The study of gender in early Christianity has been one of the catalysts for new historical insight into the early Jesus movement and beyond. By focusing on the construction of various kinds of masculinities in early Christian texts, both biblical and extra-biblical, and by showcasing a number of examples of the reception of such texts in the construction and discussion of masculinities, the essays collected in this volume draw attention to a kind of gender that is often in equal measure overlooked as it is influential in the shaping of communities and societies, i.e., masculinities in all their diversity and with their different effects on those embodying them and those encountering them. The volume seeks to contribute to the study of early Christian literature and its reception, to the study of gender in the (Christian) theological tradition, and to gender studies in general.

Peter-Ben Smit is professor of Contextual Biblical Interpretation at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and professor of Ancient Catholic Church Structures and the History and Doctrine of the Old Catholic Churches at Utrecht University. His research centers on community, with particular attention to gender and masculinities. His works include Felix Culpa: Ritual Failure and Theological Innovation in Early Christianity (2022).Laura Pasterkamp is working on a PhD-project, funded by an NWO grant, called: “Hidden from the Wise and Understanding – Revealed to Little Children: Childist Perspectives on the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.” The project analyses the presence and role of children in Luke and Acts with an intersectionally oriented childist approach. She completed the Master Theology and Religious Studies at the VU and the Master Children’s and Youth Literature at Tilburg University. She published: ‘Een jong meisje het zwijgen opgelegd?,’ Kerk en Theologie 74 (2023), 380-396.

Introduction
New Testament Masculinities
I. The Gospel of Mark
1. Beyond Shameful Positions – On Masculinity and Place in Mark 1.
2. The Ritual (De)Construction of Masculinity in Mark 6. A Methodological Exploration on the Interface of Gender and Ritual Studies.
3. Inclusive and Exclusive Translations of antropos in the Gospel of Mark.
4. Man or Human? A Note on the Translation of antropos in Mark 10.1-9 and Masculinity Studies.
5. Servant Leadership Revisited: diakonia, Masculinity and Martyrdom in Mark 10:42-45.
II. Other New Testament Writings
6. Marginal Masculinities in Matthew 1 and Early Christian Mission
7. Jesus and the Ladies: (De)Constructing Divine Masculinity in John.
8. The Chamberlain from Mohrenland’ or the Ethopian eunuch?
9. Making Men – Weakness, Justification, and andreia in Romans 5:6.
10. The Resurrection of the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 11: Paul as a Theologian of the Body in Conversation with Judith Butler.
11. Circumcising the Male Members of the Body of Christ: A Ritual All the More Significant Due to Its Failure in Paul of Tarsus’ Letter to the Galatians
12. The Exemplary Man is Queer. Paul’s Masculinity in the Letter to the Philippians.
13. Are all Voices to be heard? Considerations about Masculinity and the Right to be heard in Philippians.
14. Supermen and Sissies: Masculinities in Titus and 1 Timothy.
15. Gender Trouble in 1 Timothy 2:8-15.
III. Beyond the New Testament: Masculinities, Martyrdom and Hagiography
16. Let’s Get Physical: Ignatius of Antioch and Judith Butler.
17. Thecla's Masculinity in the Acts of (Paul) and Thecla.
18. Theology After the Cultural Turn’: Gender Studies Using the Example of The Acts of Thecla.
19. St. Thecla: Remembering Paul and Being Remembered Through Paul.
20. Manliness and the Cross – A Note on the Reception of Aspects of Early Christian Masculinity in Athanasius’ Life of Anthony.
IV. (Post)Modern Receptions: Interdisciplinary, Intercultural, Ecumenical and Pedagogical
21. Divine Violence. Power and Abuse of Power in the Bible and Biblical Reception in Selected Case Studies.
22. Masculinity and the ‘Holy Child’ of the Birhen sa Balintawak.
23. The Topic of Masculinity in the Context of University Didactics – Using the Example of Theological Education in the Field of New Testament Studies.
24. Sustainable Masculinity in Ecumenical Perspective. The Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace.
Afterword: Critical Masculinities Studies and Beyond