December 25, 2018 – 10:27 p.m
The recently published news that a group of twenty female theologians released a collection of texts redefining the role of women in the Bible came as little surprise to feminist theologians in Croatia. The publication of the book Women’s Bible/Une Bible des Femmes and the statements made by two theology professors from Geneva, Lauriane Savoy and Elisabeth Parmentier, who collaborated with 18 other theologians from various countries and Christian denominations to challenge patriarchal interpretations of the Bible that justify the subordination of women, may have surprised those who view women as “second-class,” but not those well-versed in this subject. This is neither the first nor the last time that learned women have confronted the one-sided translations of the Bible, which continually uphold the patriarchal structures of the Catholic Church and society.
– Why is the French project of a women’s Bible so big news, when such projects have existed since Elisabeth Cady Stanton and other suffragettes published a Women’s Bible in 1898, and since then many theologians have been engaged in the translation and interpretation of biblical texts from the perspective of women? – asks Baptist feminist theologian Dr. Ksenija Magda.
– Women’s interpretations are, of course, significantly better today because they are done by trained theologians, who know well the issues and methods in exegesis and hermeneutics. I myself participated in the Women’s Study Bible project; Oxford University Press, 2009, and IVP Women’s Bible Commentary; IVP, 2002, ten or more years ago. Therefore, “Une Bible de femmes” is not a new or miraculous project, as it is presented to our public – comments Dr. Magda, otherwise the president of the Women’s Department of the World Baptist Union and a professor at University Center for Protestant Theology Matthias Flacius Illyricus at the University of Zagreb.
And Dr.sc. Rebeka Anić, scientific advisor at the “Ivo Pilar” Institute in Split, points out some lesser-known facts about the interpretation of the Bible by women.
– Even before Elisabeth Cady Stanton, there was this tradition that mostly remained unknown because it had no influence on the theology taught at universities – emphasizes this Franciscan nun.
– However, since the sixties of the 20th century, there has been a development of feminist exegesis, which is also taught at universities. Many feminist exegetes hold chairs of either the Old or the New Testament, their works are numerous and it is impossible to list all the names without being biased in the selection, such as Helen Schüngel Straumann, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Luise Schotroff, Marie-Theres Wacker. I would especially like to highlight the exegetical-cultural-historical encyclopedia “Die Bibel und die Frauen/Bible and Women”, which was initiated in 2004 by two Catholic women, prof. Dr. Irmtraud Fischer, head of the Old Testament department at the University of Graz, and prof. Dr. Andriana Valerio, professor of history at the University of Naples.
Both are former presidents of the European Society of Women in Theological Research. Of the 22 planned volumes, which will be published simultaneously in five languages, 12 volumes have been published so far, and one volume is dedicated to feminist exegesis in the 20th century.
I would also like to mention that the contribution of feminist exegesis is recognized by the document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission “Interpretation of the Bible in the Church” in 1993, as well as that some works have been translated into Croatian, for example: Ann Brown: “Defense of Women, Feminism and the Bible” Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenze, ” In memory of her” Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel, “Becoming your own man, Women around Jesus”. Although it does not explicitly deal with exegesis, the book translated into Croatian by Monika Leisch-Kiesl “Eve as Different” is extremely useful for understanding the interpretation of women in Christianity.
All this indicates that the valuable work The Women’s Bible is just one in a long tradition of feminist exegesis,” explains Dr. Anić. Her new book, co-authored with Dr. Irena Sever Globan, Mary Magdalene: From Jesus’ Disciple to a Movie Prostitute, sheds light on the female figure who appears most frequently in the Gospels, Mary Magdalene, and explores the one-sided and unfair treatment she has received in many interpretations of the Bible.
Brave witnesses of faith
– Even at an early age, I was deeply inspired, empowered and curious by the biblical lines in which the resurrected Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene, and she addressed him as “rabbi”, teacher – remembers theological activist Lana Bobić.
– I was confused as to why, in addition to the twelve, he would first appear to a converted harlot and why would she call him a teacher? It wasn’t until I studied theology and through a closer reading of the New Testament that I discovered that Mary Magdalene is not presented as a harlot anywhere in the text itself. And later, discovering feminist theology, I began to notice women’s history suppressed by androcentrism in biblical lines, fascinating women like the woman from Bethany, Phoebe, the apostle Junia, Euodia and Syntyche, Lydia…
To recognize that women were not just servants subject to male leadership, but rather disciples of Christ and bearers of the Christian message, courageous witnesses of faith. While Peter, the rock, denied Christ, the women faithfully followed Him on the Stations of the Cross,” Bobić comments.
