Marginality and Imperial Ideology in Matthew’s Nativity Narrative
The nativity narrative of the first two chapters of the Gospel of Matthew contains stories about a newborn king of old lineage, but humble origins, the cruelty of a declining ruler and client king of Rome, court intrigues and foreign dignitaries. As such, it can offer an ideal vantage point for inve...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Ed. Morcelliana
2023
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| In: |
Henoch
Year: 2023, Volume: 45, Issue: 1, Pages: 41-64 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Bible. Matthäusevangelium 1,18-2,23
/ Rule
/ Ideology
/ Power politics
/ Power structure
/ Story
/ Rome
/ Roman Empire
/ Marginality
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| IxTheo Classification: | BE Greco-Roman religions HC New Testament |
| Further subjects: | B
Imperial Ideology
B Marginality B Nativity Stories B Gospel of Matthew |
| Summary: | The nativity narrative of the first two chapters of the Gospel of Matthew contains stories about a newborn king of old lineage, but humble origins, the cruelty of a declining ruler and client king of Rome, court intrigues and foreign dignitaries. As such, it can offer an ideal vantage point for investigating Matthew’s portrayal of political power. A number of modern commentators read these stories as Matthew’s attempt to sympathise with the marginalised and oppressed provincial masses, and as evidence of a wider anti-Roman and anti-imperial purpose of the Gospel, seen as a work of resistance and a political counter-narrative. Moving beyond an interpretation of the Matthean infancy narrative as a mere rejection of Rome’s imperial ideology and its power structures, this paper argues that references to marginality and the marginalised in Matthew’s nativity do not necessarily imply resistance to Roman imperialism and its rhetoric. They can in fact be construed as an attempt to replicate discourses about marginality that characterised the language of imperial rhetoric between the age of Augustus and the emergence of the rule of the Flavians. |
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| ISSN: | 0393-6805 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Henoch
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