Honouring Age

We all age. But how we understand age and aging depends on cultural context. The early followers of Jesus experienced growing up and growing old in a world where more than a third of children never reached adulthood, married women could expect to become widows, and, above all, elders were to be honoured. In the ancient Mediterranean, expectations associated with one’s age could be a source of social power, as well as a source of tension within families and communities, and between generations.

Honouring Age positions age as an essential aspect of communal identity and familial roles in the early Christian experience by examining one of the most contentious and perplexing texts in the New Testament: the first letter to Timothy. First Timothy reflects a one-sided conversation between an older Paul and a younger Timothy, in which the author hopes to influence both the old and young in fulfilling their traditional roles in the “household of God.” It was a time of tumult, and relations were fraught, with potential consequences for the reputation of the nascent Christian community: some children were neglecting their aging parents, which was culturally unacceptable behaviour; older women who should have been encouraging young widows to remarry were discouraging them, exposing them to ridicule; young men who should have been respectful to their elders were shamefully turning on them. In recognizing the responsibilities of young and old to each other, and the reputational damage they otherwise risked, this study demonstrates that age is integral to understanding the complexities of 1 Timothy.

Drawing on modern ethnographies corroborated by ancient evidence to interpret social aspects of 1 Timothy, Honouring Age shows convincingly that, in emerging Christian communities in the ancient Mediterranean world, age mattered.

"LaFosse’s investigation is theoretically robust and exegetically rich, [and] is bound to have a significant impact upon scholarship on 1 Timothy, as well as our understanding of the age-related social dynamics of Christ groups at the end of the first century, in general." Novum Testamentum

"There is much to learn and absorb from this great volume. LaFosse has established without a doubt that Honouring Age as a cultural social category and an embodied reality in the ancient Mediterranean alerts us to its constancy and importance." Toronto Journal of Theology

"LaFosse uses the framework of age and how different age groups relate to each other to bring clarity to the concerns of the letter of 1 Timothy as well as answer some long-held scholarly debates about the widows in 1 Timothy 5." The Pneuma Review: Journal of Ministry Resources and Theology for Pentecostal and Charismatic Ministries & Leaders

"By focusing on Roman ideals, Honouring Age substantially advances research on early Christian social ideology and community issues around age. Especially with regard to 1 Timothy, Mona LaFosse dramatically expands our interpretations of the world within and behind this letter." Annette Bourland Huizenga, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary and author of Wisdom Commentary: 1–2 Timothy, Titus