Women Praying and Prophesying: Gender and Inspired Speech in First Corinthians Pubblico

Marshall, Jill (2015)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/6t053g49d?locale=it
Published

Abstract

This project argues that gender is a central issue throughout 1 Corinthians 11-14 and the religious speaking practices in Corinth that prompted it. The tension in Paul's instructions, seen in the apparent contradiction between 1 Cor 11:2-16 and 14:34-35, exhibits the dual and opposing tendency of ancient authors to limit women's speech, yet to view women as particularly adept at communicating with gods. The first chapter provides a history of interpretation of women and speech in 1 Corinthians. The second chapter establishes a local context for Paul's letter by examining evidence for religious speech that is specific to the Roman colony of Corinth. I analyze literary, epigraphical, and archaeological evidence for women prophesying, praying, and speaking in political and religious spaces. The next two chapters examine women's speech in ancient Mediterranean contexts. In the third chapter, I show how authority issues and ambivalence toward women speaking outside of the home occurs when authors consider women's roles in religion, which crosses boundaries between household and state. The fourth chapter analyzes depictions of one prominent form of women's religious speech: oracular prophecy. Dramatic images of women prophesying allowed authors to experiment with ideas about how humans communicate with God(s). The final two chapters interpret 1 Cor 11:2-14:40 in light of these contexts. I argue that the ambiguities in 11:2-16 stem from Paul's ambivalence between his overarching argument for an interdependent communal body and a bias toward gender differentiation and hierarchy. Since the argument is unclear, the passage creates a problem to which he must return--that is, women "praying or prophesying." The arguments in 11:17-14:25 about the assembly, spiritual gifts, the community as body, and inspired speaking allow the rhetorical space for Paul to move from the ambivalent argument in 11:2-16 to the silencing in 14:34-35. The topics of women and inspired speaking are intertwined in this letter and its socio-historical situation.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION (1)

I. From "Women Praying or Prophesying" to "Let Women Be Silent" (2)

II. Project Plan (7)

CHAPTER 1--WOMEN'S SPEECH IN CORINTH: RHETORIC AND HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION (12)

I. Reading 1 Corinthians and Reconstructing the Corinthian Situation (12)

A. Ferdinand Christian Baur's Corinthian Factions (13)

B. Sources of Problems: Gnosticism, Realized Eschatology, or Paul's Teachings (14)

C. The Sociological Turn: Theissen, Meeks, and Schüssler Fiorenza (18)

II. Women in the Corinthian Assembly (22)

A. Men and Women in Worship and the Galatians 3:28 Connection (24)

B. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza on Paul's Ambivalent Impact for Women (28)

C. Antoinette Clark Wire's Corinthian Women Prophets (30)

D. Jorunn Økland and the Discourse of Gender and Sanctuary Space (32)

III. Defining Prophecy and Praying in Tongues (34)

A. Origins and Backgrounds for Prophecy and Tongues (36)

B. Form and Content of Prophecy and Tongues (38)

C. The Question of Mental States and Ecstasy (39)

D. Paul's Rhetorical Goals in Defining Inspired Speech (41)

IV. Women Prophets in Ancient Mediterranean Divination (43)

A. Cataloging and Defining Divination (44)

B. The Anthropological Turn: Jean-Pierre Vernant and Followers (46)

C. Gender Dynamics in Oracular Institutions (48)

V. Summary of Research and Questions Remaining (51)

CHAPTER 2--WOMEN PRAYING AND PROPHESYING: ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FROM CORINTH (57)

I. Introducing Corinth (57)

A. History and Archaeology (57)

B. Temples and Religious Spaces in Roman Corinth (62)

II. Women's Presence in the Roman Forum: Inscriptions (64)

III. Women Praying: Devotion to Demeter and Isis (68)

A. The Sanctuary of Demeter in the Roman Period (68)

1. Earliest Use: Curse Tablets on the Lower Terrace (69)

2. Temple Construction in the Late First Century (77)

B. Sanctuaries for Isis in Corinth and Kenchreai (82)

1. Literary Evidence: Pausanias and Apuleius (82)

2. Archaeological Evidence (83)

3. Apuleius's Isis Festival in Kenchreai (Metamorphoses, Book XI) (86)

IV. Women Prophesying: Corinth and Oracular Temples of Apollo (90)

A. Connections to Trans-Regional Oracles (90)

B. Apollo Temples and Images in Corinth (94)

V. Conclusion (96)

CHAPTER 3--AMBIVALENCE TOWARD WOMEN'S SPEECH: LIVY, PHILO, AND PLUTARCH (98)

