Age, Maternity, and Allusion: Elizabeth and Other Mothers

This article explores how intertextual analysis of New Testament (NT) narratives’ engagement with the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible (OT/HB) might be fruitfully integrated with intersectional analysis of characters’ embodied lives in communities. Taking Elizabeth’s characterization in Luke 1 as a test case, I demonstrate that intersectional analysis not only deepens the insights arising from intertextual analysis but also sheds light on Luke 1’s relevance to ongoing issues of conflict and marginalization today. Intersectional-intertextual analysis thus proves particularly useful for those exegetes interested in practical theological—including specifically justice-oriented—interpretation. At the same time, as will be illustrated in relation to Luke 1’s early reception history, intertextual analysis can lessen the danger that contemporary contexts will distortively overdetermine intersectional analysis, mitigating a hermeneutical objection sometimes raised against interpretations that attend to justice concerns and other expressions of practical theology.