Women and Marriage in Paul and His Early Interpreters / Edition 1

by Gillian Beattie

Overview

Beattie undertakes a comparative survey of the treatment of women and marriage in three different kinds of text: an authentic Pauline letter (namely 1 Corinthians); the deutero-Pauline literature (Colossians, Ephesians and the Pastoral Epistles); and some tractates from the Nag Hammadi library (giving particular attention to the Gospel of Philip, the Exegesis on the Soul, the Hypostasis of the Archons and the Gospel of Thomas). The theoretical position she takes is based upon the neo-pragmatist thought of Richard Rorty and Stanley Fish, the former's notions of 'contingency' and 'redescription' being of particular importance.

The aim of this book is twofold: to draw attention to the contingency (that is to say, the situatedness and vested interests) attendant on all acts of interpretation; and to engage in a redescription of the category of 'gnosticism' to which the Nag Hammadi texts have traditionally been assigned, and thus also of the canonical texts as seen in relation to them. It is not the intention to suggest in a simplistic fashion that the Nag Hammadi texts should somehow displace the canonical documents as the 'correct' reading of Paul, but rather to show that texts can be read in ways as diverse and numerous as the goals of their interpreters.

JSNTS 296

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780567030504
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/20/2005
Series:	The Library of New Testament Studies , #296
Pages:	194
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Dr Gillian Beattie is a graduate of the University of St. Andrews and Princeton Theological Seminary. She received her PhD from the University of Manchester in 2003.

Table of Contents

	Preface	viii
	Acknowledgments	ix
	Abbreviations	xi
	Introduction
	Women and Marriage in Paul and his Early Interpreters	1
	Theoretical Perspective: 'The Pragmatist's Progress'	4
	Redescribing 'Gnosticism'	7
	The Selection of Nag Hammadi Texts	10
Part I	Paul	13
Chapter 1	Marriage in 1 Corinthians	15
	The Context for Paul's Teaching on Marriage	19
	7.1-5: Behaviour in Marriage	20
	7.6-9: Paul's Preference for Celibacy	24
	7.10-16: Divorce	27
	7.17-24: 'Remain as you are'	30
	7.25-35: Marriage as a Source of Anxiety	32
	7.36-40: The Betrothed and the Widowed	35
	Concluding Remarks	36
Chapter 2	Women in 1 Corinthians	37
	A Note on the Authenticity of 11.2-16	38
	11.2: Evoking a Favourable Response	39
	11.3: Headship: the Source of Authority	40
	11.4-6: (Un)covering the Head and Shaming the 'Head'	41
	11.7-9: The Argument from Creation	47
	11.10: The Woman's Authority and the Angels	49
	11.11-12: A Cautionary Note	51
	11.13-16: 'Judge for yourselves'?	52
	11.2-16: Overall Assessment	54
	14.34-35: The Question of Authenticity	54
	14.33b-35: The Veil of Silence	55
	14.33b-40 and 11.2-16: Making Sense of the Contradiction	56
	14.36-40: The Concluding Challenge	59
	Concluding Remarks	60
Part II	Deutero-Pauline Letters	63
Chapter 3	Marriage in the Deutero-Pauline Literature: Colossians and Ephesians	65
	'Absent in the flesh but present in spirit': Colossians as Pseudepigraphy	66
	'Philosophy and empty deceit': The Opponents in Colossians	69
	'As is fitting in the Lord': Marriage in Colossians	74
	The Context of Ephesians	76
	Marriage as an Image of Salvation in Ephesians 5.21-33	76
	Concluding Remarks	82
Chapter 4	Women in the Deutero-Pauline Literature: The Pastoral Epistles	83
	The Question of Authorship	84
	(False) Teaching and the Purpose of the Pastorals	88
	1 Timothy 2.9-15: 'I do not permit a woman to teach ...'	91
	1 Timothy 5.3-16: 'Honour widows who are really widows'	98
	Concluding Remarks	104
Part III	Nag Hammadi	107
Chapter 5	Marriage in the Nag Hammadi Texts	109
	The Stereotype of 'Gnostic' Morality	110
	'Libertinism'	113
	'Asceticism'	119
	'Truth in types and images': The Gospel of Philip on Language and Imagery	122
	'The mystery of marriage' in the Gospel of Philip	127
	Marriage as Salvation in the Exegesis on the Soul	132
	Concluding Remarks	136
Chapter 6	Women and Feminine Imagery in the Nag Hammadi Texts	137
	Women and 'Heresy'	138
	Reading Genesis in the Hypostasis of the Archons	141
	'Protest Exegesis'?	146
	Male and Female in the Gospel of Thomas	150
	Mary Magdalene in the Gospel of Thomas and Other 'Gnostic' Texts	157
	Conclusion	160
	Bibliography	162
	Index of References	175
	Index of Authors	179