I. Livy's History: Roman Matrons Speaking in the Forum (100)

II. Philo of Alexandria: Women and the Female Part of the Soul (109)

A. Philo's Gender Dualism (111)

B. De Specialibus Legibus 3.169-80: Spaces for Women's Speech (113)

C. De Vita Contemplativa: Men, Women, and Ecstatic Speech (119)

III. Plutarch: Virtue and Speech in State and Household (134)

A. Women's Form, Fame, and Speech in Mulierum Virtutes (135)

B. Women Inside and Outside of the Home in Conjugalia Praecepta (139)

IV. Conclusion (147)

CHAPTER 4--IMAGINING WOMEN PROPHETS: THE PYTHIA AND SIBYL IN PHILOSOPHICAL, POETIC, AND ORACULAR LITERATURE (148)

I. Philosophical Traditions (154)

A. History and Philosophy: Interrogating Communication with Gods (154)

1. Herodotus's History (155)

2. Plato's Three Forms of Madness (157)

B. The Pythia in Plutarch's De defectu oracularum and De Pythiae oraculis (159)

II. Poetic Traditions (172)

A. Poetry: Dramatizing Communication with Gods (172)

1. Aeschylus's Cassandra (173)

2. Latin Epic Poetry: Virgil and Ovid (175)

B. The Sacrifice of the Pythia in Lucan's De bello civili (178)

III. Oracular Traditions (189)

A. Prophecy: Recording Communication with Gods (189)

1. Male and Female Prophets in the Hebrew Bible (189)

2. Sibylline Collections in Greek and Roman Traditions (194)

B. The Sibyl's Embodiment of Apocalyptic Prophecy in the Sibylline Oracles (196)

IV. Conclusion (209)

CHAPTER 5--AN AMBIVALENT ARGUMENT: EXEGESIS OF 1 CORINTHIANS 11:2-16 (210)

I. The Structure and Difficulties of 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 (212)

II. The Situation: Keeping Traditions, Praying, and Prophesying (11:2) (214)

III. Theological Premise: Heads and Bodies (11:3) (217)

IV. Cultural Norms of Gender Differentiation (11:4-6) (222)

V. Creation Narratives and Gender Identity (11:7-12) (225)

VI. More Cultural Arguments: Propriety, Nature, and Custom (11:13-16) (235)

CHAPTER 6--THE ARGUMENTATIVE MOVEMENT FROM 1 CORINTHIANS 11:16 TO 14:40 (239)

I. Argumentative Movements in 11:17-14:25 (239)

A. The Ritual Meal in Assembly: 1 Cor 11:17-34 (240)

B. Voiceless Idols, One Speaking Spirit: 1 Cor 12:1-11 (243)

C. The Body of Christ: 1 Cor 12:12-31 (249)

D. A Better Way: 1 Cor 13:1-13 (254)

E. Defining Prophecy and Praying in Tongues: 1 Cor 14:1-25 (257)

1. Pursue Prophecy in Order to Build Up (14:1-5) (258)

2. The Limited Efficacy of Speaking in Tongues (14:6-12) (260)

3. Mindlessness of Speaking in Tongues (14:13-19) (262)

4. Responses of Outsiders to Inspired Speech (14:20-25) (263)

II. Instructions for Order when Praying or Prophesying in 14:26-40 (269)

A. The Textual Integrity of 14:34-35 (270)

B. The Rhetorical Integrity of 14:26-40 (274)

III. Conclusion (283)

CONCLUSION (285)

I. Summary: The Gender Dynamics of Inspired Speech (285)

II. Implications for this Research (291)

FIGURES (294)

BIBLIOGRAPHY (310)

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