Imagining the Matthean Eunuch Community: Kyriarchy on the Chopping Block

Abstract

Imagining the Matthean Eunuch Community:Kyriarchy on the Chopping Block Rick Talbott (bio) Abstract This article identifies the eunuch saying in Matthew's Gospel as a gender metaphor that suggests women in Matthew's communit(ies) continued to experience the same equality in marriage and leadership roles as the women in Jesus's Galilean basileia movement. The elevation of women's status created tension within the Jesus movements, discernable by reading the eunuch logion in its larger literary and social contexts. By examining the eunuch saying and Matthew's Gospel in the context of the ancient Mediterranean world—where kyriarchal structures determined gender roles and eunuchs symbolized neither male nor female—the author concludes that this Jesus saying challenged traditional male power rooted in kyriarchal marriage and households. The article consequently criticizes recent feminist historical Jesus research that rejects the antikyriarchal and emancipatory nature of the basileia movement named after Jesus. This article identifies the eunuch saying in Matthew's Gospel as a gender metaphor that suggests women in Matthew's communit(ies) continued to experience the same equality in marriage and leadership roles as the women in Jesus's Galilean basileia movement. The elevation of women's status created tension within the Jesus movements, discernable by reading the eunuch logion in its larger literary and social contexts. By examining the eunuch saying and Matthew's Gospel in the context of the ancient Mediterranean world—where kyriarchal structures determined gender roles and eunuchs symbolized neither male nor female—the author concludes that this Jesus saying challenged traditional male power rooted in kyriarchal marriage and households. The article consequently criticizes recent feminist historical-Jesus research that rejects the antikyriarchal and emancipatory nature of the basileia movement named after Jesus. Is it possible to reread Matthew's eunuch saying as evidence that emancipatory struggles for equality in Jesus's Galilean movement were still operative in the Matthean house churches near the end of the first century in Syria?1 I will argue so and maintain that the eunuch saying has special significance for [End Page 21] imagining the status and role of women in Matthean communit(ies).2 Women in Matthew's time were hardly marginalized—they experienced equality and functioned as leaders—yet they sometimes met with antipathy from traditional power brokers.3 This tension surfaces rhetorically in Matthew 19:3–12, a passage in which Jesus argues with some Pharisees and confronts his own disciples about marriage, divorce, and remarriage. The passage ends with the eunuch saying cited here: And he said to them, "Not everyone receives this word even though it has been given to them. For some are eunuchs from birth; others have been made eunuchs by men; and some have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can." (Matt. 19:11–12)4 I maintain that Jesus's call for men to "make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven" challenged male power and helped to redefine social roles for women in the Jesus movement. The preservation of this difficult saying suggests that the Matthean communit(ies) wrestled with Jesus's ideal for male and female relationships in his basileia5 movement. To imagine such a scenario, I rely on various feminist biblical scholars and especially the work of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, who characterizes her approach as rooted in historical and rhetorical biblical method as well as feminist theory.6 Schüssler Fiorenza's emphasis on a "sociological-theological model for the reconstruction of the early Christian movement" avoids weaknesses found [End Page 22] in much current historical-Jesus research, to which I will return.7 I have also embraced her neologism kyriarchy to address the wider social context of the Matthean households and her characterization of the Jesus movement as an "emancipatory basileia-movement" against which the eunuch saying would have been understood.8 Kyriarchy in the Ancient Mediterranean World Deciphering the eunuch logion depends on insights about kyriarchy. Mediterranean societies were dominated by a kyriarchal sociopolitical system that gave control to the emperor/lord/master/father/husband over male or female subordinates and subjugated peoples.9 Kyriocentric symbols of male superiority and dominance permeated cities and households.10...

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