The women at the tomb: What are they doing there?

Carolyn Osiek

doi:10.4102/hts.v53i1/2.1600

Abstract

This article will explore the role and junction of the women in the empty tomb narratives of the Gospel tradition. What purpose do they play in the resurrection kerygma of the early church? Why is the story of their first arrival at the tomb so persistent that it continues into the later apocryphal gospels? The discussion of this question will be in three parts: part one will summarize some of the work on these passages that has been done by scholars using the tools of redaction criticism. Part two will examine some of the surrounding issues from the perspective of social history and social construction of meaning, especially with regard to women's subcultures, roles in burial customs, and public testimony. Part three will apply to these findings a feminist analysis using both a hermeneutic of suspicion and of remembrance.

Highlights

This article will explore the role and function of the women in the empty tomb narratives of the Gospel tradition. What purpose do they play in the resurrection kerygma of the early church? Why is the story of their first arrival at the tomb so persistent that it continues into the later apocryphal gospels? It has become an exegetical commonplace that women could riot be legal witnesses in ancient Judaism, and these tomb narratives were not counted among official appearance stories
Why women? It would seem to have fit the kerygmatic purposes of early Christian preaching eminently better to have the male disciples come first to the tomb' - or, if it be argued that, having fled at the arrest according to the narrative, they would not have known. where the tomb was, even Joseph of Arimathea, who surely could have come to check on his handiwork!
Common to the Synoptics is that they (Mary Magdalene and at least one other) received a message from someone(s) to interpret the meaning as the resurrection of Jesus

Summary

INTRODUCTION

This article will explore the role and function of the women in the empty tomb narratives of the Gospel tradition What purpose do they play in the resurrection kerygma of the early church? It has become an exegetical commonplace that women could riot be legal witnesses in ancient Judaism, and these tomb narratives were not counted among official appearance stories. If this is so, why were these narratives preserved at all? It is thought by some biblical scholars that the empty tomb stories are secondary to the appearance stories, and even perhaps invented by Mark Why women? It would seem to have fit the kerygmatic purposes of early Christian preaching eminently better to have the male disciples come first to the tomb' - or, if it be argued that, having fled at the arrest according to the narrative, they would not have known. where the tomb was, even Joseph of Arimathea, who surely could have come to check on his handiwork!

REDACTIONAL EMPHASES

SOCIOLOGICAL ISSUES

A FEMINIST ANALYSIS