Although there has been some discussion about Justin Martyr’s views
on sexuality, perhaps most notably addressed by Jennifer Knust in her
2007 chapter “Enslaved to Demons: Sex, Violence and the Apologies of
Justin Martyr,” in an edited volume Mapping Gender in Ancient Religious Discourses
(Brill, 2007), few have read Justin’s texts exclusively for clues to
his gender ideology. This communication focuses on three examples where
Justin directly addresses gender. First is the self-castration episode
in the First Apology, where a Christian youth petitions the
Alexandrian governor Felix for permission to receive a medical
castration. Next is Justin’s response to the pagan birth narrative of
Athena where he ridicules the idea that a god’s “first principle” could
be female in form. Finally is Justin’s circumcision argument in the Dialogue with Trypho
where he uses the fact that Jewish women were not circumcised as proof
that circumcision is unnecessary. In each example, I hope to present a
few possibilities for interpretation. My aim is not so much to present
an exhaustive exposition of Justin’s gender ideology than to serve as a
starting point for further explorations of Justin’s contributions to the
discourse of gender in early Christianity. In particular, I am
interested in the ways in which Justin both utilizes and innovates
dominant gender ideologies of his time, as well as the way in which
Justin’s gendered arguments may or may not cohere with the larger aims
of his rhetorical projects.
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