The legitimacy of Jesus : an Afrocentric reading of the birth of Jesus

The primary intention of this study is to contribute to scholarly interpretation of the New Testament Infancy Narratives. It owes much to Schaberg (1990) who, undoubtedly, has done an extensive study of the infancy narratives. In contrast, it is a challenge to her claim that, studied from a feminist theological approach, the texts dealing with the origin of Jesus, Matthew 1:1-25 and Luke 1:20-56 and 3:23-38 originally were about an illegitimate conception and not about a miraculous virginal conception. It challenges her claim that the intention of the evangelists was to transmit the tradition that Jesus, the Messiah, was illegitimately conceived during the time when Mary, his mother, was still betrothed to Joseph. My argument is that, looked at from a womanist Afrocentric perspective, these infancy narratives were about the legitimate conception of Jesus and nothing else. They were, rather, aimed at passing down the tradition that Jesus, charged with illegitimacy, was, in fact, conceived legitimately. The charge only served to defame Jesus. In other words, that charge had a social and not a biological value. An investigation of the understanding of Jesus's birth in the Mediterranean world in chapter 4 shows that that charge came solely from Jesus's opponents whether they were Jewish or non-Jewish. An examination of pre-marital sexual relations and marriage customs among African societies in chapter 4 shows that Joseph could be the biological father of Jesus. He probably made Mary pregnant before or during the betrothal period. Given that, Joseph could not only be the legal father of Jesus but his biological father too. Chapter 5 and 6 of this study look at Matthew's and Luke's reading of the virgin birth. There is really nothing suggesting that the evangelists intended to write about the illegitimacy of Jesus. They were clearly writing about the legitimate conception of Jesus.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Religious Studies

Year dc:date.issued

1995

Author dc:creator

• Reve, Nomvuzo

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mazamisa, W L

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14346

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14346