Gender in the Rhetoric of Jesus: Women in Q

Sara Parks argues that Jesus' earliest sayings, known as Q, included parabolic teachings about the basileia of God to appeal to both male and female adherents, and that vestiges of gender-paired teachings appeared in multiple independent texts related to Jesus over a century after Q. She also argues that Q's peculiar rhetoric of gender equality was an innovation but also a product of its time, and that it constitutes some of the earliest evidence for the study of first-century Jewish women and women in Christian origins.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 202 pages
Publication date: 17 April 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Sara Parks contends that Jesus purposefully crafted parabolic teachings about the basileia of God to attract followers of both genders. For over a century, traces of gender-paired teachings have been found in various independent texts associated with Jesus, including Mark, Paul, the Synoptics, and John. This suggests that Jesus himself may have been responsible for the inclusion of women in these texts. In her book "Gender and the Rhetoric of Jesus," Parks delves into the divided scholarship on the significance of gendered pairs to assess the gender politics of Q. She argues that while Q's unique rhetoric of gender equality was innovative, it was also a reflection of its time, as evidenced in other contemporaneous texts that grappled with ambiguous equalities. Furthermore, Parks demonstrates that Jesus' rhetoric of gender, as recorded in Q, provides some of the earliest evidence for the study of first-century Jewish women and women in Christian origins.

Weight: 304g
Dimension: 223 x 154 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781978702004