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The Bible and Sexuality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

John Goldingay
Affiliation:
St John's College, Chilwell Lane, Bramcote, Nottingham NG9 3DS

Extract

What does it mean to be a man over against a woman, a woman over against a man? The Bible offers various paradigms and insights, and I do not attempt here to analyse all of them, but rather to reflect on a number of key passages which I have found illuminating in the context of contemporary questions.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1986

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References

page 176 note 1 Trible thus translates adam ‘earth creature’ (God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality 77). I am indebted to Trible for several aspects of my reading of Genesis 2–3 and Ruth.

page 176 note 2 Trible, , Rhetoric 99100.Google Scholar

page 177 note 3 I shall hint at a religio-historical explanation in considering woman in Proverbs.

page 177 note 4 Kidner, , Genesis 71.Google Scholar

page 177 note 5 For her and some other women not mentioned in Hebrews 11, see Trible's Texts of Terror.

page 179 note 6 Cf. Gunn, , David 8894.Google Scholar

page 179 note 7 Cf. Miscall, Workings of OT Narrative; Perdue, , JSOT 30 (1984), 6784.Google Scholar

page 180 note 8 Cf. Brenner, , Israelite Woman, 5556Google Scholar; Williams, , Woman Recounted, 7175.Google Scholar

page 181 note 9 Trible, , Rhetoric, 166, 198.Google Scholar

page 183 note 10 It is noteworthy that the woman, and not merely the man, appears as teacher in Proverbs.

page 183 note 11 Signs of Glory (London, DLT, 1982) 1015.Google Scholar

page 183 note 12 So Hubbard, D. A., ‘The wisdom movement and Israel's covenant faith’, Tyndale Bulletin 17 (1966) 31Google Scholar. Cf. Barth, , C.D. iii, 1, 312329.Google Scholar

page 184 note 13 Landy, , BL 98 (1979) 524.Google Scholar

page 184 note 14 On what follows, see Banks, , Interchange 18 (1976) 81105.Google Scholar

page 185 note 15 It seems likely that 1 Cor. 11 is concerned throughout with coiffure, not hats/veils, though the main point is not affected by this question.

page 182 note 16 Ephesians and 1 Timothy (to be referred to below) are widely reckoned to be deutero-Pauline; whether or not this is the case, we need to consider the theological relationship between their perspectives and those of the clearly Pauline letters, given that all find a place in the NT.

page 187 note 17 Cf. the NT's appeal to OT prophecy, which often involves ignoring the historical meaning of the original, but without necessarily thereby missing the OT's broader theological thrust.

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