A Feminist Companion to Mark

Abstract

A Feminist Companion Mark, edited by Amy-Jill Levine and Marianne Blickenstaff. Feminist Companion New Testament and Early Christian Writings 2. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001. Pp. 261. $29.95. In my office I have divided my books into various categories. One of these categories is labeled and includes commentaries, monographs, and journals related that field. Another one of these categories is labeled theory and includes books on literary criticism, feminism, and postcolonial theory. This book will definitely find its place in former category stacked alongside other commentaries and monographs on Gospel of Mark. That title belongs more properly among my biblical studies monographs than among my theoretical texts is testimony both centrality of feminist perspective in current exegesis and nature of this collection of essays itself, which seeks illumine text just as much, if not more, than it seeks address modern feminist concerns. Even though A Feminist Companion Mark is modeled on Athalya Brenner's Feminist Companion Bible, this collection should be essential reading for all serious students of Mark, including those few scholars who are still wont dismiss feminist readings as a fad or political. In fact, what strikes me most about this collection is willingness of authors move toward less unified feminist reading of text, developing instead more nuanced, even ambiguous approach text that admittedly was formed in patriarchal world. Joanna Dewey, who should be considered one of pioneers in feminist study of Bible, takes on text that is not normally associated with feminist reading of Mark: injunction to deny oneself (8:34). She notes that many traditional readings of this text seem make suffering redemptive, perspective that has tended encourage Christian tolerate injustice as part of their self-denial. But Dewey reads this saying in an ancient context with very different understanding of self. In that context self would be understood in terms of traditional ties within kinship group so that to deny self, then, is deny one's kin. With this reading, denying oneself is not so much encouraging self-sacrifice as it is encouraging one follow Jesus-a move that will invite persecution. Dewey argues that this reading better fits Mark's overall message on suffering, namely, that suffering is evil and will be brought an end by coming of new age. Deborah Krause offers reading of healing of Peter's mother-in-law that goes against grain of some earlier feminist readings of this text (e.g., Tolbert and Selvidge). These other readings note that serving in Mark's Gospel is something angels do for Jesus and something that Jesus encourages of his disciples-the very thing mother-in-law does upon her healing. However, Krause argues that woman's life was not transformed by her encounter with Jesus (i.e., she was not liberated from her traditional position) but had return her culturally prescribed role. Still, Krause sees utopian moment in woman's healing. Wendy Cotter considers stories of Woman with Hemorrhage and Raising of Jairus' Daughter. She notes that these stories seem have been linked in pre-Markan tradition, and she asks what this might mean. She analyzes hemorrhaging woman in terms of Mark's apology for her behavior by comparing it standards of female behavior found in Valerius Maximus, Pliny, and Tertullian. seen in this light, Jesus' response woman indicates that he is free from the need for public honors, and also from need dominate women (p. 60). Cotter analyzes Jairus story by comparing it other ancient resurrections performed by Asclepius, Hercules, Elijah, Elisha, Apollonius of Tyana, Empedocles, and Asclepiades. …