The Parable of the Widow and Judge (Luke 18:2-5): Talking Back to African American Stereotypes By Febbie C. Dickerson Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Religion August 11, 2017 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Amy-Jill Levine, Ph.D. Barbara E. Reid, Ph.D. Herbert R. Marbury, Ph.D. Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas, Ph.D. Copyright © 2017 by Febbie C. Dickerson All Rights Reserved ii Table of Contents . Page Dedication ........................................................................................................................................v Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ vi Chapter Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1 Problems with the Text .............................................................................................................1 My Problem with the Text in Church .....................................................................................15 My Approach ..........................................................................................................................18 Stereotypes and How They Function ......................................................................................25 Chapter Summary ...................................................................................................................33 I. The Widow Through Time .......................................................................................................45 Patristic Interpretation .............................................................................................................48 Medieval Interpretation ...........................................................................................................57 Reformation Period .................................................................................................................62 The Widow, Judge, and Historical Criticism ..........................................................................65 Preaching the Parable ..............................................................................................................82 Womanist and Feminist Readings ..........................................................................................90 II. Luke, Women and Widows .....................................................................................................97 Infancy Narratives .................................................................................................................104 Luke, Women, and Healing ..................................................................................................114 Luke, Women, and Power/Status ..........................................................................................121 Luke, Women, and Silent Voices .........................................................................................126 Luke and Widows .................................................................................................................128 Widows in the Bible ..............................................................................................................133 III. Mammy, Jezebel, and Sapphire Talking With Luke .............................................................135 Mammy .................................................................................................................................139 The Widow as Mammy .........................................................................................................163 Jezebel ...................................................................................................................................168 The Widow as Jezebel ..........................................................................................................186 Sapphire ................................................................................................................................192 The Widow as Sapphire ........................................................................................................207 The Widow in Her Various Roles .........................................................................................210 iii IV. The Judge: Cool, Cruel, Fool ................................................................................................212 Masculine Constructs ............................................................................................................218 Luke and Masculinity ...........................................................................................................225 Modern Masculine Performance ...........................................................................................228 The Judge’s Masculinity .......................................................................................................231 African American Masculinity .............................................................................................233 The Cool Black Male ............................................................................................................238 Luke’s Cool Judge ................................................................................................................246 The Master-Pastor .................................................................................................................249 Luke’s Master-Pastor ............................................................................................................253 The Foolish Judge .................................................................................................................256 Luke’s Here Comes the Judge ..............................................................................................263 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................267 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................273 iv To the Dickerson Family Mom, Dad, Grandma, Carla, Marisa, Zareeya and DestinyMonét. This dissertation is just as much yours as mine. You have walked this journey with me. v Acknowledgements While writing a dissertation is indeed an individual effort, it is also a communal effort. The agony of pushing out the right words to convey the message I desired to communicate never occurred to me. I am thankful for those in my midst who encouraged and pushed me along the way. I am grateful to Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, who encouraged me to pursue biblical studies. She told me I could do this when others said it was too late. Dr. Levine has invited me to her Bible studies and lectures in the Nashville area; we go to dinner to talk New Testament, and about the academy, and about life, and just about everything else. Her academic rigor has both stretched and prepared me to do the work of biblical studies. I thank my committee members, Drs. Barbara E. Reid, Herbert R. Marbury, and Stacey Floyd-Thomas, for engaging with and contributing their expertise to my work. New Testament professors Drs. Daniel Patte and Fernando Segovia have been crucial to my growth as a student of the New Testament, while Drs. Victor Anderson and Jay Geller have, at different times, provided sage advice. My church communities, in both Atlanta and Nashville, have been a source of support and encouragement. Bishop Gerard A. Ancrum and the Bread of Life Church family in Atlanta provided financial support. Similarly Reverend Martin L. Espinosa and Dr. Renita J. Weems and the Ray of Hope Community Church in Nashville provided a sense of community and comfort. Pastor Espinosa and Dr. Weems on many occasions invited me into their home, provided food, and even books for classes. They have been available to help me succeed in my academic endeavors since I arrived in Nashville in August 2006. Finally, I owe my parents Henry and Rosetta Dickerson more than I can ever repay. They have supported me in whatever I have set out to do. vi Introduction Luke 18:2-5, the Parable of the Widow and Judge, is a “problem text”1 in multiple ways. The encounter between a tenacious widow with a legal complaint and a judge who “neither fears God nor has respect for people” (v.2), but who finds in her favor lest she strike him, raises questions about women’s social roles, stereotype and history, ethics, law, tradition and redaction. The reception history of this parable further complicates any secure understanding. Luke the evangelist has provided the first interpretation: the widow’s tenacity becomes an allegorical image for constant, faithful prayer, and the judge becomes an allegorical counter-image for God. Luke’s reading removes many of the parable’s challenges, even as it leads to its own problematic theology, one of pestering God. With both the parable detached from its Lukan context and the parable understood as part of Luke’s larger narrative, interpreters must draw their own conclusions, each tentative, and each rich with both liberative and constraining possibilities. The Problems with the Text The parable begins, “He [Jesus] said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people…’” (18:2).