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Re-membering Jesus: Women, Prophecy, and Resistance in the Memory of the Early Churches

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2014

Mary Rose D'Angelo*
Affiliation:
Villanova University

Abstract

In the search for a feminist christology, Rosemary R. Ruether has proposed the vision of Jesus as prophet and the tradition of spirit christologies as sources. This essay proposes combining prophetic and spirit christologies, re-membering Jesus as a prophet within a prophetic movement, as a sharer in the spirit with its women and men prophets. It asks the reader to make two major shifts in envisaging Jesus' career: first, to shift the locus of the spirit from the person of Jesus to the reign-of-God movement within which he acted; second, to see the preaching of God's reign as alternative not to the teaching of the “scribes and Pharisees” but to the imperial rule. These two shifts can help us to revise the question, “Can a male savior save women?” asking instead whether, in the spirit, [we who are] women can liberate ourselves from but also with our memories of Jesus.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The College Theology Society 1992

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References

1 Metz, Johannes Baptist, Faith in History and Society: Toward a Practical Fundamental Theology, trans. Smith, David (London: Burns & Oates, 1980), 88ff, 200–04.Google Scholar

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4 See Leonard, Ellen M., “Experience as a Source for Theology,” Proceedings of the CTSA 43 (1988): 4461;Google Scholar also Leonard, Ellen M., “Women: Confronting Images of Christ” in Eigo, F. A. O.S.A., ed., Imaging Christ: Politics, Art, Spirituality, Villanova University Theology Institute, 23 (Villanova, PA: Villanova University Press, 1991), 176–91.Google Scholar

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9 The question was formulated by Rosemary Radford Ruether to articulate the acutely problematic character of christology for women. See her Christology and Feminism: Can a Male Savior Help Women?Occasional Papers 1/13 (December 25, 1976)Google Scholar published by United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry (Nashville, TN). See her treatment of it in Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology (Boston: Beacon, 1983), 116–38.Google Scholar

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11 Ruether, , Sexism and God-Talk, see esp. 20–22 and 127–38.Google Scholar For a full analysis of Ruether's christology, see Snyder, Mary Hembrow, The Christology of Rosemary Radford Ruether: A Critical Introduction (Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third, 1988).Google Scholar

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13 Ibid., 137.

14 Ibid., 135.

15 See the critique of Rita Nakashima Brock, Journeys by Heart: A Christology of Erotic Power (New York: Crossroad, 1988)Google Scholar: “the biblical prophet is the heroic individual, someone who receives a private revelation of God/dess and then proclaims it against all odds. The prophet, isolated and persecuted, preaches a message about the worship of the one true God/dess. Few prophetic images connote receptivity toward, listening to, or interaction with a community of support. The prophet seeks to protect the sovereignty of divine will against any who threaten it” (65).

16 See Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schüssler, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins (New York: Crossroad, 1983).Google Scholar Her work also stresses the importance of prophecy not only in the career of Jesus but also in the early Christian mission.

17 For one feminist definition, see Mary Daly, in cahoots with Caputi, Jane, Webster's First Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language (Boston: Beacon, 1987), 92;Google Scholar for examples of interpretation of the Bible as feminist re-membering, see Trible, Phyllis, Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), note esp. Trible's explanation of her approach, p. 3;Google ScholarBringing Miriam out of the Shadows,” Bible Review 5 (1989): 14–25, 34;Google Scholar and Fiorenza, , Memory, note esp. xiii–xiv, 3132.Google Scholar For an analysis of memory in women's experience and in Christian feminist and political theologies, see Keshgegian, Flora, “To Know by Heart: Toward a Theology of Remembering for Salvation” (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Boston College, 1992).Google Scholar On memory and Jewish feminist theology, see Plaskow, Judith, Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990), 2574.Google Scholar

18 See D'Angelo, M. R., “Images of Jesus and the Christian Call in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew,” Spirituality Today 36 (Fall 1984): 220–36Google Scholar, and Images of Jesus and the Christian Call in the Gospels of Luke and John,” Spirituality Today 37 (Fall 1985): 196212.Google Scholar

19 Dahl, Nils, “Anamnesis: Memory and Commemoration in Early Christianity” in Jesus in the Memory of the Early Church (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1976), 1129Google Scholar, describes the function and the liturgical setting of memories of Jesus.

