Under Her Wings: Mothers and Motherhood in the New Testament (Jennifer Houston McNeel) - Review
The Bible is androcentric. Most of
the primary characters are male, and patriarchy is prominent. Nevertheless,
there are enough passages that speak of women or use feminine imagery for us to
broaden our picture of God and our view of the community of faith. When it
comes to motherhood in the New Testament, most stories involving actual mothers
are found in the Gospels. In contrast, more metaphorical imagery is found not
only in the Gospels but also in the remainder of the New Testament. It is good
to be regularly reminded of this truth.
In Under Her Wings: Mothers and Motherhood in the New Testament, Jennifer Houston McNeel provides us with
an insightful look at the role mothers and motherhood play in the New Testament.
McNeel is a faculty member at St. Mary's
Ecumenical Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Her scholarly work has focused on
the social world of the New Testament, with special interest in the role of
women in the New Testament. She writes on this topic in part because the Bible
tends to be androcentric, so we need to look deeper at what is said there
regarding motherhood. She also engages in this scholarly work because she is
herself, a mother. While this book isn't devotional or autobiographical in
nature, she acknowledges that being a mother does color her approach to these
texts. Therefore, Under Her Wings is rooted in both personal and
academic interests. She also notes that while mothers play important roles in
the biblical story, they are largely absent from biblical studies. The fact
that she has taken up this task is good news to the reader of scripture who
desires a fuller picture.
While McNeel focuses on mothers and
motherhood in the New Testament, she recognizes that you can't study the role
of mothers and motherhood in the New Testament without taking stock of the
mothers who inhabit the Old Testament and the larger Greco-Roman World. With
that in mind, she titles the first chapter "New Testament Motherhood in
Context." It is here that she offers brief descriptions of mothers in the
Old Testament and in the Greco-Roman world. She doesn't go into depth, but she
reminds us that there is a larger context in which this conversation takes
place.
Having set the context, McNeel
begins her journey through the New Testament, beginning in chapter 2 with the
"Women of Matthew's Birth Narrative," a chapter titled
"Unconventional Motherhood.” The word “unconventional” is important
because it speaks to the four mothers who are present in Matthew’s genealogy,
as well as Mary's own experience of motherhood, which includes both connection
and suffering. From Matthew's birth narrative, we turn in chapter 3, titled
"Connected Mothers," to a focus on "Mary and Elizabeth in Luke's
Birth Narrative." While she focuses on these two mothers, NcNeel also
connects Mary with Hannah. This connection includes their prayers, which,
though they are different, have similarities. In addition, McNeel discusses
Mary's labor and delivery, along with her mindfulness and suffering as
presented in Luke, and the likelihood that she would have been Jesus' primary
teacher. She writes that "No other New Testament Gospel gives as much
attention to women and motherhood at the beginning of the story as Luke
does" (p. 43), which is an important point to remember. Chapter 4 focuses
on "The Mother of Jesus in the Gospel of John." The chapter is titled
"Mothering a Grown-up Messiah," in which she reminds us that while John
may not have a birth narrative, his mother plays an important role in the story.
This role begins with the wedding at Cana and ends at the foot of the cross,
placing his mother at important moments in the story.
When we turn to chapter 5, the
focus changes from Mary to other mothers and the role of motherhood as found in
the miracle stories of the Synoptic Gospels. This chapter is titled
"Mothers in Crisis" and begins with the story of the healing of Simon's
Mother-in-law, a story that appears in all three synoptic gospels. She raises
important questions, including why Peter's mother-in-law was present in the
house. These questions help us better understand the role that families play in
the lives of first-century women. The other mothers include the largely
undefined mother of Jairus' daughter, the Syrophoenician/Canaanite woman and
her sick daughter, who is healed through an encounter with Jesus, along with
the widow of Nain, whose son Jesus raised from the dead in Luke’s gospel.
Not all of the stories are
positive. In a chapter titled "Bad Mothers?" McNeel lifts up the
ambivalent words found in the synoptic gospels about family. Therefore, we have
the stories about Jesus' own family, as well as the mother of the man born
blind in John, who ignores her son. Then there is the mother of James and John,
who demands that Jesus favor her sons over the others. We can't forget Herodias
and what she put her daughter through to get John the Baptist executed. So, we
have portrayals of mothers that range from the ambiguous to the evil.
What we've read so far lifts up in
one way or another the role of actual mothers in the New Testament, but there
are also metaphorical images of motherhood in the Gospels. Chapter 7, which is
titled “Mother Jesus,” explores one of the best-known metaphors. That is Jesus’
use of the image of the Mother Hen to describe his desire to protect and
nurture Jerusalem. A bit more esoteric is the concept of Jesus as Sophia
(wisdom). There is also birth imagery in the Gospel of John, including Jesus'
message to Nicodemus that he needed to be born from above. McNeel points out
that "When the Bible employs female imagery, motherhood plays a prominent
role. God, Jesus, Jerusalem, Woman Wisdom, and the Spirit are all portrayed as
mothers in the Gospels" (P. 91).
