A Feminist Interpretation and Reconstruction of John 7:53-8:11 in the Light Violence against Women and Its Implications Today
- August 1, 2019
- Posted by: RSIS
- Categories: Religion & Society, Religion and Cultural Studies
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue VII, July 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186
Ubong E. Eyo, Ph.D.
Department of Religious and Cultural Studies, University of Calabar, Nigeria
Abstract: – This paper investigates “A Feminist Interpretation and Reconstruction of John 7:53-8:11 in the light violence Against Women and its Implications Today.” This comes on the heels of the fact that violence against women is not only a fact of the contemporary times but was there in the days of Jesus Christ. The paper using two major theories of Feminist hermeneutics, especially the Hermeneutics of Recounting Tales of Terror in Memoriam and the Hermeneutic of Documenting Cases Against Women in the Bible and social feminism theories of Radical Feminism and Liberal Feminism. This work brought to the fore that in most interpretation of John 7:53-8:11, the emphasis has been on forgiveness of sin and the issue of ὁ ἀναμάρτητος (that is one without sin) without any note about the andriarchal system of which the ‘adulterous’ woman was a victim of. This paper which used the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) as its preferred translation because of its gender sensitivity arrived at the conclusion that, the whole episode was male orchestrated; the Scribes and Pharisees bringing the woman to be judged by Jesus without the man in the alleged “adultery” case tantamount to judging the female fold different from the male fold; and that, there was no actual committing of adultery by the woman who was brought to Jesus, but she was brought to Jesus because of the inferiority, weak and vulnerable place of women in Jesus’ andriarchal community. Hence, Jesus setting the woman free typified the role of religion as the vanguard in ending violence against women.
Key words: Feminism, Andriarchal, violence against women.
I. INTRODUCTION
Often than not, the interpretation given to biblical text have always been such that follows the tradition of the church. Recent studies have shed more lights on some texts of scriptures bringing to the fore views on the same texts from different perspectives of interpretations. Scriptural texts are now interpreted using the same old tools of hermeneutics and exegesis but with more current applications and social concerns.
