Women in the New Testament World

Author(s):  
Susan Hylen

This book presents and interprets evidence for women’s lives in the social context of the New Testament. Some of the evidence from this period of Roman history suggests that women’s roles were sharply restricted. Other evidence shows women taking on leadership roles, managing property, and the like. Previous interpreters have often argued that the two kinds of evidence describe different groups or arenas where women’s activity was either forbidden or allowed. However, this book argues that the evidence points to complex gender norms that were sometimes in tension. The culture widely recognized modesty, submission to men, and silence as virtues of women. Yet society also encouraged women to contribute to the economic well-being of their families and to serve as patrons of individuals, groups, and cities. The chapters of the book address the virtues of women, their legal status, wealth, patronage, occupations, and speech. Each chapter explores the way the New Testament writings emerge out of and reflect this complex set of social expectations for women.

Author(s):  
Susan E. Hylen

Chapter 2 addresses major choices historians face interpreting evidence for women’s lives in the New Testament period. The evidence often sends mixed signals. Some portrays women as active contributors to the economy, civic life, and politics. Other evidence suggests social expectations greatly restricted women’s participation in such activities. The chapter reviews a number of interpretations that divided this evidence into discrete groups of women guided by different rules. For example, many have suggested that women’s leadership was restricted in public spaces. This chapter rejects such interpretations and argues that the various evidence reflects a deep tension that pervaded the culture at large. The tension existed within individual authors and across spaces and subcultures. Women were expected to exhibit the virtues of modesty, industry, and loyalty. However, women from a variety of circumstances negotiated and embodied these virtues in a variety of culturally acceptable ways, including religious and civic leadership.


2021 ◽  
pp. 104973232110018
Author(s):  
Sarah O’Neill ◽  
Christina Pallitto

The health consequences of female genital mutilation (FGM) have been described previously; however, evidence of the social consequences is more intangible. To date, few systematic reviews have addressed the impact of the practice on psycho-social well-being, and there is limited understanding of what these consequences might consist. To complement knowledge on the known health consequences, this article systematically reviewed qualitative evidence of the psycho-social impact of FGM in countries where it is originally practiced (Africa, the Middle East, and Asia) and in countries of the diaspora. Twenty-three qualitative studies describing the psycho-social impact of FGM on women’s lives were selected after screening. This review provides a framework for understanding the less visible ways in which women and girls with FGM experience adverse effects that may affect their sense of identity, their self-esteem, and well-being as well as their participation in society.


1996 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andries Van Aarde

Culture of poverty: The world of the New Testament then and the situation in South Africa today. In this article poverty in the world of the New Testament is explained in the  light of the social dynamics of the first century Eastern Mediterranean. The focus is on the sub-culture of the disreputable poor. Features of a culture of poverty are reflected upon from a social-scientific perspective in order to try to understand why poverty is intensifying in South Africa today. The article aims at identifying guidelines for Christians in using the New Testament in a profound way to challenge the threat of poverty. The following aspects are discussed: the underdevelopment of third-world societies over against the technical evolution in first-world societies during the past two hundred years, economic statistics with regard to productivity and unemployment in South Africa, the social identity of the disreputable poor, poverty within the pre-print culture of the biblical period, and the church as the household of God where Christians should have compassion for others.


2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Goede

This article aims to construct the rights and duties of slave- owners in antiquity as part of the socio-historical context of the New Testament. In order to achieve this aim, the primary sources referring to Greek, Roman and Jewish law of slavery will first be described. Three aspects of the law of slavery, namely legal definitions of freedom and slavery, the legal status of slaves, and the rights of slave-owners are investigated in Greek, Roman and Jewish law. Relevant texts from these sources are then identified, analysed and interpreted. The re- sults of this process of analysis and interpretation are used to construct the legal context within which the exhortations directed at slave-owners in the New Testament should be read. We submit that Jewish law provided a sound alternative legal and religious context to the writers of the New Testament addressing Christian slave-owners. This alternative context functioned as a counterweight to the strict legal contexts pro- vided by Greek and Roman law.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 21-25
Author(s):  
V Chinnasamy

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) indicates that the programme can have an impact positivelyon the social and economic well-being of rural labourers and their families in particular. It holds the great prospect of bringing significant changes in the rural area. MGNREGA has strengthened the social auditing through various mechanisms adopted by the scheme which is mandated to be implemented by the village panchayats. One of the prime requirements of the project is that it is to be performed by the village panchayat not through the contractors either appointed by the panchayats.


Author(s):  
Vern Redekop

Within an overall framework of reconciliation as a transformation of mimetic structures of violence to mimetic structures of blessing, teachings of blessing are needed throughout the process. “Teachings” are considered as paradigmatic stories, principles, insights, and practical wisdom that are derived both from religious traditions and the human sciences. “Blessing” refers to that which contributes to sustained human well-being at the individual, collective and relational levels. A hermeneutics of blessing is a deliberate interpretive endeavour directed toward the generation of teachings of blessing. It can be used with any particular source and the insights can be both direct and inverse, identifying what is helpful and not helpful for reconciliation processes. John E. Toews, biblical scholar specializing on the book of Romans in the New Testament, is examined as someone practicing a hermeneutics of blessing. His paradigm of Romans shows how it can be viewed as a letter addressing an identity-based conflict involving Jews and Gentiles. A set of practical teachings of blessing is synthesized from Romans 12 to 15, using the Toews hermeneutical paradigm.


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