With the same intention, the author of 1 Timothy stated, “I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor” (1 Timothy 2:12-14).
In the second century Tertullian, on the basif of Genesis 3, chided women of his time by saying, “You are the devil’s gateway… you are she who persuaded him whom the devil did not dare attack…. Do you not know that every one of you is an Eve? The sentence of God on your sex lives on in this age; the guilt, of necessity, lives on too” (De Cultu Feminarum I, 12).
Those texts are only a few examples of so many other similar religious texts produced in a male-dominated culture, and therefore should be confronted with other texts created by the hands of courageous female followers of Jesus who oppose misogyny.
That misogyny existed in the mind of male disciples of Jesus is attested clearly in the saying of Mary Magdalene recorded in the gnostic document of the third century titled Pistis Sophia: “My Master, I understand in my mind that I can come forward at any time to interpret what Pistis Sophia has said, but I am afraid of Peter, because he threatens me and hates our gender” (Pistis Sophia 72).
Christian feminists all over the world are currently defying the male interpretation of Christian scriptural and extra-scriptural texts by promoting female-orientated alternative pictures of the Christian faith. One of the feminist boldest expressions of the Christian faith is found in the alternative image they give to the crucified Jesus.
For the Christian feminists, the central and salvific figure can no longer be the male Jesus of Nazareth, but rather the female Jesus who bore her cross, and then was crucified, bloody and naked to the waist with her two dense, filled-up and beautiful breasts being stretched out to the whole world offering pure and life-giving mother’s milk.
Christian feminists all over the world are currently defying the male interpretation of Christian scriptural and extra-scriptural texts by promoting female-orientated alternative pictures of the Christian faith. One of the feminist boldest expressions of the Christian faith is found in the alternative image they give to the crucified Jesus.
For the Christian feminists, the central and salvific figure can no longer be the male Jesus of Nazareth, but rather the female Jesus who bore her cross, and then was crucified, bloody and naked to the waist with her two dense, filled-up and beautiful breasts being stretched out to the whole world offering pure and life-giving mother’s milk.
Imagine, her body’s red blood, as well as her white mother’s milk, give life to the whole suffering and hungry world.
Furthermore, in comparison with the man Jesus, the woman Jesus is factually closer to human blood because she should issue blood during her monthly menstrual period, a period that signifies both the health of her reproductive organs and her natural capability of giving a new human life into the world. For this reason, it is more reasonable to speak about the life-giving blood of a woman Jesus rather than that of a man Jesus.
Perhaps you would agree with me that Jesus as the crucified Mother is more meaningful, more impressive and more articulate than Jesus as the crucified Man if one should meditate on the redemptive and saving significance of the death of Jesus.
I see on the second image above, in her suffering and agony the crucified Mother Jesus lifts her face up to Heaven seeking strength and power she needs to conquer the power of pain and death.
One important question should be answered. Is it justified to portray the crucified Jesus as a woman Jesus?
In European tradition, Juliana of Norwich has called Jesus “Mother.” Historically speaking, Jesus was of course a male, not a female, human being. But symbols or metaphors or artistic imagination transcend history. We should know that when Jesus was standing on the Mount of Olives and viewing the city of Jerusalem from this high place, he employed a female metaphor, a metaphor of “a hen”, to express his will to protect the inhabitants of this great city.
He compassionately and regretfully said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37; par Luke 13:34).
On the basis of that old authentic saying of Jesus, I think the Christian feminists who make use of the portraiture of the woman Jesus to express symbolically their christological point of view are scripturally justified.
Sources of images:
http://www.passionofagoddess.com
http://www.mattstone.blogs.com/photos/female_crucifixion_art/index.html
Sources of images:
http://www.passionofagoddess.com
http://www.mattstone.blogs.com/photos/female_crucifixion_art/index.html
