The Double Message. Patterns of Gender in Luke-Acts

311 Pages·15.938 MB·English

by  Turid Karlsen Seim

THE DOUBLE MESSAGE

THE DOUBLE MESSAGE
Patterns of Gender in Luke-Acts
TURID KARLSEN SEIM
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rst published 1994 in the Studies of the Old Testament and Its World Series
1is edition published 2004
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:BN 0567082563 (paperback)
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Contents
Acknowledgements IX
Chapter One: Prolegomena: Luke and Women 1
Chapter Two: Men As Well As Women 11
Chapter Three: Do You See This Woman? 25
The women from Galilee 25
'Abraham's daughters'-healed by Jesus 39
Women-healed to serve the family of God 57
' ... with what they owned.' The realisation of
possessions and the sustenance of the community 77
Women as models in service 81
The acts of women as a corrective to the leadership 88
Chapter Four: Remember How He Told You... 97
In the conflict between word and table 97
-to hear the word of the Lord . . . 112
'Domestic' women 118
The women at the cross and grave 147
Chapter Five: Prophesying Daughters 164
Chapter Six: ... They Neither Marry, Nor Do They Give
Themselves in Marriage 185
Ascetic elements of the period 186
Virgin and mother 198
The sons of the resurrection 208
' ... and she had lived as a widow since then' 229
Chapter Seven: Concluding Summary: The Double Message 249
Bibliography 261
Index 285

Acknowledgements
The frail beginning of this book goes back many years to a seminar
some students encouraged me to do in the early eighties on 'Women in
the Gospels'. Since then the proje!:t has come a long way, and the
original Norwegian version on which this English version is based, was
completed in 1990 as a doctoral thesis at the University of Oslo. Hope
fully it still reflects how my scholarly identity is based in a positive
affirmation of womanhood, a commitment to equal partnership be
tween women and men, a keen theological interest-and faithfulness to
the exegetical skill I once was taught.
Since 1991 I have been the Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the
University of Oslo during a period of significant changes in the life of
the faculty. I would have wanted to revise the text further and espe
cially to up-date it. I regret that the constant administrative demands
have made this impossible so that literature appearing during the very
last years is not included.
A book remains the responsibility of its author. But the working
process by which it has come into being still is a project where many
have contributed knowingly or unknowingly. I have been nurtured by
the active and cross-disciplinary community of women at the university
while at the same time savouring the wisdom, knowledge and encour
agement of my native 'fathers' and fellows in the New Testament, of
whom I would like to mention Prof. Nils A. Dahl, Prof. Jacob Jervell,
Prof. Edvin Larsson and Prof. Halvor Moxnes. My Danish friend and
colleague, lecturer Bente Bagger Larsen, another member of 'the Lukan
community', has never ceased to encourage me, and I make her the
representative of all those here not named to whom I am greatly in
debted.
The work involved would not have been possible without the finan
cial support granted partly by my own faculty and partly by what used
to be the Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humani
ties. The Research Council also funded the translation of the original
Norwegian version into English. This translation was energetically un
dertaken by Or Brian McNeil. The indices I owe to the diligent accu
racy of cand. philol. Vemund Blomkvist who did them at very short
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THE DOUBLE MESSAGE
notice. Finally, I am indeed grateful to Prof. John Riches for including
my contribution in this series.
For their patience with an absent-minded mother who at times ap
pears to live in the past rather than in the present, and for their un
yielding and obstinate faith in the future, this book is dedicated to my
two daughters, Ingrid and Runhild Seim.
Oslo, Summer 1994
Turid Karlsen Seim
X