Attention to possible sub-text

  • David Tombs, Sithembiso Zwane and Charlene van der Walt, ‘Male Violence Against Men: A Contextual Bible Study on the Crucifixion of Jesus’, in Jione Havea (ed) Haunting Questions of Liberation Theology (2025), Otago archive.

    Rocío Figueroa and David Tombs, ‘Vendo Sua Inocência, Eu Vejo Minha Inocência’, Estudos Teológicos (2024). Open access (Brazilian Portuguese); Open access (English). Otago archive (English original 2021).

    David Tombs, ‘Things Too Indecent to be Recorded: The Soldiers Mocking the Death of Herod Agrippa’, in Juliana Claassens. Rhiannon Graybill and Christl Maier (eds), Narrating Rape: Shifting Perspectives in Biblical Literature and Popular Culture (2024). Otago archive.

    David Tombs, 'Art depicts Jesus in a loincloth on the cross – the brutal truth is he would have been naked’, The Conversation (28 March 2024). Open access.

    David Tombs, ‘Alone and Naked: Reading the Torture of Jesus alongside the Torture of Miriam Leitão’, International Journal of Public Theology (2023). Open access.

    David Tombs, The Crucifixion of Jesus: Torture, Sexual Abuse, and the Scandal of the Cross (Routledge, 2023). Open access.

    David Tombs, 'The Pink Crosses of Ciudad Juárez' in Rebekah Pryor and Stephen Bevans (eds) Feminist Theologies: Interstices and Fractures (2023). Otago archive.

    David Tombs, ‘Reading Crucifixion Narratives as Texts of Terror’ in Monica Melanchthon and Robyn Whitaker (eds.) Terror in the Bible: Rhetoric, Gender, and Violence (SBL 2021), Open access.

    Jayme R. Reaves, David Tombs and Rocío Figueroa (eds), When Did We See You Naked?’: Jesus as a Victim of Sexual Abuse (2021). Open access.

    Rocío Figueroa and David Tombs, ‘Seeing His Innocence, I See My Innocence’, (2021). Open access.

    Rocío Figueroa and David Tombs, ‘Viendo su Inocencia veo mi Inocencia’, (2021). Otago archive.

    David Tombs, ‘Hidden in Plain Sight: Seeing the Stripping of Jesus as Sexual Violence’, Journal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies (2020). Open access.

    David Tombs, ‘Unspeakable Things: Drawing upon the Nanjing Massacre to Read Crucifixion as an Assault on Human Dignity’ in Zhibin Xie et al. (2020). More info.

    ‘Recognising Jesus as a Victim of Sexual Abuse. Responses from Sodalicio Survivors in Peru’, (2020). Open access.

    Jayme Reaves and David Tombs, '#Me Too: Naming Jesus as a Victim of Sexual Abuse', Review and Expositor (2020). Open access.

    Jayme R. Reaves and David Tombs, ‘#MeToo Jesus: Naming Jesus as a Victim of Sexual Abuse’, International Journal of Public Theology (2019). Open access.

    David Tombs, Crucifixion and Sexual Abuse (2019). Otago archive English, Spanish, French, German.

    David Tombs, 'Crucificação e abuso sexual' (2019). Open access(Brazilian Portuguese).

    Edwards and Tombs, ‘#HimToo – why Jesus should be recognised as a victim of sexual violence’, The Conversation (2018). Open access.

    David Tombs, ‘Prisoner Abuse: From Abu Ghraib to The Passion of The Christ’ (2009). Otago archive.

    David Tombs, ‘Crucifixion, State Terror, and Sexual Abuse’, (Union Seminary Quarterly Review (1999). Open access. 

Investigating the possible sub-text of further sexualised violence.

In response to the stripping and forced nudity attested in the text, and the context of torture these take place within, it is reasonable to ask whether there is evidence that Jesus experienced additional sexualised violence beyond stripping and forced nudity. Might the sub-text offer additional hints of other sexualised violence?

This strand in the research is particularly challenging. It is likely that any findings will be tentative. The evidence is harder to access and also harder to assess. Questions about the sub-text are more concerned with possibility and probability than with certainty or proof.

Nonetheless, it is important to investigate the possible sub-text as well as the text and context. I suggest that the possibility of additional sexualised violence is a reasonable question to ask and there are some hints that might point towards this in the sub-text. However, this further violence is not directly evidenced with the same complete clarity as the stripping and forced nudity.

To sum up, text, context, and possible sub-text are each important. Each area needs to be carefully considered with an awareness of what is typically said and what is often left unsaid.

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