Summary Women and Gender in the New Testament

Women and Gender in the New Testament:
Hermeneutics-
 “science and art of interpretation.”
 SYNCHRONIC and DIACHRONIC
SYNCHRONIC
 Means looking at the text at a fixed point in time
 Looks at the current form of a text at the moment when it was fixed
DIACHRONIC
 Looks at a process of a text’s construction and reads it in separate components
 Looks chronologically
Literary criticism-
 Looking for art and design in the text
 Make something accurate/convincing
Historical criticism-
 Political/geographical setting
-Marxist/Queer/Post-Colonial criticism
Historical Context-
 Worlds of thought around the time the new testament was written:
-Persian Empire
-Greek Empire
-Hellenism
-Second Temple Judaism
-Roman Republic
-Early Roman Empire
-Rabbinic Judaism
Persian Empire
 539-332 BCE
 Begins with Cyrus of Persia- when he captured Babylon
-something that is mentioned in the Book of Revelation, had a massive impact
 One of the most powerful empires in history (depending on how we define power)
 Has relationship to Jewish people as Babylonian captivity a large part of Jewish
history
-Cyrus of Persia liberates Jewish people from slavery, helps set up temple
-Isaiah 43:1-3 Cyrus mentioned, God honours him through a prophet
-Cyrus described as the Lords Messiah
 Zoroastrianism- was/is central Persian Religion. Started by Zarathustra, and began to
push monotheism to Persia

,  dualism- good vs evil
 detailed angelology and demonology
 eschatology- time is linear and has a cataclysmic end
 afterlife will have a judgement in the end times (similar to ideas presented in NT)
 if you see a scholar arguing an extreme one way or another is probably due to bias
Greek Empire-
 Alexandra the Great
 Can be seen in Art from the time
Hellenism-
 Sparked by Alexander the Great
 Ends with the rise of the Roman Empire
-some people believe it to be a continuation
 Alexander never named a successor and his generals fought
 Eventually split into four kingdoms:
-Antigonid
-Ptolemaic Dynasty
-Seleucid Empire
-Attalid Dynasty
 Characteristics of Hellenism:
-one language (GREEK)
-everyone meeting in the middle so everyone can communicate
-syncretism, life before was tribal, every deity seen as fighting but diversity of
Hellenism leads to religious mixing
-people cherry pick from other religions
-increased mobility and travel (cosmopolitanism)
-flourishing in art and literature (including in Jewish communities)
-Great libraries in Alexander and Ephesus
-people wanting to know about the other
-Hasmonaean Dynasty (when Jews beat the Seleucids)
-internal economy
-expanded boundaries
-commissioned text
Rise of Rome
 Begins in 64 BCE- 25 BCE
 Emperors seen as God
 Augustus known as Son of God as Julius Caesar known as God
Julius Caesar
 Appointed in 64 BCE
 Appointed dictator for life
 Did reform in relation to debts, calendars, security and the poor
 Assassinated by friends at 44

, Augustus
 Emperor from age 19-death
 Lost control in East to Mark Antony but invaded again in 30 BCE
 Reforms were ‘moral’ reforms
Herod (The Herods)
 Herod 1st- puppet king for Mark Antony
 Jews already had a king
 Herod = half Jewish
 Herod 1st expanded temples and gave to the community but known as a tyrant
 Had 3 sons in power after him
 Seen as a mouthpiece for Rome
Jews in Rome
 1st two decades relatively peaceful- allowed a local council ‘Sanhedrin’
 Synagogue dedicated to Augustus, seen as a time of flourishing
 Were allowed to not do things on the Sabbath
Roman/Jewish war
 66-73 CE
 Seizure and destruction of the temple in 79
 Josephus (Jewish historian)
 When NT begins to be written
 Jews lost
 John the Baptist and Jesus are voices for reform
Rabbinic Judaism
 Rose alongside early Christianity
 Temple destruction causes change in Judaism- centred in synagogue
 2nd-6th century
 Talmud solidified in 6th century
 Judaism today
 Rabbinic period 2nd-10th century


Masculinity in the New Testament
 Paul says “I appeal to you by the gentleness and humanity of Christ”
 Stereotypically feminine
 Massive importance of gender in relation to Christ
 Theological Anthropology-soteriology-Christology-rhetoric all link to gender
 Idea of gender changes with society
 Masculinity and femininity not separate
 Jesus was young when he was crucified, earliest art of Jesus has no beard
 Patriarchal structures can be damaging to men too- important to remember
Warner Sallman Jesus