Date
12-19-2024
Department
Rawlings School of Divinity
Degree
Master of Arts in Biblical Studies (MA)
Chair
Jeffrey Cockrell
Keywords
Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Samaritan woman, Jesus and Women, gynai, John's Gospel, Fourth Gospel, Christology in John, Creation imagery in John's Gospel, Old Testament allusions in John's Gospel, John 2:4, John 19:26, John 4, John 20:17, Genesis 3:15, Seed of the Woman
Disciplines
Religion | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion
Recommended Citation
McGrew, Cori, "Jesus's Use of "Woman" in the Fourth Gospel" (2024). Masters Theses. 1241.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/masters/1241
Abstract
In John's Gospel, Jesus uses the word "woman" in surprising ways: to address his mother at the wedding in Cana and at the Cross, to address a woman in Samaria, in a parable about a woman giving birth in his Final Discourse, and finally, to address Mary Magdalene at the garden tomb. This thesis uses the unusual way Jesus addresses his mother in the Fourth Gospel as a catalyst to find a connection between all five uses of "woman" by Jesus in John's Gospel, concluding that these instances evoke creation imagery, in particular of Genesis 3:15. The allusion to Genesis 3:15 in these interactions show that Jesus is the Messiah, the promised seed of the woman from Genesis 3:15.
