QUESTIONING THE ‘PERFECT MALE BODY’: A CRITICAL READING OF EPHESIANS 4:13

Abstract

Many scholars are at great pains to interpret and explain the metaphor of the body in the letter to the Ephesians “correctly.” From a reader-response criticism point of view, the notion of a “correct” interpretation is dubious. Metaphors point to realities beyond themselves. We use them to speak about the invisible, to understand and explain human affairs and the world of God. But metaphors are also rooted in the context of the culture and politics that created them. In this paper it is argued that the metaphor of the “perfect male body” is derived from a culture and politics that are gender biased and therefore the metaphor cannot serve as a “true,” “correct” or descriptive image of the church in relationship with the transcendental.