In earlier posts, we have highlighted women whose names and some of their roles in the Jesus movement we know, many of whom have long been ignored in the history of New (Christian) Testament scholarship (and Sunday School stories): women from Paul’s letter to the Romans, Chapter 16 (the apostle Junia, the deacon Phoebe, the […]
Women in early church
Bishop Mary
In several earlier posts, we have examined women who were leaders in the early Jesus movement – thus disproving the traditional argument of many Christian denominations that women could not (and therefore cannot) serve as leaders. We have shown how many anti-women assertions in the New (Christian) Testament of the Bible that have long been […]
Index to the Ninth Year: October 2023-October 2024
Thank you for your interest in these blog posts! Here is a listing by topic for posts since October 2023. (Some posts appear in more than one category.) Social and Racial Justice, Diversity Resources for Women’s History Month, 3/8/2024 Reconnecting with African Ancestors: New Initiatives in Genetics and Genealogy, 2/23/2024 Moms for Liberty Again: Implications […]
Ancient Papyri, Household Codes, Slavery, and non-Western Paul: A Sampling of Current Christian Testament Research
Last year, we reported on the First (2023) Global Virtual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. And we have also discussed Biblical scholarship that has emerged from other SBL meetings (2017, 2020, and 2021). SBL, founded in 1880, is “the oldest and largest learned society devoted to the critical investigation of the Bible from […]
Uncovering Nympha: Scholarship and Female Leadership in the Early Jesus Movement
When one reads standard reference works about the New (Christian) Testament and the early Jesus movement one would almost never know that there is a woman mentioned in the letter to the Colossians. It has taken recent research by female scholars to uncover yet another woman who served the movement in the same ways that […]
Resources for Women’s History Month
In honor of Women’s History Month, here is a sampling of resources about women, especially focused on the early Jesus followers, the New (Christian) Testament, nascent Christianity, and the ancient (Western) world. We are grateful for the scholars (both male and female) who have brought women out of the shadows over the past several decades! […]
Apocryphal Women in the Early Jesus Movement: Eliciting Fact from Fiction
In past posts, we have examined women in the first couple of centuries of the Common Era (CE) who may well have been real: Evodia and Syntyche mentioned by Paul in his letter to the Philippians; Apphia, mentioned in Paul’s letter to Philemon; and women mentioned in Chapter 16 of Paul’s letter to the Romans: […]
Biblical Scholarship: A Report on the First Global Virtual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature
The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) tried something new in March 2023: holding a virtual global meeting. SBL was founded in 1880 and is “the oldest and largest learned society devoted to the critical investigation of the Bible from a variety of academic disciplines.” SBL holds an Annual Meeting in North America (which now draws […]
Index to the Seventh Year
Thank you for your interest in these blog posts! Here is a listing by topic for posts since October 2021. (Some topics overlap.) Social and Racial Justice, Diversity Honoring the Wampanoags Today and Moving Toward a More Perfect Union, November 26, 2021 Suggested Readings for Black History Month: The Self-Education of White Americans, February […]
New Research on Mary Called the Magdalene
As we saw earlier, feminist scholarship has brought to light the leadership role that the woman known as Mary Magdalene from the New (Christian) Testament had in the early days of the Jesus movement. As we noted, she appears numerous times in the Christian Testament and in all four gospels: Matthew 27.55-56, 61; 28.1; Mark […]