The Role of women in the scriptures
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The Role of women in the scriptures
From: "J&K Novak"
Date: Tue Dec 2, 2003 10:16 pm
Subject: Women in Scripture - The Bible's Lost Stories
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The Bible's Lost Stories
http://www.msnbc.com/news/999077.asp
Fueling faith and igniting debate, a new generation of scholars is altering
our beliefs about the role of women in the scriptures
By Barbara Kantrowitz and Anne Underwood
NEWSWEEK
Dec. 8 issue - The year's surprise "it" girl is the star of a mega best
seller, a hot topic on campuses and rumored to be the "special friend" of a
famous and powerful man. Yet she's still very much a woman of mystery. For
close to 2,000 years, Christians have known her as Mary Magdalene, but she
was probably named Miriam, and came from the fishing village of Magdala.
Most people today grew up believing she was a harlot saved by Jesus. But the
Bible never says that. Scholars working with ancient texts now believe she
was one of Christ's most devoted followers, perhaps even his trusted
confidante and financial backer.
This revisionist view helped inspire the plot of "The Da Vinci Code," (
http://www.msnbc.com/news/999422.asp ) which has been on The New York Times
best-seller list for 36 weeks, with 4.3 million copies in print. Author Dan
Brown draws on some credible discoveries about the first followers of Jesus
as well as some rather fantastical theories about Mary Magdalene to suggest
that she was far more than the first to witness the risen Jesus (her most
important role, according to the New Testament). The blockbuster novel has
enraged many theologians who consider it anti-Catholic, but it has also
added new force to an already dynamic debate among women who see Magdalene's
story as a parable for their own struggles to find a place in the modern
church. None of this would be possible without a new generation of women
Biblical scholars who have brought a very modern passion to the ancient
tradition of scriptural reinterpretation-to correct what these scholars
regard as a male misreading of key texts. It has not been easy work. Despite
the undeniably central role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Biblical focus
has largely been on what God has accomplished through the agency of men-from
Adam to the Apostles. Of some 3,000 characters named in the Bible, fewer
than 10 percent are women. Female scholars are trying to redress the
imbalance by unearthing narratives that have been overlooked for centuries
and reinterpreting more-familiar stories, including Mary Magdalene's and
even the story of Eve (where, one could argue, the problems really began).
And they are rigorously studying the Biblical period to glean what they can
about the role of women in ancient times.
Across the country, fresh research is inspiring women of all faiths.
Evangelical Protestant women hold their own Bible-study groups where the
distaff version of history is a major draw. Jewish worshipers now add to the
litany of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the names of their wives: Sarah, Rebekah
and Rachel. In addition to Moses at Passover, some celebrate his sister,
Miriam, who defied a powerful and tyrannical ruler to rescue her baby
brother from a death decree and became a prophet and leader in her own
right. For Roman Catholics in particular, Mary Magdalene has emerged as a
role model for women who want a greater church presence after the wave of
sexual-abuse scandals. "I want my daughter to feel that she is as equally
valued as her brother in terms of her faith," says Dr. Jo Kelly, 38, of
Sinking Spring, Pa. Not long ago, Kelly's daughter, Mary Shea, 7, told her
mother she wanted to be a priest. Kelly, a pediatrician who belongs to a
religious-discussion group, didn't discourage her. "Keep believing that,"
she replied, "and maybe we can change people's minds."
Mary Magdalene inspires, these women say, because she was not a weakling-the
weeping Magdalene whose name begat the English word "maudlin" -but a person
of strength and character. In an era when women were commonly identified in
relation to a husband, father or brother, she was identified instead by her
town of origin. Scholars believe she was one of a number of women who
provided monetary support for Jesus' ministry. And when the male disciples
fled, she steadfastly witnessed Jesus' crucifixion, burial and resurrection,
providing the thread of continuity in the central story of Christian
history-an extraordinary role in an age when women generally provided legal
testimony only in the absence of male witnesses. Tradition, however, has
consigned Mary to a lesser role. "Instead, we've been given the image of
Mary as a forgiven sinner," says Sister Christine Schenk, cofounder of
FutureChurch, an organization calling for women's equality in the Roman
Catholic Church. "Well, Peter was a forgiven sinner, too, but that's not
what we remember him for." Schenk helped institute nationwide observances of
Mary Magdalene's feast day, July 22.