20 See on this D'Angelo, Mary R., “Remarriage and the Divorce Sayings Attributed to Jesus” in Roberts, William P., ed., Divorce and Remarriage: Religious and Psychological Perspectives (Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward, 1990), 8694;Google Scholar for an attempt to distinguish prophetic sayings see Boring, Eugene M., Sayings of the Risen Jesus: Christian Prophecy in the Synoptic Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).Google Scholar

21 See Dahl, Nils A., Jesus the Christ: The Historical Origins of Christological Doctrine, ed. Juel, Donal H. (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991), 247;Google Scholar first published in The Crucified Messiah and Other Essays (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1974), 1036.Google Scholar

22 On the liturgical context of remembering in the early church, see Dahl, , “Anamnesis,” 2124Google Scholar, with the notes on those pages. The works he cites in n. 49 have been particularly influential in revitalizing commemoration as an aspect of eucharist.

23 On the role of imagination on historical reconstruction, see Chadwick, Henry on Brown, Peter, The Body and Society in Times Literary Supplement (December 23-29, 1988), 1411–12Google Scholar, and Fiorenza, , Memory, xxi, 6061.Google Scholar See also Theissen's, novelistic reconstruction, The Shadow of the Galilean: The Quest of the Historical Jesus in Narrative Form, trans. Bowden, John (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987).Google Scholar

24 The image of Jesus as prophet is at least as important in John as in Matthew and Mark. See Meeks, Wayne Atherton, The Prophet-King: Moses Traditions and the Johannine Christology (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1967).CrossRefGoogle Scholar Jesus also seems to have appeared as eschatological prophet in Q.

25 Rita Nakashima Brock chooses to move the locus of revelation, incarnation, and redemption from the person of Jesus and indeed from multiple, individualized “Christs” to the erotic power within connectedness, to what she calls Christa/community (Journeys by Heart, 68).

26 Theissen, Gerd, Sociology of Early Palestinian Christianity, trans. Bowden, John (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978)Google Scholar first published in German as Soziologie der Jesus-bewegung (München: Kaisar-Verlag, 1977);Google ScholarMeeks, Wayne A., The Moral World of the First Christians (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986), 96108;Google Scholar Fiorenza has shown the feminist potential of this approach (Memory, 105-59). For a critique of Theissen, see Horsley, Richard A., Sociology and the Jesus Movement (New York: Crossroad, 1989).Google Scholar

27 Theissen, (Sociology, 1622)Google Scholar and Meeks, (Moral World, 106)Google Scholar attempt to distinguish between the wandering charismatics and more settled groups of sympathizers; Horsley (Sociology) argues that the settled local communities were the center of the movement. But it is questionable whether settled groups were a significant feature of the movement before the death of Jesus. Unlike the gospel of John, the synoptic gospels record only one passover. Thus the time frame from Jesus' appearance as the disciple of John the Baptist to the crucifixion may well have been less than a year; the preaching career of Jesus need have been no more than a few months. It is entirely possible for virtually the entire movement to have been literally moving for that amount of time.

28 See Theissen, , Sociology, 1012.Google Scholar

29 On the technical meaning of “follow” and “minister” as indicating discipleship, see Davies, W. D., The Setting of the Sermon of the Mount (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964), 422–23.Google Scholar On “minister” see also Fiorenza, , Memory, 165–73.Google Scholar

30 Fiorenza, Memory; and idem., “A Feminist Critical Interpretation for Liberation: Martha and Mary: Luke 10:38-42,” Religion & Intellectual life 3 (1986): 2135;Google ScholarD'Angelo, Mary R., “Women in Luke-Acts: A Redactional View,” Journal of Biblical Literature 109 (1990): 441–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 453-55; and idem, “Women Partners in the New Testament,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 6 (Spring 1990): 65-86.

31 Fiorenza, , Memory, 140–51;Google Scholar on the noninstitutional character of the life, see Theissen, , Sociology, 8.Google Scholar

32 On Jesus as messenger of Sophia-God, see Fiorenza, , Memory, 130–40.Google Scholar

33 Theissen speaks primarily of the noninstitutional character, the experience of a call over which one has no control (Sociology, 8); Fiorenza speaks primarily of a reform movement of Judaism, but also speaks of Jesus and his companions as prophets (Memory, 118-54); Meeks speaks of the role of Jesus and the wandering members of the movement as prophetic (Moral World, 101-02, 107).

34 Luke also includes the story of a woman anointing Jesus (Lk 7:35-50), but treats her gesture as a deed of love and repentance rather than a prophetic act; see D'Angelo, , “Women in Luke-Acts,” 452.Google Scholar

35 Brock sees it as an act of healing power (Journeys by Heart, 97).

36 Fiorenza, , Memory, xiiixiv.Google Scholar

37 The Pythia and the Sybils provide Greek and Roman examples; biblical precedents include Huldah (2 Kgs 22:14-20) and Deborah (Jgs 4-5); see also D'Angelo, , “Women in Luke-Acts,” 459–60.Google Scholar

38 Fiorenza describes the Corinthian theology in terms of Sophia and spirit (Memory, 184-93); prophetic activity, which is attributed to the spirit, is also attributed to wisdom, see, e.g., Wis 8:27 and the saying of Prisca cited in Epiphanius', Panarion, 49:1Google Scholar: “Appearing in the form of a woman, radiantly robed, Christ came to me and implanted wisdom within me and revealed to me that this place [Pepuza] is holy and that here Jerusalem is to come down from heaven” (Maenads, Martyrs, Matrons, Monastics: A Sourcebook on Women's Religions in the Greco-Roman World, trans. Kraemer, Ross [Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988], 230Google Scholar).