– And the official theology in Catholicism has accepted the interpretation that Mary of Magdala was in no way a prostitute – adds Dr. Jadranka Brnčić, scientist and lecturer of biblical hermeneutics at the University Center for Protestant Theology Matthias Flacius Illyricus at the University of Zagreb.
– She was not only a disciple of Jesus, but also an apostle among the apostles, and last year Pope Francis included that fact in the liturgical calendar. It is also recognized that the women who “served” Jesus, as translated in Luke’s Gospel, did not only cook, wash dishes and laundry, but also supported Jesus with their own money and were his collaborators.
I believe that it is a matter of time when it will be accepted that there is no biblical or theological obstacle for women to be ordained as priests. Or, to begin with, at least for deaconesses, as in the time of the apostle Paul, who considered some of them equal apostles. Admittedly, Paul is credited with a misogynistic attitude towards women recorded in his letters, forgetting that these letters were written as advice to specific communities where women may have gone too far in their behavior, and not as advice that would necessarily apply to all women in the Church, not only then, but also today – says Dr. Brnčić.
Women’s Bible
The co-authors of the new “Women’s Bible”, Savoy and Parmentier, also talk about deaconesses and point to the Gospel according to Luke, in which Jesus visits two sisters, Martha and Mary:
– There it is said that Martha took care of the “service”, which is interpreted so that she served food, but the Greek word “diakonia” can have other meanings, it can, for example, mean that she was a deaconess – the great Genevan theologian pointing to the essence of the problem, which is the translation of the Bible.
– The name “women’s Bible” is awkward because it suggests some new text invented by women, but in fact it is a translation into French of a recognized and well-known text, only by female theologians – explains Dr. Magda.
– We do not call Bibles translated by men “men’s Bibles”. So, we are working on a translation project. It is known that translation is a complex science and art, and it depends on the different capacities of the translator: from linguistic, through epistemological, sociological, historical and, finally, contextual. None of us approaches the text, not even the biblical one, in the same way, precisely because of different life experiences. That is why “contextual” translations and commentaries are valued as much as they are popular in the world today.
For too long, the Bible has been imprisoned in the prejudices of white, classically educated, middle-aged, financially privileged and in the company of leading men. When I talk about “prejudice”, I don’t mean it pejoratively, but as a general fact. No one approaches the text, or reality, in the same way and without “prejudices”. We all have our acquired glasses through which we view the world. Unfortunately, the type of prejudice described above had, and in many places still has, a privilege over other views and allows itself to call other “prejudices” and methods “ideological” or “unscientific”. Discussions about what is “scientific” are in full swing in science, but in science we have become very aware of the old scientific paradigms and the single-mindedness that they often brought – says this theologian.
There is no word about subjection
Speaking about this, dr. Jadranka Brnčić warns that biblical texts should not be read literally:
– Its earliest interpreters already understood this, beginning with the Hebrew prophets, continuing through the Church Fathers, and extending to modern biblical hermeneutics, as well as readers who go beyond the literal meaning, which is often absurd when taken out of its historical context.
Reading the biblical texts on a literal level is influenced by the historical and cultural context, the limitations of the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages in which they were written, and our own inadequacies in understanding them. What theology refers to as divine inspiration lies not in the literal letters of the texts but in the spiritual ability of the reader to uncover the revelatory meaning beyond the literal interpretation. Therefore, as early as the 3rd century, Origen discussed four senses of the Holy Scriptures, namely, levels of understanding: literal, figurative, ethical, and mystical. Jewish tradition recognizes as many as 140 of them!
The possibilities of discovering layers of meaning for our time as well, i.e. for our historical contexts and cultures and for each individual who reads and really listens to what is read, are not in theological concepts born from Greek philosophy, as tradition tried to tame biblical thought, but in the text itself: primarily in the etymology of the word, often stifled by translations and redactions, and then by the official “only correct” interpretations of religious communities, or more precisely, the authorities that govern them. Anyone who has any knowledge of the biblical Hebrew language, and then also the tradition of reading among Jews, will be convinced that on the first pages of that books that we know as the Bible, there is no word about the submissiveness and secondness of women, but that she was created ontologically equal to a man, a human being just like him.
It is true that in the ancient Hebrew world, women were considered the property of their husbands. However, this was not because the message of the biblical texts placed them in that position, but rather due to the cultural norms of the time from which the biblical texts emerged as human testimonies of the experience of God. Despite this cultural backdrop, exceptional, free, and strong women managed to break through, standing out by taking initiative in shaping communities and changing the course of history. During its translations and transcriptions, the New Testament was subject to redactors who did not allow the text to fully retain its original voice.
