Today in my 16th Century Literature class I had a new experience.
We are discussing Castiglione's Book of the Courtier, and today's topic was Book Three, in which his interlocutors discuss the relationship between the sexes.
Student X says the following as we get close to the end of the class (I can't remember the words exactly; what follows is a paraphrase of our conversation: "Well, before Constantine created the Bible, women were in fact equal. Jesus's wife walked beside him."
me: uh, Constantine? Wife?
Student X: "Mary didn't walk behind Christ, but beside him."
me: Mary? You mean his mother Mary?
Student Y: "No, Mary Magdalen."
Student X: "Yeah, Mary Magdalen."
me: !!!!!!!!!!!!! Jesus was married??
Student X: "Certainly. In the Jewish tradition, the bridegroom handles the wine, so in the wedding at Cana, Jesus would have had no reason to handle the wine if he were not the one getting married."
me: (glancing around and seeing the natives beginning to get restless) I've never heard any of this before! I'd be interested to know what your source material is on all this . . .
Student X: "Oh, the gnostic tradition."
me: (almost snorting) aha, I understand a bit better now.
Student X: "Yes, see, when Constantine made the Bible, they changed a lot, and that was when women were treated as subordinate to men."
me: (hearing Twilight Zone music) I'm gonna quibble with your history a bit--the Hebrew Scriptures predate Constantine by a good long while and there's pretty clear hierarchy going on there... but anyway . . . what were we talking about? I can't remember. I've lost the thread. We're out of time anyway, so I guess you all should just go . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment