If Rachel Does Not Weep, Who Will?

A Pro-Choice Quality of Life Womanist Reading of Matthew 2

Authors

  • Mitzi Jane Smith Columbia Theological Seminary

Abstract

This essay is a womanist reading of the Matthean story of the attempted infanticide of the baby Jesus born king of the Jews. Although Jesus, through divine and human intervention, avoids death; other children do not. I place in dialogue the precarious reality of Black women and their children, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, and a critical reading of Matthew 2. Black women give birth to babies that enter a world hostile to them. Poor women and their children have nowhere to flee the violence, nor the means. Rachel is inconsolable while poor Black women lack a quality of life that ensures the survival of the children they birth.

Author Biography

Mitzi Jane Smith, Columbia Theological Seminary

J. Davison Philips Professor of New Testament

(Affiliate) Professor Extraordinarius, University of South Africa, College of Humanities, Institute for Gender Studies

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Published

2022-09-19