The heroines are in the details: Rediscovering the women in the resurrection narratives

The four earliest extant resurrection narratives record that women find the empty tomb first. This consensus suggests that although the resurrection narratives diminish the roles of women in these scenes, women undisputedly witness the resurrection. The details of women’s authority and leadership th...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Meyer, Sarina Odden (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2025
In: Journal for the study of the pseudepigrapha
Year: 2025, Volume: 35, Issue: 2, Pages: 128-159
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Mark / Redaktionsgeschichtliche Schule / Feminist exegesis / Resurrection (Motif)
Further subjects:B Redaction Criticism
B early Christian women
B early Christian artwork
B resurrection narratives
B Gospel of Mark
B Feminist Criticism
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Summary:The four earliest extant resurrection narratives record that women find the empty tomb first. This consensus suggests that although the resurrection narratives diminish the roles of women in these scenes, women undisputedly witness the resurrection. The details of women’s authority and leadership that remain in the narratives preserve their primacy. Isolating these details reveals a pattern of gendered redaction in the three endings of Mark and the four canonical resurrection narratives that diminishes, obscures, and excises women from these texts. This study rediscovers these women. Buttressed by early Christian art, the details of women’s authority and leadership evince new evidence for Historical Jesus reconstructions of these events, the priority of the longer ending of Mark, vestiges of women’s leadership in early Christian worship, and a strong affirmation for the reliability of women’s witness. Analyzing redaction that erases women reveals that the heroines are in the details. By recovering women’s narratives, this article contributes to the study of ancient Jewish and Christian Pseudepigrapha by giving a model of how to recover women’s narratives in other literature as well.
ISSN:1745-5286
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal for the study of the pseudepigrapha
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/09518207251367408