Abstract
The purpose of this article is to investigate how old age operates as an intersectional power discourse in the New Testament. To explore this issue, the study takes the role of elders as well as the status and care of elderly parents as case studies. The article approaches old age as a discourse, one which is not only physically or biologically constructed, but also socially and culturally determined. Furthermore, the article relies on the approach of intersectionality to highlight some of the fissures of gerontological power discourse in the New Testament, demonstrating that when old age functions as a power discourse, it serves to include a minority (usually elite, freeborn men) and exclude the powerless elderly majority (usually women, slaves, the poor, etc.). The most important conclusion is that power networks themselves function in an intersectional manner. Such networks are a social and cultural complex. We must be careful not to assume that the actors visible in texts are depicted as constituting the entire network. In the case of the New Testament, power networks are, rather, embedded in the broader patriarchal socio-cultural system, and the values and principles of patriarchal structures also network and regulate the actors in this network. This is shown to be the case for the elderly (elders and/or parents), as well as for women, slaves, and also ethnic outsiders. To truly understand power dynamics in the New Testament there must be an awareness of the invisible or less visible layers of the power networks and empowered or powerless actors in those layers.
The New Testament abounds in power discourse because of its status as a collection of authoritative texts. A recent publication edited by De Villiers and Merz, Power in the New Testament (2021), highlights the complexities of New Testament power dynamics. As Van Henten (2021:3) notes in the introductory analysis of this book, the status of Scripture as “Word of God” confirms the uniqueness of its power and authority. What Van Henten further notes is that power, in this context, is dynamic and relational, and the study of power actors and networks in the New Testament is identified as an important avenue for further research (see also the work of Ehrensperger 2007). This article aims to address this mandate for further research on power discourse and dynamics in the New Testament by focusing on one of the most common discursive manifestations of power and authority, namely age, and more specifically, old age (that is, gerontology).
In an attempt to illustrate the discursivity in the historical study of the elderly and discourse of power in the New Testament I propose two methodological points of departure. In the first case it is very useful to approach old age, aging and the elderly as a discourse in the New Testament; this is a dynamic and strategic way of talking about individual and social bodies, and how these bodies experience and construct the perceived changes of the body as time passes. The approach to age as a discourse therefore helps us to deal with the material and physical aspects of aging that we can find, for example, in the medical-biological approach to ageing, as well as helping us to better understand the socially and culturally constructed nature of old age (especially within a society where power and authority were scarce and coveted).
The second approach that is useful in an analysis of the elderly and power discourse in the New Testament is intersectionality. Questions about age must intersect with, for example, questions about gender or status or disability. It is not useful to simply inquire about an abstract concept like “aging” without capturing it intersectionally. We should be asking questions about elderly men and women, elderly slaves, disabled elderly, elderly prisoners, and so on. Even if these composite social categories are not evident in the biblical text, we nevertheless have the responsibility as ethical interpreters to read these categorisations into the text, based on the evidence at hand (or, sometimes, on speculation), and the possible experiences to imagine and reconstruct all the elderly. As this study elucidates the power discourse of old age in the New Testament, these intersections become clear.
Parkin (2004:13–56) suggested that the age of 60 should be used cautiously as a guideline for the study of old age in Roman society – the guideline is probably the best we could speculate. In this study a similar guideline of 60 years is accepted for the analysis of old age. It must be kept in mind that a person was sometimes considered “old” from the age of 40 years. In Acts 3:1–10 we read of a beggar born lame who is healed by Peter and John. In the next chapter, after the apostles’ questioning, the same man is seen in the crowd of people praising God. Acts 4:21–22 (NRSV) reads: “[F]or all of them praised God for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing had been performed was more than forty years old.” The miraculous nature of the healing is not only related to the man’s disability, but the fact that he was considered a disabled (and poor) old man even at 40. We also clearly see the intersection of age, old age (as a social construction) and disability in this story. The study then uses the notion of elders and the care of elderly parents to explore the intersectional power dynamics of old age further.
What has this study of old age as an intersectional discourse of power taught us about power dynamics in the New Testament in general? After taking Van Henten’s suggestion to further analyse power networks and actors in these networks we can conclude that power networks themselves function in an intersectional manner. These networks are socially and culturally complex, and they always serve to include some and exclude others. We must be careful not to assume that the actors visibly depicted in texts constitute the entire network. In the case of the New Testament, power networks are, rather, embedded in the broader patriarchal socio-cultural system, and the values and principles of patriarchy also structure the networks and regulate the actors in these networks. This was the case for the elderly (elders and/or parents) as well as the case for women, slaves, and also ethnic outsiders. To really understand power dynamics in the New Testament we must, therefore, be well aware of the invisible or less visible layers of the power networks and empowered or powerless actors in those layers.
Keywords: aging; discourse of power; elders; intersectionality; New Testament; old age care; parental care; power
- The photo by Danie Franco used as this article’s featured image was obtained from Unsplash.