I’ve enjoyed being able to contribute a couple of articles to Feminism & Religion in the last couple months. Here’s another!
It’s about the second temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, as told in Luke 4. We talked about this passage in a church small group a few weeks back, and our conversation got me thinking. How might Jesus have been tempted differently if he had been a woman?
The piece is pretty speculative, but I’ve really come around to the view that that’s often how scripture operates at its best. It brings up questions, makes us think about things, gets us going off on what might seem like tangents but really are the things that are real and pressing in our lives – and I think we’re meant to bring all of this to the Bible and faith and church and everything.
So, check out the article, and feel free to holler here or at Feminism & Religion or otherwise if you have thoughts!
2 responses to “Post at Feminism & Religion – Jesus, temptation, and gender”
Hey Liz – I commented on your post at the Feminism & Religion blog by mistake, and wanted to post here so that you’ll actually see it. (Also, it’s always fun to get a blog comment and people don’t reply enough.) Everything except this salutation is the same.
Great article. I was thinking as I read through that if the male temptation was basically “people will obey you and give you stuff,” maybe the female temptation would be “people will praise and like you.” I really like the idea of spiritual temptation to do evil lining up with societal pressure to conform. Yes, that is how Odium keeps his troops in line. . . .
I have a question for you. What are the Greek words for Authority and Splendor used here? How can that inform our understanding? I could see those being words with different synonyms/connotations/etc. in the ancient world, or perhaps not. Like, what type of authority precisely is it that we’re seeing evil tempt goodness with here?
I love your writing and your theology. It’s thoughtful, intellectually honest, and accessible. 🙂
Thanks so much, Andrew!
I’m not sure this fully answers your question (in terms of implications), but the words used for “authority” and “splendor” are both very common words in the New Testament, and I would say they both get used in a variety of ways. ἐξουσία (authority) is often translated as “power” or perhaps “domain” – it can have connotations of governing, jurisdiction, or control, and/or connotations of freedom/strength. δόξα (splendor) is often translated elsewhere as “glory,” or sometimes as “honor,” “praise,” or “majesty” (all things often associated with God and/or Jesus).
blueletterbible.org is a fun resource, by the way – you can look up a verse or passage, find a word you’re interested in, and see some different translation options and where else in the New Testament it’s used!