To honor their heroine, Catholic women like Kathy Kidder and her friends in
Gainesville, Fla., are forming reading groups to discuss the dozens of new
scholarly and literary books about her and debating her role on religious
Web sites like Magdalene.org and Beliefnet.com. The new insights they gain
can shatter old beliefs, but often also help them deepen their faith.
College student Frances Garcia, 26, of Orlando, Fla., was raised Catholic,
but now attends a Baptist church. "The Da Vinci Code" raised troubling
questions for her about how women's contributions to early Christianity were
suppressed by church leaders. "My faith was really shaken," she says. "I
started doing a lot of research on my own." Learning more made her feel
"closer to God," she says.
What started out as scholarship with an openly feminist political agenda has
evolved into serious and respected inquiry. To understand this change,
consider what has happened to the field during the career of Bernadette
Brooten. As a graduate theology student at Harvard in the late 1970s,
Brooten was told that scholars already knew everything there was to know
about women in the Bible. Yet Brooten, now a professor of Christian studies
at Brandeis University, made the remarkable discovery by reading older
versions of the Bible that Junius, one of the many Christian "Apostles"
mentioned by Saint Paul, was in fact a woman, Junia, whose name was
masculinized over the centuries by translators with their own agenda.
Brooten's discovery became "official" when Junia's real name was
incorporated into the New Standard Revised Version of the Bible, which came
out in 1989.
Today, there are female Biblical scholars at dozens of institutions, and at
least two universities-Harvard and the Claremont Graduate University in
California-offer degree programs on women in religion. These scholars have
produced a new dictionary called "Women in Scripture," a woman's study
Bible, and feminist commentaries to various books of the New Testament and
early Christian literature. "There are increasing numbers of resources
concerning Biblical women that are making their way into libraries,
classrooms and bookstores," says Amy-Jill Levine, professor of New Testament
studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. "They're no longer just
cleaned up or romanticized stories, but rigorously historical, imaginative,
cross-cultural collections." These insights are also filtering out into
popular culture with a slew of literary interpretations of women's Bible
stories in the wake of Anita Diamant's 1997 best seller, "The Red Tent,"
including many about Mary Magdalene.
The fascination with Magdalene has a long and rich history of its own. Diane
Apostolos-Cappadona, a cultural historian at Georgetown University, curated
an exhibit last year of Magdalene portraits at the American Bible Society in
New York. "She's gone through conflations and misinterpretations and
reinterpretations and retrievals," she says. "I've seen her represented in
every medium of art through every Christian period-as the witness to the
Resurrection, the seductive temptress, the haggard desert mother signifying
penitence, the beautiful woman reborn signifying new life." But for most
people, the image that sticks is the rehabilitated prostitute. Scholars
blame Pope Gregory the Great for her bad rep; in A.D. 591, he gave a sermon
in which he apparently combined several Biblical women into one, including
Magdalene and an unnamed sinner who anoints Jesus' feet. Although the
Vatican officially overruled Gregory in 1969, the image stuck until quite
recently. "It became a snowball that grew and grew until her name in legend
and art history evoked the whore," says Jane Schaberg, professor of
religious studies at the University of Detroit Mercy and author of "The
Resurrection of Mary Magdalene."
