The book is well organized by the 7 days of the week so I
could see from the start that the Greco-Roman woman was actually going to live
a week in my presence. I love history
and more information always helps me to visualize the setting. The book begins with a prologue where the Ephesian
woman Anthia is assisting her friend who is giving birth. Not what I wanted to read in the morning just
after breakfast! But this leads to
Wednesday where we follow her activities in the agora, at home, and
elsewhere. It reads almost like a novel.
Life is difficult with too little food but
abundant water that freely flows from Roman sources, but there’s no punching a
time card and much time for conversation.
Wives, however were treated like slaves.
They were punished for infractions and expected to be obedient to their
husbands and possibly also male members of their household. Many women were far younger than their
husbands and the average life expectancy was less than half of what we expect
in our society, 40’s for men, thirties for women. The book contains helpful boxed descriptions
of cultural practices as well as photos of items and buildings of that time.
The author presents her material in a more entertaining way
than reading a textbook, but most importantly she expends some effort on not imposing
her American culture or views on her subject. As a result, I was able to do the
same, but not without profound sadness for the way Greco-Roman women were
treated. However, I also experienced gratitude
for my own 21st century American culture that almost gives Caucasian
women equal status with men. Anthia is a
real Ephesian 1st century woman who lives in a culture that is
vastly different from ours, but which bears similarities to our immigrant
culture: families living together in a
small area, sharing food, all members looking for work to keep rent paid and food
on the table, performing manual labor, and living hand to mouth with no other
support.
The book follows Anthia’s daily tasks as well as problems
she experiences with her pregnancy, sometimes abruptly skipping from one scene
to another. There’s a lot about
pregnancy and it appears to be the predominant thought and function of
women. In Anthia’s ventures into the
Agora (rarely without being accompanied by her husband in the first half of the
book, often alone in the 2nd half) she catches snatches of Paul’s
(the Apostle) debates and wonders about what she hears. She also hears about him through bits of
conversation on the streets, in the baths, and witnesses Paul’s handkerchief
healing a neighbor boy. Halfway through
the book there is less about pregnancy and we’re given a glimpse into the state
of Roman society and the difference Jesus made in societal relations.
The book reads like a novel with historical notes, although sometimes
the information is given in the text through thought or dialogue. However, the writing was poor and contained wrong
words, anachronistic words, and problems with sentence construction. The
anachronisms include the name “Andrew” (should be Andreas) which stood out as
not being like the other Greek or Roman names.
Paul (should be Paulus) has a “mantra” (an 18th century Sanskrit
word.) Other words also don’t fit the
time period, such as “kin.” The author
has braziers “sitting next to each other” as though they were people, “emitting
both light and the delicious smel [sic] of cooking meat.” Brazier is an English
word, so why not use one of the Latin words arulam or caminum? Other Latin/Greek words are used and
explained. Later, we find “gawkers were
sitting on animals.”
Even the healing prayer Anthia experiences is not like the contemporaneous
encounters in the Gospels and Acts where a person is healed when Jesus, Paul,
Peter, or others listen to the Spirit and obey.
e.g. “Rise, take up your mat, and
walk”. Rather, the women in this book pray
by “imploring Jesus to heal her. . . and
agreed to continue to pray for her.” The
1st century Ephesian church was not so far removed from the time of
Acts and the Gospels that it would have done things differently. In fact, this imploring appears to be what
people of the time did to idols, imploring those gods, such as Artemis, to
change their situation.
All in all, the book presents an uneven and somewhat tedious
experience (I was so bored by the halfway point that I stopped reading it for a
week). Biblical scenes are presented with color and insight, but there are
awkward sentences, overused words, wrong words, and anachronistic words. These are all things that could be fixed and
since I have read a pre-publication copy, I hope they are remedied. The book would be better as non-fiction or as a well-written novel. The combination of both simply does not work.
NOTE: A much better written book (which, at this time, I have not completed reading) is A Week In The Life of Corinth by Ben Witherington III.
NOTE: A much better written book (which, at this time, I have not completed reading) is A Week In The Life of Corinth by Ben Witherington III.
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