Interpreting Evidence for Women’s Lives

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Hylen
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Women's Leadership ◽  
Civic Life ◽  
Discrete Groups ◽  
Social Expectations ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
Civic Leadership

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.

Women in the New Testament World

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Hylen
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Roman History ◽  
Social Expectations ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
The Social ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
Economic Well Being

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.

Public and Private Space and Action in the Early Roman Period

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 534-553
Author(s):  
Susan E. Hylen
Keyword(s):  
Public Spaces ◽  
Women's Leadership ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Modern Concept ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Private Space ◽  
The Public ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Public Sphere

Scholars have often explained discrepancies in evidence for women's participation in the early church by reference to the gendering of public and private spaces. Public spaces were coded male, and when churches moved into these spaces, women's leadership was disavowed. This article rejects the usefulness of the public/private dichotomy as an explanatory tool, arguing that the modern sense in which these terms are used was anachronistic to the New Testament period. The overlap between public functions and space that the modern concept of the ‘public sphere’ takes for granted did not exist in the ancient world. Public functions often occurred in household spaces, and functions considered private also took place outside homes. For these reasons, scholars should look for new language that better describes the ancient patterns.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Hylen
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The One ◽  
Ancient Women

This chapter introduces the subject matter of the book and sources of historical evidence. The first section provides questions and tools needed to approach the study of ancient women. Although “women” can seem easy to identify in history, it is difficult to explore this ancient category without importing contemporary notions of sex and gender. The “one-sex” theory is an ancient understanding of gender that differs strongly from modern notions. This section argues that the one-sex model is useful but not sufficient to understand ancient women’s lives. It should be supplemented with evidence of how gender was performed in a specific place and time. The second section introduces readers to the complexity and scope of the “New Testament world.” It outlines the time frame, geographic scope, and some important cultural influences in the context of the New Testament. The third section describes the evidence available to study women’s lives in this period. Literary sources, inscriptions, and papyrus fragments each offer different kinds of insights and challenges for this task.

scholarly journals Peranan Perempuan Menurut Perjanjian Baru bagi Perkembangan Kepemimpinan Perempuan di dalam Gereja

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Nunuk Rinukti
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Women's Leadership ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Church Culture ◽  
Church Life ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Role Of Women ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Church

A woman is more often become second-class citizens in terms of leadership. Although age has become the time of emancipation, however, in some sectors of life, a women have not got the right place and in accordance with nature. This also happens in church life. Many of the rules and procedures that the church does not provide flexibility for women to lead. There are many reasons, such as reasons for prohibiting the biblical text, up to a certain cultural reasons, including certain church culture that has not provided the opportunity for women to lead. Therefore, in this Tulsan authors highlight the role of women in the New Testament for the development of women's leadership in the church. Abstrak Perempuan atau wanita lebih sering menjadi warga kelas dua dalam hal kepemimpinan. Walaupun zaman ini telah menjadi zaman emansipasi, namun demikian di beberapa sector kehidupan, perempuan atau wanita belum mendapat tempat yang pas dan sesuai dengan kodratnya. Hal ini juga terjadi di dalam kehidupan bergereja. Banyak peraturan dan tata gereja yang tidak memberikan keleluasan bagi perempuan untuk memimpin. Ada banyak alas an, seperti alas an teks Alkitab yang melarang, sampai alas an budaya tertentu, termasuk budaya gereja tertentu yang belum memberikan kesempatan kepada perempuan untuk memimpin. Oleh karena itu, dalam Tulsan ini penulis menyoroti peranan perempuan dalam Perjanjian Baru demi perkembangan kepemimpinan perempuan di dalam gereja.

Marriage, Divorce, and Widowhood

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Hylen
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Civic Life ◽  
Property Ownership ◽  
Social Patterns ◽  
Roman World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
Status Of Women

This chapter addresses the legal, social, and economic status of women in marriage, divorce, and widowhood. Modern readers often imagine ancient women’s lives as being tightly circumscribed by the authority of their fathers or husbands. This portrait may be applicable to women in many places or times, but it is inaccurate in many respects for the Roman world of the first and second centuries. Although Roman law assumed women’s inferiority to men, it also created legal pathways for women’s independent legal status, property ownership, and participation in civic life. Similar social patterns are reflected in the New Testament.

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