Historically Engaging but Not Theologically Neutral -- By: Benjamin L. Merkle

Journal: Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Volume: JBMW 16:1 (Spring 2011)
Article: Historically Engaging but Not Theologically Neutral
Author: Benjamin L. Merkle


Historically Engaging but
Not Theologically Neutral

A Review of Lynn H. Cohick, Women in the World of the Earliest Christians.

Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009.

Benjamin L. Merkle

Associate Professor of New Testament and Greek

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Wake Forest, North Carolina

Lynn Cohick is associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and is coauthor of The New Testament in Antiquity (along with Gary M. Burge and Gene L. Green). Because of the various analyses concerning New Testament women, in Women in the World of the Earliest Christians, Cohick seeks to offer, as much as possible, an unbiased description of what women were like and what they did during the time of the New Testament. Her goal is not to present “a theological argument that debates important issues concerning women in the contemporary church” but “to provide an engaging and accurate reconstruction of ancient women’s way of life” (21). In order to accomplish this task, Cohick acknowledges that the data we have about women during Second Temple Judaism must be interpreted correctly. For example, when men write about women we must take into account the “ancient author’s polemics or ulterior motives in describing women” (21). Nevertheless, Cohick is confident that an accurate portrayal of women can be discovered, and thus she does not embrace an extreme hermeneutics of suspicion, which views all texts written by men “to be irredeemably androcentric, patriarchal, and misogynistic” (22).

The goal of Cohick’s book is simply “to tell the story of the average women” (23). She seeks to accomplish this by considering women and their familial relationships (as daughters, ch 1; in marriage, ch 2; as wives, ch 3; and as mothers, ch 4) as well as what women did (in religion, chs 5-6; in work, ch 7; as slaves and prostitutes, ch 8; and as benefactors, ch 9). Cohick considers women from various strata of society by examining not only extant literature but also by analyzing legal documents (such as marriage contracts), inscriptions, and art. She readily acknowledges that this book is not a book on women in the New Testament but is rather a prolegomena to the study of women in the New Testament. Cohick admits, however, that she hopes “to correct the misconceptions about women’s lives that have crept into our modern imagination, such as the notion that first-century AD women were cloistered in their homes” (24).

Although Cohick should be commended for her knowledge and grasp of primary sources (as well as the secondary literature), one wonders how possible it is to present a coherent picture of women that is based on various sources that sp...

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