However, today we have linguistic knowledge, knowledge of cultural anthropology and hermeneutic exegesis that can help us unravel the layers of bad translations, literal meanings and authoritative interpretations. And these skills have finally become available to women as well – comments this, among others, translator from the French language.
– But the translation is not the end of the problem! – warns Dr. Ksenija Magda, and adds:
– Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, a Catholic theologian from Harvard, described in several of her projects the problems that the classical interpretation of the Bible has for women. In a way, Fiorenza’s books can be seen as “peeling off” the layers of this issue and getting to the heart of the matter: “In Her Memory” is the first systematic attempt at the historical reconstruction of women in the Bible. Namely, sociological methods in biblical interpretation raised the question of the role of women in the first church, so Fiorenza took the neglected women of the Bible and their often predominant functions in the community of believers out of the margins and put them in their rightful place.
A difficult issue
“Bread Not Stone” proposes a method of deconstructing the patriarchal center of biblical traditions, in order to find an alternative approach to the organization of community in biblical religions. Namely, it is the patriarchal system that initially marginalized women in the Bible and created interpretations that enslave and abuse them, or make them completely invisible, and not the Bible itself, i.e. the God described and experienced in it. In “But She Said” he turns to deeper political issues that both in the center and on the margins favor, often imperceptibly and subtly, men, while neglecting, and worse still, enslaving and abusing women, or justifying their abuse.
The Bible and the words of its interpretation have often been used, and are used, to rule over women. It is necessary to find, says Fiorenza, “words that heal, that articulate a feminist theory of interpretation for a critical practice of freedom, that draw out the logic of liberation and transform patriarchal oppression.”
Of course, some will recoil at the very mention of “feminism” – women as well as men. Nevertheless, it is still a good term for the political dimension of this broad and difficult issue. By its very existence, it highlights – what is indispensable! – that what we consider to be “general” looking, is actually not “general”, but male, and that it is important to be aware of this, in all contexts and at all levels.
It is especially important to be aware of this in theology and in times like ours, when both the Christian faith and its Holy Scriptures are an obstacle for many people because of what modern man perceives as an illogical tradition, but also more and more because of stories about disparagement, abuse and financial malfeasance in the Church. which requires that she be perceived as a moral authority.
Feminist readings such as the “Women’s Bible” should therefore be accepted as a re-evaluation of the Christian tradition and the desire of women to find the divine truth for themselves in a text that, if we are honest, was often used to oppress them.
What is good for the Church, the translators are not ready to reject the Bible, but see options, precisely in that old text, which was given to people – if we speak from the perspective of Christianity – to read it as a text of salvation, as good news about the liberation of the oppressed, for their own liberation and affirmation.
The Magnificat, for example, which may be marginally mentioned in churches during Christmas, is an incredible political text, spoken by a woman! The Women’s Bible is, in fact, an argument that the abuse of women is not a matter of the Bible, but of people, who always find ways to obscure and abuse what is God’s with their limitations and agendas.
In biblical scholarship, of course, every point of view is welcome and important because it opens up new possibilities for the text to speak today, for us to see its aspects and possibilities, which were hidden from us until now. And the biblical text, if we do not know the original languages, is best read in several translations in parallel, so we will see the possibilities of the text much better. Some things are not in our translation, not because they were never in the biblical text, but because people are contextual beings and always see only partially. And one more note: Sometimes, of course, the interpretations can be wrong – unfounded, too creative and the like – but, as history shows, women do not have a monopoly on the wrong and interpretations!
For equality
– When I say in public that the Bible contains enormous potential for the liberation of women from subjection and submission, I encounter either condemnations or ridicule. Therefore, I welcome the release of the “Women’s Bible”, just like any work of feminist theology that reveals this potential, and the history, position and roles of women frees them from androcentric deposits in an effort to achieve one of the key calls of the Gospel, the radical equality of all people – says theological activist Lana Bobić .
The #MeToo movement and opponents of feminism
– We are witnessing, on the one hand, the affirmation of feminist theology, its persuasiveness and compatibility with the biblical message, which in some segments the official theology of (white) men is also beginning to recognize, and, on the other hand, we are witnessing reaching for the literal meanings of biblical texts, if not spoke again about the necessity for women to be subservient to men, and not independently obedient to the revelatory power of biblical texts.
The editors of the “Women’s Bible” have gathered the most important biblical pericopes around which the Christian tradition has woven its tendentious and partial interpretations based on the patriarchal view of the social relations between men and women, encouraging different views and enrolling themselves in the activities of the #MeToo movement, which uncompromisingly exposes cases of abuse of women who could have a greater share in the political and public life of their countries – says Dr. Jadranka Brnčić.
