"Defender of the Most Holy Matriarchs": Martin Luther’s Interpretation of the Women of Genesis in the Enarrationes in Genesin, 1535-1545

Description

This work examines Martin Luther’s interpretation of the female characters in the stories of Genesis, drawing attention to his appropriation of premodern catholic interpretations of the biblical “saints.” In Luther’s hands, many of these women became heroic examples of the godly life newly adapted to the worldly asceticism of emerging Protestantism. Their everyday sanctity, exercised for the most part within the limits Luther believed God had imposed on their sex, displayed the kind of piety he thought should animate Christian women in their own households. Two chapters evaluate Luther’s interpretation of Eve, noting his understanding of the ideal relations between men and women. Five further chapters examine Sarah, Hagar, Rachel, the daughters and wife of Lot, and Potiphar’s wife.

ISBN

9789004128941

Publication Date

2003

Publisher

Brill

City

Leiden

Disciplines

Religion

Comments

Table of Contents

Abbreviations

Translations

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Muliercula: Eve in the Young Luther’s Exegesis

2. Socia Gubernationis: Eve in the Enarrationes in Genesin

3. Sancta Domina: Luther’s Catholic Exegesis of Sarah

4. Empta Ancilla: A Hagiography of Hagar

5. Sanctae Puellae: Justifying the Daughters of Lot

6. Mulier Heroica: The Faith of Rachel

7. Turpissimum Scortum: Demonizing Potiphar’s Wife

Conclusions

Appendix 1. Genesis in Wittenberg: 1518–1545

Appendix 2. Sixteenth-Century Genesis Commentaries

Bibliography

Index of Subjects

Index of Scriptural References

Index of Names

Share

COinS