Other Sheep - Multicultural Ministries with Sexual Minorities

Section 1: The First Young Tree.

1. José P. Miranda and Tom Hanks:
Oppressed sexual minority churches with slave members and women
leaders (Rom 16).

Although virtually ignored by first-world scholars (he committed the unpardonable sin of referring to
Marx in his subtitle), José P. Miranda long ago demonstrated that sin in the Bible and Romans in
particular, is to be understood in terms of oppression/injustice (1971/74:169-199). Hence Paul
repeatedly refers to oppression/injustice in central affirmations in the opening section (1:18, 29; 2:8;
3:5) and does not refer to “sin” until 2:12. Lately, the interpretation of Romans in the light of Roman
imperial oppression (Horsley 1997; 2000; Wright 2002) takes Paul’s understanding of sin as
“injustice/oppression” more seriously (still often ignoring the pioneering Latin American works that
anticipated their conclusions by three decades—and which were made available in English almost
immediately). The prominent place of oppression in Romans (1:18, 29; 2:8; 3:5) is paralleled in 1
Corinthians (6:8-10), where Paul’s vice list similarly is headed with the reference to oppression
(adikía), implying that the only homoerotic acts condemned in the following list are those
characterized by exploitation, injustice and violence (rape), all especially experienced by slaves
(Hanks 2000:105-108; Jennifer Glancy 1998; 2002).

For centuries Romans 16 was ignored as rather dull (interminable lists of names of people to be
greeted or sending their greetings, which read like the genealogies elsewhere in the Bible), or
reassigned to Ephesians (with no textual basis) with the argument that Paul couldn’t possibly have
known so many individuals in a city he never visited. In the latter decades of the 20th century, a
wave of feminist studies brought to light the amazing role of women in leadership attested in the
chapter, which led to discerning a remarkable contrast between such authentic Pauline material and
the more traditional patriarchal perspectives of the later deutero-pauline letters (the household
tables of Colossians and Ephesians and the pastoral letters, especially 1 Tim 2:8-15; see 1 Cor 14:
34-35, now rejected as a textual gloss). Feminist investigations were soon followed by studies in the
socio-economic mode, which demonstrated the high proportion of slave names in the list of those
greeted (Peter Lampe 1987/2003:153-186), evidence that Paul’s friendship pattern reveals him to
have an option for the poor and to be some kind of liberation theologian.

What was and continues to be overlooked (Andrew Clarke 2002:103-125) is the fact that of the 38
persons Paul names in Romans 16, only three are married couples (in italics in Appendix), while the
rest apparently are sexual minorities like Jesus and Paul himself (single, widowed, divorced?). Even
two of the three married couples break with the patriarchal pattern and like the unmarried persons
might well be described as gender-benders. (Hanks 1997:137-149; 2000:88-94). These remarkable
deposits of exegetical dynamite buried for millennia at the end of Romans beneath dull lists of names
led me to argue that contemporary readers with traditional prejudices need to study Romans
backwards, beginning with Chapter 16 and proceeding in reverse order to Chapter 1 (Hanks 2000:
80-81, 94). Similarly, Stephen Moore recently concluded that for his purposes “I shall have to
outflank the letter’s defenses and steal up on it from behind” (2001:135). The data from Romans 16
may be summarized as follows:

Paul first commends to the Roman believers sister Phoebe, undoubtedly the bearer of the

letter from Corinth, evidently an independent business woman whom the Apostle describes as

a deacon/minister (diákonon, masculine), and “benefactor” (prostates; 16:1-2). Although the

imperial mail service consisted of male couriers, Paul entrusted the document that was to

revolutionize world history to a woman. How different history would have been—without the

conversion of Augustine, Luther, and Wesley and Barthian theology, had Phoebe failed to

deliver the mail! ·

The first person Paul sends greetings to in Rome is Priscilla, named before her husband Aquila, as
was the Apostle’s custom (but quite subversive of the common practice). He describes both as
“fellow-workers” with him who had “risked their lives (necks, Greek)” for him (16:3-5a). Elsewhere
such displays of manly courage are literally described in the Greek as to “play the man”
(andrídzeshe), which is commanded of women as well as men (1 Cor 16:13; see BDAG 2000:76).

In 16:7 the second married couple whom Paul greets are Andronicus and Junia, both
described as “apostles” in what is evidently an equalitarian type relationship (see note below
for efforts to deny Junia her status as an apostle equal with Paul). The third couple greeted in
16:15 may represent a more traditional marriage, except that the man’s name (Philologus)
suggests that he is the more talkative one (more gender bending).

Of the 22 single persons greeted in 16:5b-16, six are single women, of whom five are explicitly
commended for being Paul’s fellow-workers, which did not mean staying home and baking
cookies.

Of the 16 single men greeted in 16:5b-16, only Urbanus is referred to as one of Paul’s fellow
workers (16:9), but three other single men Paul calls his “beloved” (agapeton, 5, 8, 9b),
usually toned down to something like “dear friend” in squeamish modern translations. Of the
single women, only Persis is described as Paul’s “beloved” (12b). Paul’s subversion of
traditional gender roles is thus expressed both in describing women as church leaders, and
men as characterized mainly by their emotional bond with the apostle.

Of the 26 believers introduced, at least nine and perhaps as many as 22 bore names
commonly used for slaves, some of whom may have been liberated by the time Paul wrote, but
in most cases would still represent the poorer and marginalized classes (Lampe 2003:183;
see chart). Craig Keener observes that the house churches, avoiding construction of special
edifices for the first three centuries, were thus able to use their income to buy slaves’ freedom
and feed the poor (1993:447

Note: Paul’s focus on same-sex couples in Romans

1:1 “Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus” (inclusion with 16:21, Paul and Timothy).

1:3 Jesus and David: Jesus is “from the sperm of David according to the flesh, designated Son

of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by a resurrection from the dead ones.”

Paul refers to David’s procreative power (sperm), but links David to Jesus, not Bathsheba

(inclusion with 15:13, David and Jesus).

Rom 4 Abraham and David (not Abraham and Sarah nor David and Bathsheba).

4:6-8 David speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits justice apart

from works (Ps 32:1-2): Abraham and David are presented as paradigms of justification

and forgiveness.

Rom 5 Adam and Jesus Christ (“one man” + “one man”), not Adam and Eve nor Christ and

Mary.

15:13 David and Jesus, Root of Jesse to rule nations (Isa 11:10, Davidic ruler).

Rom 16:21 Paul and Timothy.

When Paul writes Romans he is not living with a woman, but has Timothy as his closest

companion and among the friends he greets in the Roman house churches only three married

couples are named; the rest are single or same-sex couples. Both for the unmarried Paul and

his largely unmarried friends, the memories of David’s covenanted love relationship with

Jonathan and Jesus’ relationship with the Beloved Disciple would have been especially strong

and appealing. As a repressed homosexual, Paul would be most naturally attracted to

traditions focusing on same-sex couples, so it is not surprising that Romans reflects heavy

continuity with such traditions and avoids focusing on heterosexual couples (Adam and Eve,

Abraham and Sarah, David and Bathsheba). The function of David the ruler is to bestow

Abrahamic blessings on “all the Gentiles” (15:11), not just the married heterosexuals (à

Appendix: Chart, Rom 16).

A Gay Apostle’s Queer Epistle for a Peculiar People: Romans 1:24-27 in its Context
Rev. Dr. Tom Hanks

Part 2
Introduction:
Twelve Young Trees That Make a New Forest

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