Comparative aging: how early Christian widows illuminate age and aging today

Abstract

ABSTRACT In a late first century CE Christian text, we find a rather odd sentiment: a widow should be “put on a list” if she is “not less than sixty” (1 Timothy 5:9). In this article, questions around these phrases form a basis for a comparison of age and aging in the ancient Mediterranean and in the author’s own twenty-first century Canadian context, exploring universal aspects of aging and culturally conditioned understanding of age. Comparisons of life expectancy, definitions of age, gendered expectations, intergenerational relationships, and perception of time shed light on aspects of age and aging that we might not otherwise consider.