A key way to understand biblical texts is outlined as visual exegesis, which brings the metaphors of the text into dialogue with the visual images of the time. This is innovatively shown through the interpretation of Colossians 3:1-17 through the images of clothing and body prevalent on statuary, funerary monuments and coins of first century Asia Minor.

What we think of our bodies and what we wear says something about who we are and how we belong. This was the same in the ancient world. Rosemary Canavan explores the imagery of clothing and body in the first century CE Christian writing, the Letter to the Colossians. Through the use of this imagery in the letter, the writer critiques the way people understood themselves in a particular part of the Greco-Roman world in the Lycus Valley in south western Asia Minor (Turkey). An examination of statuary, funerary monuments and coins in this geographical location contemporaneous with the letter's writing reveals how clothing and body images were understood. This is then placed in dialogue with the metaphorical use of clothing and body in other texts, especially the Letter to the Colossians. Social identity and rhetorical studies draw on archaeological, epigraphical, iconographical and literary sources to formulate a new approach to biblical interpretation aptly named "visual exegesis".

Autorentext
Born 1956; 2007-10 Pastoral Associate and Lecturer Grade A, Flinders University, South Australia; Jan 2011 Appointed Postgraduate Coursework Coordinator, Melbourne College of Divinity (MCD), Australia; Nov 2011 Appointed Associate Dean (Postgraduate and Research), Lecturer in New Testament, MCD University of Divinity, Australia; Dec 2011 PhD.