39 Luce Iragaray's review of Fiorenza's In Memory of Her asks whether the issue is being equal to other disciples or being equal to God (“Egales a qui?Critique 480 [1987]: 436Google Scholar).

40 Brock turns to the christology of the gospel of Mark in her search for a “christology of erotic power”; her analysis differs somewhat from the one given here (Journeys by Heart, 79-104).

41 On divine man interpretations of Mark, see Collins, Adela Yarbro, “‘Remove this Cup’: Suffering and Healing in Mark” in Suffering and Healing in Our Day, ed. Eigo, F. A. O.S.A., Villanova University Theology Institute Proceedings, 22 (Villanova, PA: Villanova University Press, 1990), 2961.Google Scholar

42 Brock reads this phrase as the departure of his patriarchal power (Journeys By Heart, 84). This reading appears to me to be overinterpretation.

43 See also Fiorenza, , Memory, 105.Google Scholar

44 Fiorenza has chosen to use “Jesus' basileia vision”; basileia is the Greek word used in the New Testament that is usually translated “kingdom” (Memory, 110-30). Ada Maria Isazi-Diaz and Yolanda Tarango have proposed the attractive alternative “kindom”; it evokes some very important aspects of the gospel tradition, but not the ones I wish to focus on here. See Isazi-Diaz, and Tarango, , Hispanic Women: Prophetic Voice in the Church (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988), xvii, n. 8, 117.Google Scholar

45 On this sentence as a transposition of “the reign of God has come near,” see Dodd, C. H., The Parables of the Kingdom (New York: Scribner's, 1961), 21.Google Scholar

46 Jewish War 2.8.1 #118; Antiquities of the Jews 18.1.6 #23-26.

47 The high priest's liturgical garments were held in the Roman garrison during Pilate's procuratorship (Josephus, , Ant. 18.9095Google Scholar).

48 For analyses of the trial of Jesus see Winter, Paul, On the Trial of Jesus, 2nd ed., rev. and ed. by Burkill, T. A. and Vermes, Geza (Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Cohen, Haim, The Trial and Death of Jesus (New York: Harper & Row, 1971);Google Scholar see also Sanders, E. P., Jesus and Judaism (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985), 309–18.Google Scholar

49 On the question of the role of the Pharisees see the survey in Sanders, , Jesus and Judaism, 291–92.Google Scholar Note that the question is most trenchantly put (as is so often the case) by Morton Smith; see Jesus the Magician (New York: Harper & Row, 1978), 153–57.Google Scholar For a study of the characterization of the Jewish leaders in the gospels that takes literary concerns fully into account, see Malbon, Elizabeth Struthers, “The Jewish Leaders in the Gospel of Mark: A Literary Study of Marcan Characterization,” Journal of Biblical Literature 108 (1989): 259–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

50 For fuller understanding of this category, see Segal, Alan, Rebecca's Children: Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986), 6895Google Scholar, and Horsley, Richard A., Jesus and the Spiral of Violence (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988).Google Scholar Meeks speaks of the movement as one among a number of “eschatological renewal movements” routinely suppressed by Roman violence (Moral World, 101), Sanders similarly sees Jesus' aim as eschatological restoration (Jesus and Judaism).

51 Ant. 20.5.1 #97-98.

52 Lex Iulia de adulteriis and Les Iulia de ordinibus maritandis appear to have been in force by 17 B.C.E. The former made adultery a criminal charge and demanded that the erring wife be divorced; the latter imposed penalties on celibacy and childlessness. Although the legislation bears primarily on Roman citizens, and therefore has no direct effect on noncitizens in the provinces, it enshrines Roman attitudes and the imperial mores (Last, Hugh, “The Social Program of Augustus” in Cook, S. A., Adcock, F. E., Charlesworth, M. P., eds., Cambridge Ancient History, Vol 10: The Augustan Empire 44 B.C.-A.D. 70 [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971], 441–56Google Scholar).

53 Cf. Pirke Aboth, 3.7: R. Eleazar b. Judah of Bartotha said: ‘Give unto (God) of what is (God's) for thou art (God's) and all thou hast is (God's)…” (The Mishnah, trans. Danby, H. [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933], 451;Google Scholar parenthesis mine). Note that Eleazar, to whom the saying is attributed, belongs to the period between the two wars of resistance. See also Horsley, R. A., Jesus and the Spiral of Violence, 306–09Google Scholar, and Wengst, Klaus, Pax Romana and the Peace of Jesus Christ, trans. Bowden, John (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987), 5861.Google Scholar

54 Jeremias, Joachim, The Parables of Jesus, trans. Hooke, S. H. (New York: Scribner's, 1963), 146–53;Google Scholar more explicitly Dahl, N. A., “The Parables of Growth,” Memory, 160–62.Google Scholar

55 See also Dodd, (Parables, 140–44)Google Scholar, for whom the implications are much different.

56 Trible, , “Bringing Miriam out of the Shadows,” 25.Google Scholar

57 Note that Trible likewise sees Miriam in the context of a communal prophecy (“Bringing Miriam out of the Shadows,” 20-22).

58 For an account of the activities of Clark and Parks, see Clark, Septima Poinsette, Ready from Within: Septima Clark and the Civil Rights Movement, ed. Brown, Cynthia Stokes (Navarro, CA: Wild Trees Press, 1986).Google Scholar

59 See, e.g., Perkins, Pheme, “Marriage in the New Testament and Its World” in Roberts, William P., ed., Commitment for Partnership: Explorations of the Theology of Marriage (New York: Paulist, 1987), 533Google Scholar, esp. 15-16; also Fitzmyer, Joseph A. S.J., “The Matthaean Divorce Texts and Some New Palestinian Evidence,” Theological Studies 37 (1976): 197226;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and MacRae, George S.J., “New Testament Perspectives on Marriage and Divorce” in Wrenn, Lawrence G., ed., Divorce and Remarriage in the Catholic Church (New York: Newman, 1973), 115.Google Scholar

60 Fiorenza, , Memory, 143.Google Scholar

61 See D'Angelo, , “Remarriage and the Divorce Sayings,” 8694.Google Scholar

62 Gerd Theissen's sociological reconstruction divides the sayings about family and sex attributed to Jesus into two categories: more radical sayings which he attributes to the wandering charismatics who were the primary focus of Jesus' mission during his lifetime and who continued his career after the resurrection; sayings like the divorce debate which he attributes to more settled and more conservative local communities in which marriage and possessions played a significant role. In attributing the saying to the concerns of the settled communities, Theissen already suggests that the prohibition of divorce is unlikely to have arisen from Jesus himself (Sociology, 11, 19).

63 See on this D'Angelo, , “Remarriage and the Divorce Sayings,” 94100.Google Scholar

64 Jeremias, Joachim, The Prayers of Jesus (Naperville, IL: Alec R. Allenson, 1967), 1165.Google Scholar

65 For a treatment of the New Testament evidence, Jewish sources and political theology of the Roman period, see D'Angelo, Mary R., “Abba and ‘Father’: Imperial Theology in the Jesus Traditions,” forthcoming in Journal of Biblical Literature 111/4.Google Scholar James Barr presents a careful linguistic analysis of Jeremias' arguments which shows that “abba” does not bear the weight attributed to it in these theologies: Abba Isn't Daddy,” Journal of Theological Studies New Series 39 (1988): 2847.Google Scholar

66 See Schuller, Eileen, “4Q372 1: A Text about Joseph,” Revue de Qumran 14/55 (1990): 343–70;Google Scholar also The Psalm of 4Q372 1 Within the Context of Second Temple Prayer,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 54 (1992): 6779.Google Scholar

67 See esp. Jeremias, , Prayers of Jesus, 57.Google Scholar

68 See D'Angelo, “Abba and ‘Father’: Imperial Theology,” and Barr, , “Abba,” 38.Google Scholar

69 See D'Angelo, Mary R., “Abba and ‘Father’: Theology in Mark and Q,” Harvard Theological Review 85/2 (forthcoming 1992).Google Scholar

70 But see on this Madeline Boucher's brief scholarly critique: Scriptural Readings: God-Language and Nonsexist Translation” in Willhers, Barbara A., ed., Language and the Church: Articles and Designs for Workshops (New York: National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., 1984), 3031.Google Scholar

71 See, e.g., Cleanthes' Hymn to Zeus, Stobaeus, Eclogae 1.1.12; translation in Grant, Frederick C., Hellenistic Religions: The Age of Syncretism (Indianapolis and New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1953), 152–54;Google Scholar Sir 23:1-14; Wis 2:13-16; 1QH 9.35.

72 See D'Angelo, “Abba and ‘Father’: Imperial Theology.”

73 Iragaray seeks to rescue what she sees as Christianity's social consequence: the respect for the incarnation of all (male and female) as potentially divine bodies (“Egales a qui?” 425).