Marianne Bjelland Kartzow

Gossip and gender : othering of speech in the Pastoral Epistles

The frequent comments about gossip in the Pastoral Epistles are noteworthy, and it often has gender implications. Insights from the growing field of gossip studies from multiple disciplines help to interpret what role gossip plays, especially in relation to how power and authority are distributed and promoted. A presentation of various texts from antiquity shows that the relation between gossip and gender is multiple and complex: to gossip was typical for all women and risky for elite men who constantly had to defend their masculinity. The ancient gossip discourse helps to understand more of the social dynamics of early Christianity, to fill in the imaginative picture and generate ideas to how Christian identity and theology were constructed.

Complex Identities: Ethnicity, Gender and Religion in the Story of the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26–40)

Abstract The conversion story of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:26–40 illustrates the complex character of identity formation in antiquity. It is however suggested that the figure of the eunuch may be seen as a formative picture by Christians, who are not able to identify with a traditional, western, heterosexual understanding of Christianity

The Slave Metaphor and Gendered Enslavement in Early Christian Discourse: Double Trouble Embodied

Thinking with saleable bodies: an intersectional approach to the slavery metaphor -- Embodying the slavery metaphor: female characters and slavery language -- Metaphor and masculinity: the no longer slave formulations (John 15:15 and Gal 4:7) -- The paradox of slavery: all believers are slaves of the Lord, but some are more slaves than others -- From slave of a female owner to slave of God: negotiating gender, sexuality, and status in the Shepherd of Hermas -- Jesus, the slave trader: metaphor made real in the Act of Thomas.

Reproductive Salvation and Slavery: Reading 1 Timothy 2:15 with Hagar and Mary

Abstract: Using the tool of intersectionality, this article discusses gender and class issues related to salvation in early Christian discourse. The complex discourse of 1 Timothy 2:15, that women will be saved through childbirth, generates several questions: What about women who could not deliver? Could they be saved although stigmatised? If we take the Hebrew Bible case of Sarah and Hagar, also mentioned in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, would a woman like Sarah be saved since she forced her slave to give birth for her? Did surrogacy count? Or was a female slave, whose reproductive capital belonged to her owner, considered saved since she gave birth? In order to answer these questions, the article looks at Old and New Testament material that connects female characters to slavery and childbirth, from the Genesis narratives about Hagar, Bilhah and Zilpah to the Gospel of Luke that relates how Mary, when offering her reproductive body in the service of the Lord, calls herself a slave of God.

Navigating the womb: surrogacy slavery fertility - and Biblical discourses

ABSTRACT In our fast changing world, issues of reproductive capital, surrogacy, and fertility relate to global discourses of rich and poor, medical technology, gender, transnational health, bodily integrity, and parenthood. I want to use insights, dilemmas, and ethical questions from this very complex situation to engage with the recent debate on slavery, sexuality, and gender in early Christian discourse. Did Christian slave owners have sex with their slaves? I will add some new questions to this discussion: If male slave owners had sex with their female slaves, how would these mothers and children be treated, categorized, and conceptualized in early Christianity? When the household codes in Ephesians and Colossians talk about obedience and honour between children and parents, would these slaves be included? In this intersecting reproductive hierarchy, male slaves, who could be biological fathers but were not granted fatherhood, had an ambiguous role. If the male owners had sex with the ‘partners’ of male slaves, the fatherhood would be contested, leaving slave fatherhood even more vulnerable than slave motherhood. Did the reproductive capital of female slaves also destabilize the fixed hierarchy between male and female slaves?

Memory and Identity in Early Christianity: Introduction

In the NT writings and even more so in other early Christian literature, we have the memory of not only Jesus but also of those participating in remembering. Understanding those memories require study of the relationships among these early Christians as well as the cultural complexes they were negotiating with their memories.

Striking family hierarchies : Luke 12:35-48, gender and slavery

ABSTRACT In this article I use the parable in Luke 12:35–48 “to think with”. The parable talks about a master who leaves his house, after which the trusted slave misuses his privileged position and starts beating his subordinates in the household. According to Luke, Jesus tells the disciples this parable in order to teach them to be prepared. The terminology opens up a variety of scenarios: either the trusted slave strikes his fellow slaves, both male and female, or he strikes boys and girls. Such physical punishment was probably common in ancient families, where slave bodies were part of their owners property, and where children had to obey their parents. Luke constructs theology and ideal virtues by use of violence and abuse, according to power structures in which class, gender and age intersect. This article will address some of these intersections, highlighting issues of slavery, family and gender. I develop an intersectional critique of memory theory in order to reflect on how interpreters are confronted with several challenges when New Testament texts are used as models for family life.