Part of the problem may stem from what scholars have called "the muddle of
the Marys." There are a lot of women named Mary in the New Testament, and it
's not always clear which is which. But some scholars also think Mary
Magdalene was defamed because she was a threat to male control of the
church. As the "Apostle to the Apostles"-the first to encounter the risen
Christ and to take the news to Peter and the other male Apostles-she was
clearly more than just an ordinary follower. In several Gnostic
Gospels-written by Christians whose alternative views of Jesus were
eventually suppressed as heresy-Mary Magdalene rivals Peter for the
leadership of the early church because of her superior understanding of
Jesus' teaching. The Gospel of Philip, for example, describes her as Jesus'
close companion whom he often "used to kiss." Karen King of Harvard Divinity
School, author of "The Gospel of Mary of Magdala" and a leading authority on
women's roles in the early church, sees her as a target of jealousy because
she threatened Peter's status. By transforming her into a reformed whore,
King believes, the church fathers "killed the argument for women's
leadership"-and for recognizing women as fit recipients of divine
revelation. King says the transformation also created a powerful symbol of
the prostitute as redeemed sinner, the female version of the Prodigal Son.
If Jesus could accept her, he could accept anyone.
In "The Da Vinci Code," Brown suggests that she still had one more hold on
Jesus-as his wife. That theory has been circulating for centuries. Some
historians think it is possible because Jewish men of that era were almost
always married, but many others dismiss that reasoning. Some argue that
Jesus wasn't conventional in any other sense, so why would he feel the need
to be married? Others say that relegating her to the role of wife is
belittling. "Let's not continue the relentless denigration of Mary Magdalene
by reducing her only importance to a sexual connection with Jesus," says
John Dominic Crossan, professor emeritus of religious studies at DePaul
University in Chicago. "She's not important because she was Mrs. Jesus. That
's like saying Hillary Rodham Clinton is only important because she's
married to Bill Clinton. Both women are important in their own right."
That's certainly true for the women who see in Mary Magdalene's rediscovered
importance a pathway to their own new roles in the church. Mary Magdalene's
story gave Maggie Albo, a 49-year-old volunteer hospice chaplain from
Spokane Valley, Wash., the courage to lobby the Diocese of Spokane for space
in local Catholic cemeteries to bury abandoned remains from the county
medical examiner's office. "Mary has taught me to step out in faith to do
the work of Jesus," she says. "I aspire to be a Mary of Magdala... a woman
unafraid to speak up."
Mary Magdalene is not the only Biblical heroine to benefit from a modern
makeover. A number of scholars have gone back to the original Hebrew texts
for a clearer understanding of Eve, the original woman in the Bible. The
popular conception of Eve is the product of centuries of myth and artistic
interpretation. One widely held misconception is that the fruit Eve offered
Adam in the Garden of Eden was an apple. In fact, scholars say, the Bible
never states that. "Just because Milton mentions it in 'Paradise Lost' or
some Renaissance painter puts it in a picture doesn't make it an apple,"
says Carol Meyers, professor of Biblical studies at Duke. Meyers says that
not only is the apple missing from the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis, but
there is also no mention of the words "the temptation of Adam," "seduction,"
"curse of Eve," "Fall of Man," "sin" or "original sin." And yet the Creation
story has traditionally been the basis for the argument that women are
responsible for sin and should therefore be subservient to men. This error
"has oppressed both women and men," says Phyllis Trible, professor of
Biblical studies at Wake Forest University, "because the master-slave
relationship isn't a relationship of freedom for either party." Trible gives
a more egalitarian rendering of a passage that has long troubled many women
readers.
When God tells Eve "Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule
over you," Trible sees a patriarchy turning description into prescription.
In the original Hebrew, Trible insists, "it doesn't say he shall rule over
you. It just says he does rule over you-a description of the way things
are." In the ancient cultures where the Bible was formed, men did indeed
rule over women. They owned and sold them, often as slaves. One slave in
particular, Hagar, has captured the imagination of contemporary Hispanic and
African-American women. Just as women's perspective is not necessarily the
same as men's, minority women do not necessarily share the same perspective
as white women. According to the Bible, God promises Abraham land and a
multitude of offspring. But because he and his childless wife, Sarah, are
old, Sarah suggests that he father a child with Hagar, her Egyptian
handmaiden. After a son is born, Hagar feels superior to the jealous Sarah,
who in turn abuses her handmaiden-forcing Abraham to send Hagar away.
