The parable of the Two Mothers: An unhiding reading of the parable of the Prodigal Son

Verbum et Ecclesia

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The parable of the Two Mothers: An unhiding reading of the parable of the Prodigal Son
 
Creator du Toit, Charel D.
 
Subject New Testament; Theology Prodigal Son; Two Mothers; gender-based violence; parables; counter-narrative; feminism; women; unhiding
Description The parable of the Prodigal Son is traditionally viewed from an androcentric perspective, focusing on the male characters, such as the father and brothers. However, this article suggests that the original listeners may have perceived female characters as present and significant. It briefly explores the roles of the Prodigal’s mother and the father’s mother, proposing an alternative interpretation. Evidence indicates that a 1st-century audience might have envisioned a parallel narrative, termed ‘the Parable of the Two Mothers’, within the story. This imagined parallel parable could reflect the high-context understanding of the original hearers. The article aims to reconstruct this proposed parallel parable not only as a potentially imagined narrative within the Prodigal Son but also as a counter-narrative tool. This tool seeks to aid faith communities in addressing gender-based violence (GBV) by offering a narrative device that brings women’s voices to the forefront in congregational and social contexts.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The interdisciplinary nature of this article contributes to the debate on the roles and importance of women in the church by investigating the value that women had in the parables of Jesus. Furthermore, this article promotes an inclusive reading of biblical texts aiming to combat the pandemic of GBV in South African communities. By reading women as present in the text, emphasis is given to the voices of women in the Bible and the importance of their representation today. This research is also in line with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Gender equality and women empowerment.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2024-08-30
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Social Scientific, Social Historical, Feminist
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ve.v45i1.3169
 
Source Verbum et Ecclesia; Vol 45, No 1 (2024); 6 pages 2074-7705 1609-9982
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/3169/7607 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/3169/7608 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/3169/7609 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/3169/7610
 
Coverage First-century Mediterranean, Palistine First Century Gender, Feminism
Rights Copyright (c) 2024 Charel D. du Toit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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