Abstract / DOI
«The Lamentations We Attribute to Women» (Plato, Politeia 3, 387e): Jesus’ Tears in the New Testament.
The article focuses on the three narrative passages in the New Testament where Jesus is described as weeping and shedding tears: Luke 19:41–44; Hebrews 5:7–8, and John 11:33–36. These scenes are contextualized within a gender specific «history of tears» (Hans van Wees). Since they never provide a direct access to his ‹real› emotions and all stand in some tension with a masculinity of self control, the reasons for depicting a crying hero, it is argued, have to be deduced from the texts’ christological message.