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This book examines slavery and gender through a feminist reading of narratives including female slaves in the Gospel of Luke, the Acts of the Apostles, and early Christian texts. Through the literary theory of Mikhail Bakhtin, the voices of three enslaved female characters-the female slave who questions Peter in Luke 22, Rhoda in Acts 12, and the prophesying slave of Acts 16-are placed into dialogue with female slaves found in the Apocryphal Acts, ancient novels, classical texts, and images of enslaved women on funerary monuments. Although ancients typically distrusted the words of slaves, Christy Cobb argues that female slaves in Luke-Acts speak truth to power, even though their gender and status suggest that they cannot. In this Bakhtinian reading, female slaves become truth-tellers and their words confirm aspects of Lukan theology. This exegetical, theoretical, and interdisciplinary book is a substantial contribution to conversations about women and slaves in Luke-Acts and earlyChristian literature.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction: (Re)Turning to Truth.- Chapter 2: Theoretical Foundations: Bakhtin and Narratology.- Chapter 3: The Slave-Girl Who Sees: Luke 22:47-62.- Chapter 4: The Slave-Girl Who Answers: Acts 12:12-19.- Chapter 5: The Girl Who Prophesies: Acts 16:17-18.- Conclusion: When Truth Equals Freedom.
About the author
Christy Cobb is Assistant Professor of Religion at Wingate University in North Carolina, USA.
Summary
This book examines slavery and gender through a feminist reading of narratives including female slaves in the Gospel of Luke, the Acts of the Apostles, and early Christian texts. Through the literary theory of Mikhail Bakhtin, the voices of three enslaved female characters—the female slave who questions Peter in Luke 22, Rhoda in Acts 12, and the prophesying slave of Acts 16—are placed into dialogue with female slaves found in the Apocryphal Acts, ancient novels, classical texts, and images of enslaved women on funerary monuments. Although ancients typically distrusted the words of slaves, Christy Cobb argues that female slaves in Luke-Acts speak truth to power, even though their gender and status suggest that they cannot. In this Bakhtinian reading, female slaves become truth-tellers and their words confirm aspects of Lukan theology. This exegetical, theoretical, and interdisciplinary book is a substantial contribution to conversations about women and slaves in Luke-Acts and earlyChristian literature.
Additional text
“This is a well-written and clear book that certainly contributes to modern biblical Scholarship … It also brings to the surface the complexity of the biblical narratives, their subtlety, and their capacity for almost endless analysis.” (Thomas M Kelly, Marriage, Families & Spirituality, Vol. 29 (1), 2023)
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"This is a well-written and clear book that certainly contributes to modern biblical Scholarship ... It also brings to the surface the complexity of the biblical narratives, their subtlety, and their capacity for almost endless analysis." (Thomas M Kelly, Marriage, Families & Spirituality, Vol. 29 (1), 2023)
