The Difference Between Women and Men in the Gospel of John. A Historical-critical and Narrative-critical Analysis of the Differences Between Women and Men in John, in light of John 4:27, the Vocative γύναι, and Women’s Agency

The question of the role of women in the Gospel of John has been widely debated after the ground breaking work of Raymond Brown (1975), "Roles of Women in the Fourth Gospel". Since then, we have a number of scholarly researches done on the topic. For instance, Schneiders (1982); Seim (1987); Thiessen (1990); Conway (1999); Bierne (2003) etc deal with the prominent roles of Johannine women assigned with a "quasi-apostolic role" (Brown, 1975) and functioning as "disciples" (Schneiders, 1982). Though these works speak of the implicit gender difference, however, they do not address the question of gender difference explicitly. But what they say presupposes as a priori assumption that men and women do not differ significantly in ways that would justify or necessitate for women to have different roles or offices in the community or for women to be second to or subordinate to men. In the synoptics, we have the presentation of women on one hand as "shadows" of men (Anderson, 1983) and on the hand women as "disciples" (Dewey, 2006), but it is unclear how these evangelists justify this inferiority. If we look at the parallel, contemporary text of the New Testament, the works of Philo, Josephus and "apocryphal texts", we explore that they say explicitly that women are unequal and inferior to men but at the same time acknowledge the necessity of women. Naga folklore share the same ambiguity that women are inferior to men and they are equal to their counterparts as well. My project addresses the issue of gender difference with special attention to the question what makes men different from women. Specifically, in this project, we will be looking at the Gospel of John, the Synoptics, the works of Philo and Josephus, some early Christian "apocrypha" such as gospels of Thomas, Mary and Philip as well as Naga folklore, in order to unveil the legitimization of the treatment of women as inferior to men. Philo's reasoning is based on philosophy of associating rationality to men and irrationality to woman. Josephus traces inferiority back to their creation-based weakness. Naga society justifies the dominance of men based on the biological difference [weakness] of women and their inferior gender roles. But in virtually all the texts, their specific understanding of gender difference is more presupposed than explicitly developed. Hence, it is of utmost importance to research and analyze the mostly implicit legitimatizations which perpetuate gender discrimination. It is important to raise awareness of the implications for women and men and to contribute to transformation in Naga society towards more gender justice. Moreover, this project will be a contribution to scholarly research on women's studies.

Publication year:2024