More excerpts from chapter 7 of the revised and expanded edition of What are They Saying about the Parables?
The last post about the book included a series about studies that were added in the second edition of WATSA Parables? (for earlier contributions and more details about these new sections, see the book).
This post covers a New Testament scholar who is better known for her outstanding work on the Epistle of James and other studies but also makes an important contribution to the study of the parables: Elsa Tamez.
Tamez is a leading proponent of Latin American liberation theology from a feminist perspective who analyzes biblical texts in ways that illuminate often-overlooked elements of oppression. In Latin America, Tamez notes, many people interpret the Bible as a “simple text that speaks of a loving, just, liberating God who accompanies the poor in their suffering and their struggle through human history.” Even in this context, however, some texts in Scripture clearly marginalize or segregate women, and these texts are used in modern patriarchal sexist societies to claim that women’s marginalization is a biblical principle.
In such cases as the parables of Jesus in which male characters dominate and women characters are almost invisible, the first step, Tamez argues, is to distance oneself from established interpretations about what a text means. The second step is to read the text with the understanding that God is on the side of the oppressed—the “hermeneutic key” found in Scripture. The third step is to read the entire Bible (i.e., not just texts that involve women) from a woman’s perspective, a step that involves including other oppressed “sectors” besides the poor. This new way of reading the Bible should result, Tamez declares, not only in experiencing God but also in a practice of justice and caring for other human beings.
Tamez demonstrates this approach in an innovative book, Jesus and Courageous Women, that she hopes will motivate readers “to rethink our lives in relation to the church and to society” (vii). One of the stories is narrated by “Lydia,” a fictional recreation of the woman mentioned in Acts 16. The story includes the parable of the Unjust Judge, in which the “stubborn widow” gives Lydia encouragement to persist in her own resistance to the oppression and injustice she faces: “She reminds me of thousands of women today in our Greek and Roman cities, and also of our ancestors. The widow, the orphan and the foreigner are the most unprotected persons in our culture; they are frequently overlooked and their rights are denied. That is why we find that the statutes in their favor are repeated frequently in the Scriptures” (43–45). Lydia concludes that this parable provides a paradigm for how to respond in an unjust patriarchal society. Women simply cannot allow themselves to be imprisoned in the roles a patriarchal society assigns them. Women must resist and struggle and persevere, because “Jesus provides the guarantee that justice will triumph” (47). Another central message of this parable is that God is in solidarity with the poor and marginalized. God sees them as persons of worth and calls on the followers of Jesus to do likewise (50), and reading parables from the perspective of women opens one’s eyes to the often unchallenged marginalization of women.
Tamez notes that even grassroots interpretations often ignore difficult biblical texts, soften their oppressive content, or say that the marginalization of women reflected in these ancient texts is simply not relevant for the modern world. Tamez counters that the central message of the Bible—and of the parables of Jesus—is profoundly liberating. Therefore, biblical texts that reflect patriarchy are not normative, just as texts that legitimate slavery are not normative (195). Christians are to use “militant patience” while experiencing oppression, marginalization, or even persecution—steadfastness, resistance, and heroic resistance—while continually practicing justice in their own lives, just as the woman acts in the parable of the Unjust Judge.
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