Wollaston Research Seminar June

Join us for the next Wollaston Research Seminar on June 8th at 2pm AWST either in-person or online (via Zoom).

Robert Myles to present: The Historical Jesus, Masculinity, and Class Conflict

Abstract: The incorporation of masculinity studies into historical Jesus research marks a significant development in the emerging Next Quest for the historical Jesus. It not only compels us to take account of the divergent and sometimes contradictory masculinities constructed by New Testament texts, but it also opens productive space for combining gender analysis with sociohistorical and class conflict approaches. This paper examines the entanglement of masculinity, class conflict, and the early Jesus movement, focusing on Jesus’ pointed contrast between the “soft” clothing of the indulgent palatial elite and the hardened and respectable disposition of prophetic and millenarian movements like the early Jesus movement (Matt 11:8//Luke 7:25). I argue that masculinity appears to have operated as an important coded terrain of struggle through which members of the Jesus movement could assert their toughness and resilience to socioeconomic changes in Galilee and Judea while simultaneously seeking to undermine the masculine credentials of their opponents.

Pre-reading: Robert J. Myles, “Soft Clothing, Hard Jesus: Toughness and Class Conflict in Q 7:24-25,” Journal of Biblical Literature 145, no. 1 (2026): 89-110. [link requires UD Library Hub access]