Negotiating the Disabled Body

Children in the New Testament

“…Early Jewish and Christian families were not contained to the regions of Judea and Galilee, but rather, lived across the geographical and cultural intersections of the empire due both to diaspora and conversion. As such, scholars of early Judaism and Christianity have sought to highlight the specific experiences of children and families within the wider Roman culture through scholarship dedicated to children and families in early Jewish (Kraemer 1989; Cohen 1993; Botha 1998; Bovon 2002; Marcus 2004; Tropper 2006; Dorff 2012; Sasson 2012; Yinger 2013; Murphy 2014; Garroway 2018; Sivan 2018) and Christian households and literature (Currie 1993; Osiek 1995; Strange 1996; Moxnes 1997; Osiek and Balch 1997; Bovon 1999; Bunge 2001; Bovon 2002; Balch and Osiek 2003; Bakke 2005; Balla 2005; Aasgaard 2006; Osiek, MacDonald, and Tulloch 2006; Horn and Martens 2009; Horn and Phenix 2009; Lindemann 2010; Lutterbach 2010; Miller-McLemore 2010; Punt 2010; Zwilling 2010; Leyerle 2013; MacDonald 2014; Solevåg 2017; Lietaert Peerbolte 2021), including a few studies combining the two (Hess and Carroll 2003; Koskenniemi 2009; King 2013; Tuor-Kurth 2010; Yamauchi and Wilson, 2014). At the same time, A.-J.…”

‘Take Up Your Mat and Walk’: [Dis-] Abled Bodies of Communication and Early Christian Wandering

“…Jesus’ later encounter with the man in the temple where he addresses him with the words “See” ( Ide ) you have been made whole. Do not sin anymore” (v.14) is, in this vein, not so much a revision of the link between sin and illness, nor a response to an individual who is vulnerable and unlikely to reach out for help (a position largely echoed by Gosbell (2018:288-292) and Solevag (2018:62-64) in their works on this passage), but rather a testimonial to this man’s courage and agency in walking (crawling?) subversively to contravene maps of exclusion.…”

A Note on the Death of Judas in Papias

“…20 Using the related frameworks of monster theory and disability studies, Anna-Rebecca Solevåg has highlighted the monstrous and disabling character of the description of Judas. 21 In medical literature, broadly speaking, swollen bodies were a symptom of dropsy (known today as edema) or ὕδρωψ. 22 As a condition, dropsy was characterized as an inability to process fluid coupled with an unchecked thirst.…”