Mary, the Mother of Jesus

Author(s):  
Mary F. Foskett

The history of the interpretation of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the New Testament reflects the shifting questions and expanding methods that have shaped the field of biblical studies. As historical criticism has led to or been supplemented by feminist, gender, and contextual modes of analysis, the interpretation of Mary has brought matters pertaining to gender and sexuality increasingly to light. Mary’s footprint in the New Testament has been, of course, greatly outpaced by her role in Christian imagination. Whether querying the meaning and significance of Mary’s virginity or her portrayal as a mother, at stake in her interpretation is the construction of gender and sexuality itself.

2017 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-100
Author(s):  
Bernd Oberdorfer

Abstract According to Notker Slenczka, Jesus redefined the early Jewish understanding of God so radically that the Old Testament could not remain an adequate expression of the Christian idea of God. Moreover, in the light of historical criticism, the messianic promises of the OT could no longer be read as prophetic references to Jesus, either. The OT could hence only be seen as revelation to Jews; for Christians, however, it is valuable as paradigmatic expression of human reality and their necessity of salvation only, and to them authentic information about redemption is provided only by the New Testament. The essay discusses this position and defines a possible Christian view on the relation between Old and New Testament based on the insight that Jesus’ redefinition of the image of God can only be understood in the light of the history of God’s self-revelation to Israel, of which Jesus is a part; from a Christian perspective, the words, actions and fate of Jesus then also shed new light on the history of God’s self-revelation to Israel.


Author(s):  
Laura Salah Nasrallah

This chapter outlines and argues for the vital importance of material culture in our historiographies of early Christianity in four parts. The chapter begins by defining material culture and then shows that material culture has long been included in the history of scholarship of the New Testament. Next, it surveys some of the key trends in the use of material culture for the study of women, gender, and sexuality in antiquity, and, finally, it suggests ways in which feminist materialist philosophy and history leads us to think more expansively about what is meant by material culture, focusing on the “matter” within it and harnessing theories of materiality to deepen our historical analysis of the context for the first production and reception of New Testament and other early Christian texts.


Author(s):  
Benjamin H. Dunning

What is the place of the New Testament and early Christianity in the history of gender and sexuality? This essay explores this question in conversation with feminist and queer theory. It considers the terminology of sex, gender, sexual difference, sex acts, and sexuality both as theoretical concepts and in relation to New Testament and Early Christian Studies. It then surveys the question of ancient androcentrism and the methodological problem posed by the so-called linguistic turn, arguing that the ongoing study of gender and sexuality in the New Testament and early Christianity will, of necessity, continue to be a prismatic, if contested, exercise in writing “the history of the present.”


The Oxford Handbook of New Testament, Gender, and Sexuality provides a roadmap to the relevant problems, debates, and issues that animate the study of sex, gender, sexuality, and sexual difference in early Christianity. Over several decades, scholarship in the New Testament and early Christianity has drawn attention to the ways in which ancient Mediterranean conceptions of embodiment, sexual difference, and desire were fundamentally different from modern ones. But scholars have also sometimes pointed to important lines of historical continuity or genealogical connection between the past and the present. Indeed, these textual materials have played a foundational role in the history of reflection on issues of gender and sexuality in Western thought and continue to impact cultural and religious debates today. Research into these topics has produced a rich and nuanced body of scholarly literature that has contributed substantially to our understanding of early Christian history and also proved relevant to ongoing contemporary theological discussion. Leading scholars in the field offer original contributions by way of synthesis, critical interrogation, and proposals for future research trajectories.


2011 ◽  
Vol 45 (2/3) ◽  
Author(s):  
H.F. Van Rooy

The messianic interpretation of the psalms in a number of Antiochene and East Syriac psalm commentariesThe Antiochene exegetes interpreted the psalms against the backdrop of the history of Israel. They reconstructed a historical setting for each psalm. They reacted against the allegorical interpretation of the Alexandrian School that frequently interpreted the psalms from the context of the New Testament. This article investigates the messianic interpretation of Psalms 2 and 110, as well as the interpretation of Psalm 22, frequently regarded as messianic in non-Antiochene circles. The interpretation of these psalms in the commentaries of Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia and Išô`dâdh of Merv will be discussed, as well as the commentary of Denha-Gregorius, an abbreviated Syriac version of the commentary of Theodore. The commentaries of Diodore and Theodore on Psalm 110 are not available. The interpretation of this psalm in the Syriac commentary discussed by Vandenhoff and the commentary of Išô`dâdh of Merv, both following Antiochene exegesis, will be used for this psalm. The historical setting of the psalms is used as hermeneutical key for the interpretation of all these psalms. All the detail in a psalm is interpreted against this background, whether messianic or not. Theodore followed Diodore and expanded on him. Denha-Gregorius is an abbreviated version of Theodore, supplemented with data from the Syriac. Išô`dâdh of Merv used Theodore as his primary source, but with the same kind of supplementary data from the Syriac.


2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-82
Author(s):  
Larry L. Enis

Given the small, but growing, number of ethnic minorities in the field of biblical studies, the issue of African-American biblical hermeneutics has received only marginal attention in scholarly journals. In an effort to discern major themes and objectives among these interpreters, this article surveys published works by African Americans who have attained either a PhD or ThD in the New Testament. In this study, six areas of particular interest emerged: hermeneutics, the black presence in the New Testament, Paul, the Gospels, the epistle of James, and Revelation. Moreover, this investigation will demonstrate that the phenomenon of African-American New Testament hermeneutics is a methodologically diverse one.


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