Eventually God addresses Hagar directly (the first woman after Eve so
honored), names her child Ishmael and encourages her to return. Later, Sarah
also conceives and, at the age of 90, delivers Isaac, through whom Jews
claim their spiritual lineage to Abraham. Hagar's has always been the lost
voice in this narrative, but no longer. "Her character resonates by
ethnicity and class-as an African and a slave," says Renita Weems, an
associate professor of the Hebrew Bible at Vanderbilt Divinity School. "And
we understand slaves." Similarly, Megan McKenna, author of several books on
Biblical women, found that the figure of Hagar powerfully appealed to the
Hispanic maids in her Bible-reading group at a California motel. She
remembers one illegal immigrant from El Salvador saying in halting English:
"Oh, now Sarah knows what it's like to be treated like dirt all the time."
Equally appealing to modern women looking for inspiration are overlooked
stories that celebrate the bravery of women. In the Book of Joshua, it is
Rahab, a prostitute, who helps Joshua conquer Jericho by hiding his spies in
her house. For her courage, she and her children are the only ones spared in
the Israelites' sacking of the city. One of the most prominent warriors in
the Book of Judges is Deborah, a military commander and judge who leads an
army into battle because her general will not go without her. Deborah
predicts that only a woman will capture the enemy leader, Sisera. That
woman, it turns out, is Jael, into whose tent Sisera flees for refuge. Jael
feeds him, puts him to bed and then, as he sleeps, picks up a mallet and
drives a tent peg through his head.
Perhaps the most striking protofeminist text in Scripture is the Book of
Judith, wholly devoted to a heroine who saves Israel. "She's like Wonder
Woman, only Jewish," says Vanderbilt's Levine. Judith's moment comes as
Israel is being threatened by a neighboring power. The male Jewish
leadership prepares to surrender, but Judith, a beautiful and pious widow,
has another plan. Dressed in her alluring best, she enters the enemy's camp.
The general, Holofernes, becomes infatuated and plans to seduce her. But
when she is alone in his chambers, Judith decapitates Holofernes and takes
his head home in her food bag. The enemy flees. All of Israel, including
Jerusalem and its temple, are saved, and Judith, whom scholars see as a
personification of Israel, returns to her previous life.
The spotlight of new scholarship has even revealed the human side of the
most revered female in Christianity-Mary, the mother of Christ. Next to her
son, Mary is probably the best-known character in the Bible, but for many,
she is an alabaster figure. Some theologians have been looking for a more
multidimensional Madonna. "Let's stop treating her as this virgin mother we
have no relationship with, that we can't touch and understand because she's
so different from us," says Weems, author of "Showing Mary: How Women Can
Share Prayers, Wisdom and the Blessings of God." Weems starts her
reinterpretation not with Mary the exalted and untouchable Queen of Heaven,
but with Mary the simple teenage girl. On that fateful day when the
Archangel Gabriel appeared to her and told her she would carry the Son of
God, Mary was terrified-just as Moses, Isaiah and Jeremiah all protested
that they were too young or not worthy of the task when presented with their
own challenges from God. But Mary put her trust in God and was rewarded for
it. God gives her the much-needed companionship of her older cousin
Elizabeth, a long-barren woman who was also suddenly and miraculously
pregnant and ultimately gives birth to John, a prophet who would be called
"the Baptist."
Embedded in the story of Mary and Elizabeth is a theme, finally being openly
explored, that speaks directly to the experience of contemporary women.
Unlike other Biblical figures, Mary is not bowing to the demands of a
patriarchal society by providing her future husband with a male heir. On the
contrary, she has scandalized her betrothed, Joseph, by freely accepting God
's will that she bear a child by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the Mary
and Elizabeth visitation scene in Luke's Gospel, Mary has come to visit her
cousin for three months. As Luke paints it, this is more than just a
domestic interlude. Through Elizabeth, the history of the Old Testament will
end with the last of the Hebrew prophets, John. Through Mary, a new history
of salvation will begin with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. In a
powerful closing hymn, Mary glories in a God who often uses the
powerless-especially women-to accomplish His purposes. Acknowledging her
"lowliness" as God's "servant," she goes on to predict-rightly-that
henceforth "all generations will call me blessed."
