IMAGINING THE MATTHEAN EUNUCH COMMUNITY: Kyriarchy on the Chopping Block.

This article identifies the eunuch saying in Matthew's Gospel as a gender metaphor that suggests women in Matthew's communit(ies) continued to experience the same equality in marriage and leadership roles as the women in Jesus's Galilean basileia movement. The elevation of women's status created ten...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion (Indiana University Press) Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 21 - 44
Main Author:	Talbott, Rick
Format:	Article
Published:	Indiana University Press Spring2006
Subjects:	Marriage Leadership Jesus movement (Ancient Israel) Eunuchs Metaphor Social conditions of women Psychology
Online Access:	View this record in EBSCOhost

Description
Summary:	This article identifies the eunuch saying in Matthew's Gospel as a gender metaphor that suggests women in Matthew's communit(ies) continued to experience the same equality in marriage and leadership roles as the women in Jesus's Galilean basileia movement. The elevation of women's status created tension within the Jesus movements, discernable by reading the eunuch logion in its larger literary and social contexts. By examining the eunuch saying and Matthew's Gospel in the context of the ancient Mediterranean world—where kyriarchal structures determined gender roles and eunuchs symbolized neither male nor female—the author concludes that this Jesus saying challenged traditional male power rooted in kyriarchal marriage and households. The article consequently criticizes recent feminist historical-Jesus research that rejects the antikyriarchal and emancipatory nature of the basileia movement named after Jesus.