[squf ] Elizabeth Ann Graham Brock [Ph.D. 2000]

Authority, Politics, and Gender in Early Christianity: Mary, Peter, and the Portrayal of Leadership

This dissertation examines the ways in which early Christian authors chose individual figures from the group of Jesus' companions and claimed apostolic authority for their message. It indicates ways in which the usage of the name of a particular apostle operated as a useful tool of persuasion in the polemics, apologetics, and self-descriptions in early Christian texts. An especially intriguing element concerning apostolic authority occurs in early Christian texts as they display contradictions even within the canon as to which figures received a resurrection appearance from Jesus. This conflict concerning representation is a critical one, especially with respect to Mary Magdalene and Peter, because a resurrection appearance often functioned in the attribution of apostolic status and authority. On the basis of a resurrection appearance to Mary Magdalene, for instance, as well as Jesus' commissioning her in the Garden, other women could and did claim the authority to preach and proclaim the good news. Therefore, the choice of the primary figures in a text, especially in the resurrection narratives, and their substitutions in translations reveals more than arbitrary character choices but clues to the politics of the text. One example is the Acts of Philip which in the Coptic version omits Mary Magdalene from the original Greek version and replaces her character with Peter. Evidence from non-canonical works, such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, and Pistis Sophia pushes the findings of this research past the limitations of many previous investigations of Mary Magdalene and Peter that have too often remained within canonical boundaries. This research contends that the status and gender of the central characters in various texts reveal a pattern that—whenever Peter figures prominently as a primary authority, female leadership figures are significantly diminished, often nonexistent. An historical study of such tensions within the early Christian circles continues to have relevance in current Christian discourse because the questions of authority, apostolic status, and women's ordination remain divisive issues even among church bodies today.