Writing the Wrongs: Women of the Old Testament among Biblical Commentators from Philo through the Reformation (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology)

305 Pages·2001·19.93 MB·English

by  John L. Thompson

Writing the Wrongs
OXFORD STUDIES IN HISTORICAL THEOLOGY
Series Editor
David C. Steinmetz, Duke University
Editorial Board
Ircna Backus, Universite de Geneve Gerhard Sauter, Rhemische Friedrich-
Robert C. Gregg, Stanford University Wilhelms-Univcrsitat Bonn
George M. Marsden, University of Susan E. Schreiner, University of Chicago
Notre Dame John Van Engen, University of Notre Dame
Wayne A. Mecks, Yale University Geoffrey Wamwnght, Duke University
Heiko A. Oberman, University of Arizona Robert L Wilken, University of Virginia
IMAGES AND RELICS
Theological Perceptions and Visual Images in
Sixteenth-Century Europe
John Dillenberger
THE BODY BROKEN
The Calvmist Doctrine of the Eucharist and the Symbolization
of Power in Sixteenth-Century France
Christopher Elwood
CASSIAN THE MONK
Columba Stewart
HUMAN FREEDOM, CHRISTIAN RIGHTEOUSNESS
Philip Melanchton's Exegetical Dispute with Erasmus of Rotterdam
Timothy J. Wengcrt
PRIMITIVISM, RADICALISM, AND THE LAMB'S WAR
The Baptist-Quaker Conflict in Seventeenth-Century England
T. L. Underwood
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
The ]ohannine Exegesis of Wolfgang Musculus
Craig S. Farmer
THE UNACCOMMODATED CALVIN
Studies in the Foundation of a Theological Tradition
Richard A. Muller
WHAT PURE EYES COULD SEE
Calvin's Doctrine of Faith in Its Exegetical Context
Barbara Pitkin
THE CONFESSIONALIZATION OF HUMANISM
IN REFORMATION GERMANY
Erika Rummel
THE PLEASURE OF DISCERNMENT
Gender, Genre, and Allegorical Rhetoric in
Marguerite de Navarre's Heptameron
Carol Thysell
REFORMATION READINGS OF THE APOCALYPSE
Geneva, Zurich, and Wittenburg
Irena Backus
WRITING THE WRONGS
Women of the Old Testament among Biblical Commentators
from Philo through the Reformation
John L. Thompson
WRITING THE WRONGS
Women of the Old Testament
among Biblical Commentators
from Philo through the Reformation
John L. Thompson
OXPORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Copyright © 2001 by John L. Thompson
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered Trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
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Library of Congress Cataloging-m-Pubhcation Data
Thompson, John Lee
Writing the wrongs, women of the Old Testament among biblical commentators from
Philo through the Reformation /John L, Thompson.
p cm. —(Oxford studies in historical theology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-513736-1
i.Bible O.T. —Criticism, interpretation, etc. —History. 2. Women in the Bible
3 Violence in the Bible. I. Title II Series
681199.Wy ^49 20°i
221.9'22'o82 — dc21 00-057490
Quotations from Luther's Works volumes 3 and 4, copyright 1955 by Concordia Publishing
House, are used with permission under license number oo 6-6.
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 42
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
For Marianne
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Acknowledgments
At the conclusion of a long project, there arc innumerable loose ends to tie up
on the way to publication. This one is the most agreeable —to look back over the
journey and take stock of debts incurred and support received from institutions, col-
leagues, friends, and family.
First, the institutions. I am not a fast writer, or a fast much of anything. I am
therefore especially grateful for institutional support that gave me time off from my
faculty responsibilities, enabling me to think linear thoughts for whole days at a
time. The Pew Evangelical Scholars Program funded a leave for 1994-95; a Lilly
Faculty Fellowship extended my earned sabbatical in 1997-98; and the generous
sabbatical policy of Fuller Theological Seminary contributed additional study time.
Scholars cannot work without libraries, so it is fitting that I thank first of all John
Dickason and the staff of McAlister Library at Fuller Seminary, who obtained nu-
merous obscure sources (including microforms and subscriptions to electronic re-
sources) that made it possible to research European intellectual history in sunny
Southern California. Thanks are also due to the staff of the Huntington Library in
San Marino, California; to the Meeter Center for Calvin Studies at Calvin Semi-
nary, Grand Rapids; and to Terrance Dinovo and the Lutheran Brotherhood Library
at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, which loaned numerous sets of microfiche sources
freely and promptly.
My colleagues and fellow historians here at Fuller—Jim Bradley, Mel Robeck, and
Charlie Scalise—gave helpful feedback during our monthly departmental lunch-
eons, reading portions of every chapter. Charlie in particular went the extra mile,
even sharpening my translation at points. Richard Muller of Calvin Seminary has
been nearly an alter ego at times, interacting with me about method, sources, and
backgrounds with an encyclopedic expertise and generally keeping my spirits up.
Jack Levison of Duke University was invaluable in helping me frame and introduce
this project, and continued to prove in other ways that the rewards of the scholarly