Mary and Elizabeth's dependence on God and each other-a Biblical example of
sisterhood in action-contrasts with the struggle of their spiritual
ancestress, Tamar, who has to rely only on herself to outwit the patriarchal
social structure. As her story is told in Genesis 38, her first husband
dies, leaving her childless. According to the law of the time, she is then
married to her husband's younger brother in order to produce a son who would
continue her husband's lineage. It is not to be. God strikes her second
husband dead for practicing coitus interruptus in order to avoid fathering a
child who will take away his inheritance. By law, Tamar should then have
been married to the third son, but her father-in-law, Judah, suspects that
Tamar herself is behind his sons' deaths. He declines to give her to his
third son, who is underage, and, at the same time, won't declare her a
widow-which would leave her free to marry again. Instead, he sends her back
to her father's house, where she must remain chaste while she waits for
Judah to give her to the third son. Eventually, Tamar tricks Judah into
impregnating her himself. It ends well when he accepts her and Tamar gives
birth to twins-two sons to replace the two he has lost.
Tamar has to deceive the most powerful man in her life in order to get what
she deserves. Her Biblical sisters have had to wait thousands of years for
their day in the sun, but their voices, too, are finally being heard. No one
is trying to claim that the women of the Bible were anywhere near as
powerful as the men in their world. But neither were they weak and passive.
Perhaps they were just misunderstood. And ignored. Take the story every
Sunday-school kid has heard about how Jesus fed a multitude of 5,000 with
just five loaves of bread and two fish. What the Bible really says is that
there were "five thousand, not counting women and children." In other words,
assuming there was a wife and at least two children for every man, Jesus
actually fed 20,000 people. Why didn't the man who recorded this tale
capitalize on the opportunity to make Jesus' miracle seem even more
impressive? It seems that women and children were simply too unimportant.
"The amazing thing is that there are any women at all in the ancient texts,"
says Deirdre Good, professor of New Testament studies at General Theological
Seminary. As the scholarly debate continues, one thing worshipers might keep
in mind is how often these marginalized characters prevail and are entrusted
to deliver the Word of God. From Eve to Miriam to Mary, they were all
players-and are , in our unfolding spiritual drama.
With Pat Wingert and Karen Springen
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Related story: http://www.msnbc.com/news/999453.asp
God's Woman Trouble
Scholars who explore the role of women in the bible with a political agenda
in mind only hurt their cause
By Kenneth L. Woodward
NEWSWEEK
Dec. 8 issue - Pity poor Mary Magdalene. For nearly two millenniums she was
loved and honored by Christians as the archetypal reformed sinner. Then, a
half-century ago, Biblical scholars recognized that she was a victim of
mistaken identity: the "real" Mary of Magdala was not a prostitute. In
truth, she was so faithful a follower of Jesus that she was chosen to be the
first of his disciples to behold the risen Christ (Jn 20:11-18). Now, at the
hands of some feminist revisionists, Mary is undergoing yet another cultural
face-lift.
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Expand this whole thread (12 messages)
The Role of women in the scriptures #3922 20 y 2,758- superb post n/m Wrenn 20 y 2,059
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Re: The Role of women in the scriptures
Shenandoah
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- This is not true, but being used to bring in the I... strawbrains 20 y 2,174
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What specifically is not true? n/p
#12621
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The Da Vinci Code nm
Shenandoah
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Merovingian Bloodline
Shenandoah
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- Re: Merovingian Bloodline ~ Part 2 Shenandoah 20 y 3,615
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Merovingian Bloodline
Shenandoah
20 y
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The Da Vinci Code nm
Shenandoah
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- Fantastic post! woo hooooo! :) n/m shelleycat 20 y 2,141
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