers. Still, some disciples do not experience lust and do not have to contemplate this extreme action. Glessner's contribution shows how the characterization of Joseph in Matthew, Luke, and the Protoevangelium of James all present Joseph as a “typical” man at the edges of empire, both resisting and acting with complicity to its patriarchal norms. Neutel and Anderson show how Paul participates in Jewish rhetorical traditions that view circumcision positively but also in Greco-Roman traditions that view circumcision negatively when it suits his purposes. Smit documents how the Acts of Thecla “unmans” many of its male figures and “masculinizes” Thecla through her active role in teaching and promoting the (Paul's) gospel.
Two responses make up the final section of the book. Martti Nissinen (“Biblical Masculinities: Musings on Theory and Agenda”) notes that masculinity studies have come to biblical studies rather late, and that masculinity studies benefit from the methodological tools developed over the course of many decades in feminist biblical scholarship. Nissinen raises questions about the usefulness of McConnell's concept of “hegemonic” masculinity, and finally asks, as Creangă does in the “Introduction,” why this approach might matter. Björn Krondorfer (“Biblical Masculinity Matters”) argues that critical men's studies does three important things: (1) its self-reflexive nature make masculinity visible; (2) it raises ethical questions about patriarchal power; and (3) it provides the possibility of other ways of doing masculinity not based on power and domination.
The essays in this collection are exploring new questions and new tools. To that end, the collection is a useful starting point for those interested in masculinity studies and the Bible. The significant use of untranslated ancient languages throughout the work will limit its usefulness to undergraduates, but it is a must for graduate students and scholars working in this subdisicpline.