life lie more in the bonds of collaborative friendship than in any printed page.
viii Acknowledgments
Various extracts from this book were read at a number of scholarly meetings, in-
cluding parts of chapters i through 3 at the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference
in 1994, 1995, and 1996; at the American Society of Church History in 1997; and at
the Seventh International Congress for Calvin Research (Seoul) in 1998. Parts of
those presentations later appeared in Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought
and in the Catholic Biblical Quarterly. I owe a word of thanks to my respondents at
these sessions, including Craig Farmer, John Farthing, Gerald Hobbs, Mickey Mat-
tox, Elsie McKee, Barbara Pitkin, David Steinmetz, and Timothy Wengert, all of
whom are far more than mere respondents, but also colleagues and treasured friends.
My work benefited from the generosity of other scholars, too. Robert Hill advised
me on reading Chrysostom, as well as Pseudo-Chrysostom, and Irena Backus further
informed me about the probable career of Pseudo-Chrysostom in various sixteenth-
century editions. David Hunter helped me interpret some of Ambrosiaster's laconic
prose. Arthur Holder and Michael Gorman apprised me of the relationship between
Pseudo-Bede and Rabanus. Bernie Rabenstein and Edward M. Cook of Hebrew
Union College verified references to David Kimhi in the great rabbinic Bibles of the
early sixteenth century, and Stephen Burnett shared his fiche copy of the Pagnini
Bible. Max Engammare allowed me to read one of Calvin's sermons on Genesis in
advance of the appearance of the critical text in the Supplementa Calviniana, while
Tony Lane was of inestimable service in discussing Calvin's sources.
Thanks are due also to other friends and sometime students, including J. Ted
Blakley, who lovingly retouched the illustration of Jephthah's daughter; Cathy Eskew,
who commented on my preliminary draft; and Diana Bailey, who checked page proofs.
The most tedious details were addressed by my graduate assistant, Brian Ebersole,
who must have thought he'd joined the Red-Headed League of Arthur Conan Doyle,
for all the strange and actuarial tasks I pressed upon him, including paging through
every leaf in the eighteen Migne volumes on Chrysostom, counting references to Gen-
esis and Judges in a dozen or so volumes of Schneyer and Stegmiiller, and checking
notes and bibliography.
Finally, there are other important factors deserving of recognition. Two in particular
exerted great influence over the pace of my work. I have already mentioned grants
from the Pew and Lilly Foundations that probably hastened the appearance of this
book by, oh, a decade or so. However, I must confess that the book was then delayed
by maybe a year or two by the regular interruption of vastly more important matters.
These were usually presented by my daughters, Allison and Annelise, in the form of
urgent homework assistance, vital walks to school, crucial bicycle rides, the woefully
needed renovation of a doll house, major construction work on the train set, soccer
games in the front yard (mostly, they won), and, most important of all, the indis-
pensable half hour of bedtime stories. That this book should be both so hastened and
so delayed surely argues for the goodness of God, but I am grateful for these delays
and for the growing companionship of these young women above all.
Writing a book can remind one of other sorts of debts, too. Spending several
years intermittently reading and writing about women of the Old Testament, I in-
evitably came to think about a number of women who have shaped the course of
Acknowledgments ix
my own life and faith, usually more profoundly than I appreciated at the time. They
include Tillie Thompson and Tenia Lundberg; Jane Lundberg Thompson; Carol
Korsmo and Linda Fallstrom; Katey Finney Barker, Janie Baldwin Baker, Lynne
Mitchell Baab, Suzanne Hall Shelton, and Anita Dawkins; Mimi Dixon and Cathy
Fuller; Libbie Patterson; and Mary Meye. Writing a book might seem like an odd
way to say thanks and give honor to those who deserve such things, but I hope those
who read their names here will know that I have not forgotten their friendship, wis-
dom, guidance, or love.
For the inspiration of this study, however, no one is more to be thanked than my
wife and colleague, Marianne Meye Thompson. In April of 1993, at a restaurant in
Pasadena, we discussed how I might study and bring to print the ways culture and
mores can disrupt the nicest of exegetical theories, and she it was who derailed my
intention to study the history of the interpretation of i Corinthians by suggesting a
monograph focusing on the texts of terror. For that, and for years of academic col-
laboration, for the continued joys of shared parenting, for a mutual delight in cre-
ation and culture, and for service yoked together to the church, I am grateful. Un-
like so many self-assured writers, both inside and outside of Christendom today, I
would not claim to understand what it necessarily means to be male or female in
modern (or postmodern) American culture; but I do believe I know what it means
to share one's life and love with another mortal soul, and to behold in her the image,
love, and grace of God. It is to Marianne that this book is dedicated.
La Canada, California J.L.T.
May i, 2000