Hidden Women Of The Gospels

A shepherdess who raced to the manger...a bride who saw Jesus turn water into wine...these are among the more than twenty rich imaginings of women hinted at in the Gospels, whose stories will enthrall and inspire.

"A companion to her previous Hidden Women of the Gospels, this new volume tells stories or "midrash" based on named or unnamed women who appear in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles"--

Examines the role of women in the Gospels.

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND license. This book reveals exciting early Christian evidence that Mary was remembered as a powerful role model for women leaders—women apostles, baptizers, and presiders at the ritual meal. Early Christian art portrays Mary and other women clergy serving as deacon, presbyter/priest, and bishop. In addition, the two oldest surviving artifacts to depict people at an altar table inside a real church depict women and men in a gender-parallel liturgy inside two of the most important churches in Christendom—Old Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome and the second Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Dr. Kateusz’s research brings to light centuries of censorship, both ancient and modern, and debunks the modern imagination that from the beginning only men were apostles and clergy.

This collection of four novellas takes the reader back to the days of Jesus, and into the lives of four unnamed women whose stories are some of the most compelling in the Gospels. Included in this compilation are: TRAPPED: THE ADULTEROUS WOMAN When Anna follows the pull of her foolish heart toward a man not her betrothed-husband, she finds herself to be trapped in a web of betrayal...from which only one Man can save her. ALONE: THE WOMAN AT THE WELL All Marah ever thirsted for was a husband to love her, a home of her own. But when life leaves her alone and forsaken, a stranger at the well offers her the acceptance she thought she would never find again. BROKEN: THE WOMAN WHO ANOINTED JESUS'S FEET Tirzah never wanted to follow her mother into the life of a harlot, but the cruel world gives her no other choice. When she hears of Jesus, she knows he can heal her crippled friend...but can he heal Tirzah's broken spirit? HOPELESS: THE WOMAN WITH THE ISSUE OF BLOOD Zahava has a husband who loves her...but after twelve years of bleeding that has left her unclean and cut off from him, can a forbidden touch give her the hope so long denied her?

Agnes and Margaret Smith were not your typical Victorian scholars or adventurers. Female, middle-aged, and without university degrees or formal language training, the twin sisters nevertheless made one of the most important scriptural discoveries of their time: the earliest known copy of the Gospels in ancient Syriac, the language that Jesus spoke. In an era when most Westerners—male or female—feared to tread in the Middle East, they slept in tents and endured temperamental camels, unscrupulous dragomen, and suspicious monks to become unsung heroines in the continuing effort to discover the Bible as originally written.

“This splendid reference describes every woman in Jewish and Christian scripture . . . monumental” (Library Journal). In recent decades, many biblical scholars have studied the holy text with a new focus on gender. Women in Scripture is a groundbreaking work that provides Jews, Christians, or anyone fascinated by a body of literature that has exerted a singular influence on Western civilization a thorough look at every woman and group of women mentioned in the Bible, whether named or unnamed, well known or heretofore not known at all. They are remarkably varied—from prophets to prostitutes, military heroines to musicians, deacons to dancers, widows to wet nurses, rulers to slaves. There are familiar faces, such as Eve, Judith, and Mary, seen anew with the full benefit of the most up-to-date results of biblical scholarship. But the most innovative aspect of this book is the section devoted to the many females who in the scriptures do not even have names. Combining rigorous research with engaging prose, these articles on women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament will inform, delight, and challenge readers interested in the Bible, scholars and laypeople alike. Together, these collected histories create a volume that takes the study of women in the Bible to a new level.