behold the man jesus and greco-roman masculinity may 2008

[...]... 1 Introduction Jesus and Gender, 3 2 How to Be a Man in the Greco-Roman World, 15 3 Constructing the Lives of Divine Men Divus Augustus, Philo’s Moses, and Philostratus’s Apollonius, 35 4 The Unmanned Christ and the Manly Christian in the Pauline Tradition, 67 5 The Markan Jesus as Manly Martyr? 89 6 The Matthean Jesus Mainstream and Marginal Masculinities, 107 7 The Lukan Jesus and the Imperial Elite,... ancient masculinity in their presentations of Jesus In this way, they also contribute to the overall picture of Greco-Roman masculinity in its diverse articulations 2 How to Be a Man in the Greco-Roman World Thales used to say there were three blessings for which he was grateful to Fortune: ‘‘First, that I was born a human being and not one of the brutes; next, that I was born a man and not a woman;... ‘‘postcolonial’’ and I do not engage postcolonial theory in any extended way, its hermeneutical influence will nevertheless be clear at various points of the analysis Jesus and Greco-Roman Masculinity The subtitle of this book points to the two matrices that give shape to this study The first is the presentation of Jesus in the New Testament, or New Testament Christology The second is the cultural construction of masculinity. .. depictions of Jesus or understandings of the Christ would have to relate in some way to the cultural demands of ideal masculinity in order to have any credibility in the broader culture Moreover, what one might identify as the ‘‘fact’’ of biological sex— Jesus was a man and not a woman—would not be proof enough to satisfy these demands Instead, one would need to establish the ways in which Jesus Christ... gentility and affection coupled with love of victory The panther, on the other hand, with how to be a man in the greco-roman world 19 its ill-articulated and ill-proportioned body (long, thin neck, narrow chest, thick and fleshy loins and hips) and its correspondingly small, furtive, tricky soul, is the most feminine of animals.13 All of this translates to the study of human physiognomy as well Working up the. .. frame and knitted brows, squalid and in a sorry state and with callouses on his hands, wrapped in a sort of coarse 20 behold the man gray mantle, his body shaggy as far as the ankles and his locks wretchedly shingled (Dio Chrysostom, 1 Tars [Or 33] 54) The expert studies the man closely for a long time, but is unable to solve the case and sends him away As the man goes, however, he sneezes At this, the. .. justice and knowledge of the truth while Jesus incarnates these divine characteristics in an immanent way relative to bodiliness and the earth.11 Such arguments, coupled with the earlier concerns about ‘‘muscular Christianity,’’ should make clear that the way one interprets and portrays the gender identity of Jesus makes a difference They also demonstrate that for at least the 6 behold the man past... but the concept can be expressed in reverse as well Philo worries about the effects of effeminate behavior, or the ‘‘female disease,’’ on both body and soul, a point that will be explored further in the next chapter The Body and the Law Some elements of the Roman legal code confirm the relative unimportance of the body for determining masculine status and the absolute importance of social and, in many... this text, as the author notes, ‘‘It seems to me that the soul and body react on each other; when the character of the soul changes, it also changes the form of the body, and conversely, when the form of the body changes, it changes the character of the soul.’’12 In other words, if one behaved badly, demonstrating weakness of character, the body would react in turn: it would become more womanly In spite... my interest lies more in the potential reception of the writings, rather than their conception.42 While I do not ignore questions of origin for particular ideas found in the New Testament, I focus more on how the language and imagery of the text might have been perceived by the ancient Greco-Roman audience In the next chapter, the study begins with an overview of Greco-Roman masculinity This is followed . Moses, and Philostratus’s Apollonius, 35 4. The Unmanned Christ and the Manly Christian in the Pauline Tradition, 67 5. The Markan Jesus as Manly Martyr? 89 6. The Matthean Jesus Mainstream and. alt="" Behold the Man This page intentionally left blank Behold the Man Jesus and Greco-Roman Masculinity colleen m. conway 1 2008 1 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford. 107 7. The Lukan Jesus and the Imperial Elite, 127 8. ‘‘He Must Increase’’ The Divine Masculinity of the Johannine Jesus, 143 9. Ruling the Nations with a Rod of Iron Masculinity and Violence in the