The Place of Women in Public Settings in Matthew's Gospel: a Sociological Inquiry

Abstract

This study makes a gender analysis of the place of women among three character groups: the disciples, the crowds, and the religious leaders as they are taught by Jesus or interact with him in three representative public settings: the Sermon on the Mount (5:1-7:28), the Parables Discourse (13:1-52), and the clash between Jesus and the authorities in the temple (21:12-23:29). The study opens with a description of two gender-specific analogies to provide a social index for analyzing the Matthean data: a macrosociological model of the public status of women in advanced agrarian societies, and a social summary of the public place of women in mishnaic culture. The religious authorities parallel advanced agrarian gender expectations without variation. The disciples are like and unlike the religious authorities. The crowds open a real but limited social alternative for women. The writing's treatment of women in public settings draws upon an old androcentric framework but emphasizes a new inclusion. To neglect either of these dimensions limits our understanding of this aspect of the social setting of the Matthean church.Is present study is a companion piece to an earlier he present study is a companion piece to an earlier article, &dquo;The Household: A Major Social Component for Gender Analysis in the Gospel of Matthew&dquo; (1993: 21-31). In the first study, I employed a macrosociological model for a social analysis of gender-specific behavior in household settings in Matthew. I found that when the roles of women were viewed through the image of the household against the backdrop of Matthew's social setting, even though significant exceptional gender behavior on the part of women could be detected, the writing was at home in its social world, an advanced agrarian society. That is, the incongruities, though significant, appeared sufficiently idiosyncratic so as not to burst the wider societal boundaries of women's everyday role expectations. Matthew's church appeared accurately ensconced in an advanced agrarian society.My initial paper explored a major component of the private social world-the household. This study makes an analysis of the place of women among three character groups: the disciples, the crowds, and the religious leaders as they are taught by Jesus or interact with him in three representative public settings: the mountain in the Sermon on the Mount (5:1-7:28), the boat in the Parables Discourse (13:1-52), and the temple in the clash between Jesus and the authorities (21:12-23:29) . I will begin with a description of two gender-specific analogies to provide a social index for the Matthean data. The first is a macrosociological model of the public status of women in advanced agrarian societies, and the second is a social summary of the public place of women in mishnaic culture. Finally, I will evaluate my findings and their possible contribution to the furtherance of our understanding of the social setting of the Matthean Christian community.The first article worked with a macro social index of the household...