<\/p>
Theodore Jennings and Tat-Siong Benny Liew have a curious article in the Fall 2004 issue of JBL <\/i> . They offer an alternative interpretation of the story of the centurion of Matthew 8, an interpretation that hangs on taking \u201cPAIS\u201d not as \u201cslave\u201d or \u201cson\u201d but as \u201cboy-lover.\u201d They find plenty of evidence that the word can be used in this sense, and also plenty of evidence of pederastic relationships within the Roman military, not least between soldiers and their captive slaves. They believe that their interpretation better explains the \u201cpuzzling\u201d dialogue that Jesus has with the Roman centurion regarding authority. Jesus is initially \u201camazed\u201d at the centurion not because of the depth of his faith but because the centurion\u2019s plea parallels the Jewish charge that Jesus has authority over the demons as the chief of the demons; the demonic host is structured, in short, like the Roman host, with a clear hierarchical command structure. Jesus does commend the centurion\u2019s faith because, in spite of his professed adherence to a command-obedience hierarchy, the centurion by his actions undermines this structure, since he is willing to come to a Jewish rabbi for assistance. His actions, which for Matthew are the true evidence of faith, undermine his overt adherence to Roman hierarchy. <\/p>\n
The punch line of the article comes in the final section, \u201cSexualities and Matthew,\u201d where the authors argue that Jesus\u2019 acceptance of a pederast centurion is fully consistent with Matthew\u2019s portrayal of Jesus\u2019 acceptance of sexual misfits: \u201cProstitutes, adulteresses, sexually aggressive women, sexually penetrated men, eunuchs, slaves, and condemned criminals (like Matthew\u2019s Jesus) are all persons of infames, or \u2018ill repute\u2019 in Roman eyes. In this light, Matthew\u2019s affirmations of these people should be read in connection with her challenge to hierarchical authority and Roman rule.\u201d <\/p>\n
The authors\u2019 commitment of diligent, creative, and broad research to incredibly strained exegesis is hard to match. It is testimony to the lengths that some will go to find justification for sodomy in Scripture. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Theodore Jennings and Tat-Siong Benny Liew have a curious article in the Fall 2004 issue of JBL . They offer an alternative interpretation of the story of the centurion of Matthew 8, an interpretation that hangs on taking \u201cPAIS\u201d not as \u201cslave\u201d or \u201cson\u201d but as \u201cboy-lover.\u201d They find plenty of evidence that the word […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-nt-matthew"],"yoast_head":"\n