She titles Chapter 8 "A Brief
Interlude" because there is very little information about mothers in the
Book of Acts. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is mentioned in Acts 1 along with some
other women, along with his siblings, but otherwise she is largely absent. Then
there is Mary, the mother of John Mark, who hosts the community to which Peter
appears after being liberated from jail. Finally, there is Timothy's mother,
who gets a brief mention.
With the transitional text of the
Book of Acts noted, we move to the remainder of the New Testament. Chapter 9 is
titled "Motherhood Sidelined." Here, McNeel focuses on the undisputed
or earlier letters of Paul. She reveals how Paul makes use of Old Testament
mothers, including Eve, Sarah, Hagar, and Rebecca, with both Hagar and Rebecca being
examined in relation to Sarah. There are also women Paul mentions who may have
been mothers, with special focus on Rufus' Mother, mentioned in Romans 16. Paul
speaks of Rufus' mother in terms of being a mother to him. There is also the
unnamed stepmother who is in an inappropriate relationship with her stepson in
1 Corinthians. Then there is Paul's own mother, whom he mentions in passing,
"or at least to her womb as his place of origin." Ultimately, Paul
gives little attention to mothers and motherhood in his letters. That being
said, he does make use of metaphors of motherhood in these earlier letters. So,
in chapter 10, which is titled "Mother Paul," she begins with the
reference to the connection of birth pangs to the end times in 1 Thessalonians,
as well as the reference to creation experiencing labor in Romans 8. Paul even
describes himself in terms of being a woman in labor in Galatians 4. Here, Paul
speaks of being pregnant with the Galatian believers. Then in 1 Corinthians 15,
Paul speaks of being untimely born, which might have several meanings. In 1
Thessalonians, Paul makes an unusual turn by describing himself as a nursing
mother. In a related move, Paul speaks in 1 Corinthians of feeding the
believers with milk, which may have breastfeeding connotations. While these
images are not unique to Paul, they are unusual for a first-century Jewish man
to use. From these letters, we turn in chapter 11, which is titled "Saved
through Childbearing?" to the later or disputed letters. These include
Colossians, Ephesians, and the Pastorals. While these letters have much to say
about women, she focuses on motherhood. She addresses questions of authorship
and social location before examining the household codes in Colossians and
Ephesians. She also takes note of the role of mothers in pastoral epistles,
including the controversial statement about women being saved through
childbearing. I won't provide her interpretation, but she does address it, as
best as one can. Then there is a discussion of widowed mothers and more. One
thing she does is note that as the church moves from being a movement to being
an organization, we see the authors of the New Testament letters seeking to
guide the believers to try to fit into their context so they can survive and
continue their mission.
From Paul, including both disputed
and undisputed letters, we move in Chapter 12, a chapter titled “Foremothers
and Spiritual Milk,” to Hebrews and the General Epistles. In these
books/letters, there are references to God giving birth, more breastfeeding
imagery, and descriptions of the church as mother (2 John 1). There are also
references to Old Testament mothers, especially in Hebrews. These include the
foremothers of Hebrews 11—Sarah, Moses' biological and adoptive mothers, Rahab,
along with the women who received their dead through resurrection. Sarah and
Rahab appear elsewhere in these letters as well. The focus in these letters is
identity, so these mothers provide resources for those discussions.
The penultimate chapter focuses on
"Mothers and Motherhood in Revelation" (Chapter 13). This chapter is titled
"A Dragon in the Delivery Room." This may be the most intriguing
chapter in the book since she discusses the various ways women are portrayed in
Revelation. This includes the virgin-whore dichotomy. I agree with her
assessment of the way women and mothers are portrayed in Revelation, such that
"in many ways, what we find in Revelation when it comes to women and
mothers is not a pretty picture" (p. 175). We need to take her concerns
seriously because if Revelation promises a world free from oppression, that
should include the way we envision women and mothers. Unfortunately,
Revelation, like much of the Bible, patriarchal culture colors the
presentation.
In the conclusion to Under Her Wings, Jennifer Houston McNeel reminds us that the topic under
consideration here is important because "motherhood is a topic that
impacts everyone. Every human being enters this world through the body of a
mother." (p. 181). Therefore, we need to pay attention to the stories of
motherhood as they are presented in Scripture. Taken together, McNeel does a
masterful job in laying out the way mothers and motherhood are portrayed in the
New Testament, making this a very worthwhile read. While this is deeply rooted
in scholarship, she writes in a way that makes this book accessible to a
general audience. With that in mind, discussion questions have been placed at
the end of each chapter. So, while the Bible has a very androcentric focus, if
we pay attention to what Jennifer McNeel has to say in Under Her Wings, we will discover that
women, and especially mothers, do play a significant role in the New Testament.
Copies of Under Her Wings: Mothers and Motherhood in the New Testament may be purchased at your favorite retailer, including my Amazon affiliate and my Bookshop.org affiliate.
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