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Papers by S. S. Bartchy
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Leaven , 2012
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The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary , 1992
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[for private use only; reproduction only with author’s permission©] WHO SHOULD BE CALLED FATHER? ... more [for private use only; reproduction only with author’s permission©] WHO SHOULD BE CALLED FATHER? PAUL OF TARSUS BETWEEN THE JESUS TRADITION & PATRIA POTESTAS presented on 23 January 2003 to the Institute for Antiquity & Christianity, Claremont Graduate University by S. S COTT B ARTCHY Professor of History University of California, Los Angeles Who should be called “father”? What an odd question. Doesn’t everyone in every culture grow up calling the male who begot them their linguistic equivalent of “father”? In the world of Jesus and Paul, everyone knew the answer to that question. And it included reference not only to their male blood progenitors, and perhaps to their fathers’ fathers, but also to the emperor at Rome, the pater patriae, the “father of the fatherland.” As Nicholas Purcell observes, “The title was eloquently suggestive of the protecting but coercive authority of the paterfamilias”(Oxford Classical Dictionary 3 rd ed.1996:1121). In Roman culture this nearly absolute, coercive authority was called patria potestas, which in its range included the father’s power of life and death over his children, beginning in infancy when a father chose to acknowledge and rear a child or “to expose” it, that is, throw the child away. The second-century Roman jurist Gaius noted that “there are hardly any other men who have over their children a power such as we have.” From ancient Republican times, Roman fathers had been permitted by law to sell their sons into slavery — as many as three times. Yet during the Empire, paternal monopoly on the control of property probably influenced the behavior of sons and daughters more than their father’s legal right to execute them. As Richard Saller has stressed, writers such as Cicero, Seneca, and Plutarch urged fathers to use encouragement and reasoning rather than blows or ill treatment as the means to lead their children to honorable lives. Paternal moderation, even toward serious filial misbehavior, was praised as a virtue (see the bibliography page for all the following references). And family affection and genuine respect could motivate the obedience of children, as Judith Hallett has especially documented for Roman daughters. However the children were motivated, their father was to be obeyed absolutely; and the deeply felt appropriateness of this demand was rooted in Roman male ideology, according to which children, slaves, and women all lacked full powers of judgment. Thus grown daughters and sons were usually bound by their father’s authority until he died. Until then they could own no property, and any of their earnings or gifts they received belonged by law to their father. His consent was necessary for the marriage of both sons and daughters, and he could coerce a divorce. In the sine manu form of marriage that prevailed from the late Republic on into the Empire, the wife remained under the authority of her father. And legislation by Augustus further assured fathers that they possessed considerably more authority over their married daughters than their husbands could have. This fact will be particularly relevant later when I invite you to reconsider Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians, Bartchy, “Who Should Be Called Father?” copyright © 2003 Page 1 of 16
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Biblical Theology Bulletin a Journal of Bible and Theology , May 1, 1999
The closest family tie in the ancient Mediterranean society was experienced among siblings. Paul ... more The closest family tie in the ancient Mediterranean society was experienced among siblings. Paul of Tarsus followed the historical Jesus in his attempts 1) to undermine the authority and social cohesiveness of the blood kin group and patriarchal family, 2) to offer an alternative family structure made up of surrogate “brothers and sisters, ” and 3) to make viable a first-century Mediterranean person's choosing to live in such an alternative, trust-based form of social relations by means of a profound redefining of the competitive honor code into which all males had been socialized. Paul's goal was not the creation of an egalitarian community in the political sense, but a well-functioning family in the kinship sense, a family without fathers in which the “strong” would use their strength not for themselves but to empower the “weak.”
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Biblical Interpretation , 2013
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Pastoral Psychology , 2005
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Journal of Religion , 1977
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Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology , 2003
Abstract According to the family values that characterized the cultures in which Jesus of Nazaret... more Abstract According to the family values that characterized the cultures in which Jesus of Nazareth and Paul of Tarsus were socialized, the authority of fathers over their children was unquestioned and almost without limits. All children were taught that filial piety was ...
