Making Mary Male: the Categories ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ in the Gospel of Thomas
The Coptic Gospel of Thomas is one of the most spectacular of the fifty-two tractates filling the thirteen codices of the Nag Hammadi library. Discovered in December 1945 by several Egyptian fellahin, the Nag Hammadi tractates were subjected to a variety of political and scholarly ploys, and were not made available in their entirety until the very end of 1977, when the last of the volumes of manuscript pages in the Facsimile Edition and the one-volume edition of The Nag Hammadi Library in English finally appeared.1 One of the very first of the documents to be published was the Gospel of Thomas, and its appearance has already stimulated the production of numerous articles and monographs by the scholars who have recognized its significance for our knowledge of Christian origins and early church history. Since the time of its initial publication scholars have suggested a variety of interpretations of the Gospel, and to date no consensus has been reached. Yet, in my estimation, a reasonably strong case can be made that the Gospel of Thomas, in its present form, belongs at least on the periphery of Christian Gnosticism, and to that extent the Coptic text may be termed a gnosticizing gospel.2
What's Wrong With This Picture? John 4, Cultural Stereotypes of Women, and Public and Private Space
Since John 4 makes much of gender issues, readers must know the typical cultural expectations in antiquity concerning females in terms of places, times, persons, and things. Initially, the Samaritan woman appears to be shamefully "out of place" at the well at noon; but as she is transformed into a disciple, she becomes "in place," and so her actions and behavior are judged appropriate within the fictive-kinship circle of disciples. Thus she moves from "public" to "private" space, with corresponding shifts in behavior and evaluation. According to cultural expectations, she represents the quintessential deviant (non-Jew, unclean, shameless, even sinner); but in her transformation, she exemplifies the radical inclusivity of Jesus' circle.
Continents of Liberty: Emerson and Gerald Vizenor’s Chair of Tears
Ralph Waldo Emerson protested what came to be known as the Trail of Tears in a public letter to President Martin Van Buren in 1838. Th e Cherokee Nation, he argued, had been cheated by a “sham treaty” (Emerson, “Letter” 50), the will of the people ignored, and a false acquiescence to removal written into law. In making a passionate appeal to the highest “chair” of the land, Emerson underscored the great political and moral stakes involved: