Ready to Strike a Blow: Women and Violence in Petitions from Egypt and Early Christian Discourse

Resum

The judge in Luke 18:5 is afraid that a widow is going to give him a black eye. Is this rooted in everyday experience? The article looks for evidence for every day physical violence used by women. Every now and then we have petitions from Egypt accusing women of violent behavior. An analysis of this material generates some patterns regarding violence used by women. Against the background of this results, early Christian literature can be understood more nuanced compared totheir environment. The article shows that petitions from Egypt support a literal translation of Luke18:5 and that it is a bias that women in antiquity did not use violence in everyday life.