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Center For the Study of Religion , Jan 23, 2003
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Leaven , 2012
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The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary , 1992
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[for private use only; reproduction only with author’s permission©] WHO SHOULD BE CALLED FATHER? ... more [for private use only; reproduction only with author’s permission©] WHO SHOULD BE CALLED FATHER? PAUL OF TARSUS BETWEEN THE JESUS TRADITION & PATRIA POTESTAS presented on 23 January 2003 to the Institute for Antiquity & Christianity, Claremont Graduate University by S. S COTT B ARTCHY Professor of History University of California, Los Angeles Who should be called “father”? What an odd question. Doesn’t everyone in every culture grow up calling the male who begot them their linguistic equivalent of “father”? In the world of Jesus and Paul, everyone knew the answer to that question. And it included reference not only to their male blood progenitors, and perhaps to their fathers’ fathers, but also to the emperor at Rome, the pater patriae, the “father of the fatherland.” As Nicholas Purcell observes, “The title was eloquently suggestive of the protecting but coercive authority of the paterfamilias”(Oxford Classical Dictionary 3 rd ed.1996:1121). In Roman culture this nearly absolute, coercive authority was called patria potestas, which in its range included the father’s power of life and death over his children, beginning in infancy when a father chose to acknowledge and rear a child or “to expose” it, that is, throw the child away. The second-century Roman jurist Gaius noted that “there are hardly any other men who have over their children a power such as we have.” From ancient Republican times, Roman fathers had been permitted by law to sell their sons into slavery — as many as three times. Yet during the Empire, paternal monopoly on the control of property probably influenced the behavior of sons and daughters more than their father’s legal right to execute them. As Richard Saller has stressed, writers such as Cicero, Seneca, and Plutarch urged fathers to use encouragement and reasoning rather than blows or ill treatment as the means to lead their children to honorable lives. Paternal moderation, even toward serious filial misbehavior, was praised as a virtue (see the bibliography page for all the following references). And family affection and genuine respect could motivate the obedience of children, as Judith Hallett has especially documented for Roman daughters. However the children were motivated, their father was to be obeyed absolutely; and the deeply felt appropriateness of this demand was rooted in Roman male ideology, according to which children, slaves, and women all lacked full powers of judgment. Thus grown daughters and sons were usually bound by their father’s authority until he died. Until then they could own no property, and any of their earnings or gifts they received belonged by law to their father. His consent was necessary for the marriage of both sons and daughters, and he could coerce a divorce. In the sine manu form of marriage that prevailed from the late Republic on into the Empire, the wife remained under the authority of her father. And legislation by Augustus further assured fathers that they possessed considerably more authority over their married daughters than their husbands could have. This fact will be particularly relevant later when I invite you to reconsider Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians, Bartchy, “Who Should Be Called Father?” copyright © 2003 Page 1 of 16
Bookmarks Related papers Mentions View impact
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Biblical Theology Bulletin a Journal of Bible and Theology , May 1, 1999
The closest family tie in the ancient Mediterranean society was experienced among siblings. Paul ... more The closest family tie in the ancient Mediterranean society was experienced among siblings. Paul of Tarsus followed the historical Jesus in his attempts 1) to undermine the authority and social cohesiveness of the blood kin group and patriarchal family, 2) to offer an alternative family structure made up of surrogate “brothers and sisters, ” and 3) to make viable a first-century Mediterranean person's choosing to live in such an alternative, trust-based form of social relations by means of a profound redefining of the competitive honor code into which all males had been socialized. Paul's goal was not the creation of an egalitarian community in the political sense, but a well-functioning family in the kinship sense, a family without fathers in which the “strong” would use their strength not for themselves but to empower the “weak.”
Bookmarks Related papers Mentions View impact
Biblical Interpretation , 2013
Bookmarks Related papers Mentions View impact
Pastoral Psychology , 2005
Bookmarks Related papers Mentions View impact
Journal of Religion , 1977
Bookmarks Related papers Mentions View impact
Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology , 2003
Abstract According to the family values that characterized the cultures in which Jesus of Nazaret... more Abstract According to the family values that characterized the cultures in which Jesus of Nazareth and Paul of Tarsus were socialized, the authority of fathers over their children was unquestioned and almost without limits. All children were taught that filial piety was ...
Bookmarks Related papers Mentions View impact
Center For the Study of Religion , Jan 23, 2003
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Papers by S. S. Bartchy