Nobody’s Mother by Sandra L. Glahn is a detailed look at questions about Artemis’s influence in Ephesians and the NT as well as specifically at 1 Timothy 2:11-15.
Glahn, after some discussion of why it’s worth taking a fresh look at Artemis in the NT, dives into Ephesus and Artemis across several chapters. For example, a common argument I’ve seen is that Artemis in Ephesus was associated with prostitution and that this should provide a background for how texts related to Artemis might play out. Glahn, however, argues that this is not the case and that the evidence for prostitution as a connection with Artemis is missing either Empire-wide or in the city of Ephesus specifically. Indeed, the opposite seems to be the case as Artermis is consistently associated with chastity and virginity. Artemis, one might say, is “Nobody’s Mother.”
Artemis was also associated with childbirth and midwifing, to the extent that she was seen as taking the pain of childbirth away. This, Glahn argues later, explains some of the complexities behind the 1 Timothy passage. One example of this is that the argument of being saved through or persevering through childbearing appears to be a reference to Artemis and has the author of 1 Timothy essentially giving readers the advice to set aside an idol–the Greek god Artemis–for Christ as Lord.
Glahn also applies some of these findings to how to read the rest of the text, noting that having Artemis in Ephesus and the related background provided in the foregoing chapters explains some of how Paul might have been arguing against false teaching and confronting the Artemis cult more directly.
Nobody’s Mother is a deep book that makes several well-informed arguments about topics related to NT interpretation. It is recommended highly.
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