Exploring age structure in Mediterranean cultures illuminates the social dynamics of intergenerational relationships that became more visible in late first and early second century early Christian texts, and especially in 1 Timothy 5. This was a time of crisis when those with a living memory of the foundations of the movement were almost gone, and the community was scrutinized by outsiders. Since we have relatively few clues related to aging and age structure in the extant texts, a model of generational stability and social change based on ethnographic data helps us to imagine culturally sensitive possibilities that we can then test out as we reread the texts in their Roman cultural context. In his fictive story of Paul and Timothy, the author of the heterographical (pseudepigraphical) letter of 1 Timothy establishes an ideal intergenerational relationship between “Paul” as an older man and “Timothy” as his adult “child.” When the fictive Paul directs Timothy to speak kindly to older people (5:1-2), he introduces a section on age-related issues. Behaviour that was causing concern for public reputation included adult children shirking filial duty (5:4, 8), young widows gadding about in public (5:11-15), and younger men accusing their elders (5:19). These behaviours threatened the reputation and honour of the community and may have been encouraged by the opposing faction. The author’s solution was to reject the opposing teachings and enforce behaviour that reflected proper age structure: adult children should fulfill their filial responsibilities and care for widowed mothers and grandmothers (5:4); young widows should be guided and supported by middle-aged women who were responsible for them in the age hierarchy among women (5:16); middle-aged women should imitate the exemplary behaviour of the enlisted widows who were over 60 years old; and young men were to be rebuked in front of everyone for their disrespect toward elders (5:20). In the face of social change, the author advocates for behaviour reflective of the traditional age structure of Roman society.

Exploring age structure in Mediterranean cultures illuminates the social dynamics of intergenerational relationships that became more visible in late first and early second century early Christian texts, and especially in 1 Timothy 5. This was a time of crisis when those with a living memory of the foundations of the movement were almost gone, and the community was scrutinized by outsiders. Since we have relatively few clues related to aging and age structure in the extant texts, a model of generational stability and social change based on ethnographic data helps us to imagine culturally sensitive possibilities that we can then test out as we reread the texts in their Roman cultural context. In his fictive story of Paul and Timothy, the author of the heterographical (pseudepigraphical) letter of 1 Timothy establishes an ideal intergenerational relationship between “Paul” as an older man and “Timothy” as his adult “child.” When the fictive Paul directs Timothy to speak kindly to older people (5:1-2), he introduces a section on age-related issues. Behaviour that was causing concern for public reputation included adult children shirking filial duty (5:4, 8), young widows gadding about in public (5:11-15), and younger men accusing their elders (5:19). These behaviours threatened the reputation and honour of the community and may have been encouraged by the opposing faction. The author’s solution was to reject the opposing teachings and enforce behaviour that reflected proper age structure: adult children should fulfill their filial responsibilities and care for widowed mothers and grandmothers (5:4); young widows should be guided and supported by middle-aged women who were responsible for them in the age hierarchy among women (5:16); middle-aged women should imitate the exemplary behaviour of the enlisted widows who were over 60 years old; and young men were to be rebuked in front of everyone for their disrespect toward elders (5:20). In the face of social change, the author advocates for behaviour reflective of the traditional age structure of Roman society.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T12:19:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ANDERSONLIMA.pdf: 1262691 bytes, checksum: 424e13c6260aea9132d95d09f2479b56 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-22 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This research assumes that the Gospel of Matthew is a literary document produced at the end of the first century CE. in some urban environment of the ancient Mediterranean World, where it differs from the other gospels of the New Testament by economic emphasis in its language, and also by its content. We try to demonstrate the importance of this Matthew s language feature for the development of Gospels discourse, and to understand it, we deal with the approximations between this speech and some socioeconomic models known in the real world of the great urban centers of that time. Along the discussion, we conclude that the author of Matthews Gospel is part of an embracing debate between new judaisms that kept conflictual relations with the Greco-Roman domain and their cultural heritage. Matthew, in particular, rejects the complete ownership of clientelist patterns in interpersonal relations of the disciples of Jesus, while also appropriates the foreign socioeconomic model to develop its religious imaginary. We argue that in Matthew, God takes, as a character, the features of a divine patron who protects and benefits its faithful clients, and in retribution, they should do good deeds for the poor. However, despite this vertical relationship religious be desirable, the gospel rejects other clientelistic ties that rating the human being, and sees them as a betrayal to the first sovereign patron. / Este trabalho de pesquisa parte do pressuposto de que o Evangelho de Mateus é um documento literário produzido no final do século I EC, em algum ambiente urbano do antigo Mundo Mediterrâneo, e que se diferencia dos demais evangelhos do Novo Testamento pela ênfase econômica presente em sua linguagem e conteúdo. Procura-se demonstrar a importância dessa particularidade para o desenvolvimento do próprio discurso mateano e para compreendê-lo, trata das proximidades que há entre esse discurso e os modelos socioeconômicos conhecidos no mundo real dos grandes centros urbanos de então. Dessa pesquisa conclui-se que o autor de Mateus se insere num debate abrangente entre os judaísmos do período, que mantinham relações conflituosas com a cultura Greco-romana e a própria herança cultural. Mateus, em especial, rejeita a apropriação plena dos padrões clientelistas para as relações interpessoais dos discípulos de Jesus ao mesmo tempo que se apropria desse modelo socioeconômico estrangeiro para desenvolver seu imaginário religioso. Defende-se que em Mateus, Deus assume, como personagem, as características de um patrono divino que protege e beneficia seus fieis clientes, que em retribuição deviam praticar boas obras para com os pobres. Em contrapartida a essa relação religiosa vertical que é desejável, o evangelho rejeita os vínculos clientelistas que hierarquizam os seres humanos, vendo-as também como traição àquele primeiro e soberano patrono.