Women: Scripture, Antiquity, Ministry (A Bibliography)

Women: Scripture, Antiquity, Ministry (A Bibliography) January 26, 2021

I am developing a large academic bibliography on this subject. Feel free to make recommendations in the comment section. This is a work in progress and I plan to add a lot more in the months and years to come.

(*) = High recommended


Must Have Resources

*Lynn Cohick, Women in the World of the Earliest Christians (Baker Academic, 2009)

 

 

 

*Ronald Pierce, Rebecca Merrill Groothius, and Gordon Fee, ed. Discovering BIblical Equality (IVP Academic, 2005)

 

 

 

General Resources

Loveday Alexander, “Women as Leaders in the New Testament,” Modern Believing 54.1 (2013): 14-22.

Andrew Bartlett, Men and Women in Christ: Fresh Light from the Biblical Texts (SPCK, 2019)

*James Beck and Craig Blomberg, ed. Two Views on Women in Ministry (Zondervan, 2005)

 

 

 

*Linda Belleville, Women Leaders and the Church: Three Crucial Questions.

 

 

 

Michael F. Bird, Bourgeois Babes, Bossy Wives, and Bobby Haircuts: A Case for Gender Equality in Ministry (Zondervan, 2011; Kindle only)

Michelle Lee-Barnewall, Neither Complementarian nor Egalitarian (Baker Academic, 2016).

Jaime Clark-Soles, Women in the Bible: Interpretation, Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church (WJK, 2020). LINK TO AUTHOR INTERVIEW: HERE.

Lynn H. Cohick, “Why Women Followed Jesus: A Discussion of Female Piety,” SBET 25.2 (2007): 172-193.

Kevin Giles, What the Bible Actually Teaches on Women (Cascade, 2018)

Kevin Giles, The Headship of Men and the Abuse of Women: Are They Related in Any Way? (Cascade, 2020)

Mark Husbands and Timothy Larsen, ed. Women, Ministry, and the Gospel: Exploring New Paradigms (InterVarsity Press Academic, 2007)

*Dorothy A Lee, The Ministry of Women in the New Testament: Reclaiming the BIblical Vision for Church Leadership (Baker Academic, 2021).

 

 

 

*Scot McKnight, Junia is Not Alone (Zondervan, 2011, Kindle only)

 

 

 

*Lucy Peppiatt, Rediscovering Scripture’s Vision for Women (IVP Academic, 2019).

 

 

 

Dennis Smith and Michael E. Williams, ed. The Storyteller’s Companion to the Bible Volume 13 New Testament Women (Abingdon, 1999)

*Derek and Dianne Tidball, The Message of Women (IVP Academic, 2014).

 

 

 

Elsa Tamez, “Women’s Leadership in the New Testament,” in Gender in Theology, Spirituality, and Practice (2012): 77-85.

Marion Ann Taylor and Agnes Choi, eds. Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters: A Historical and Biographical Guide. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2012.

Joan E. Taylor and Ilaria K.E. Ramelli, ed. Patterns of Women’s Leadership in Early Christianity. Oxford University Press, 2021.

 

Ruth Tucker and Walter Liefeld, Daughters of the Church: Women and Ministry from New Testament Times to the Present.

Ben Witherington III, Women in the Earliest Churches (Cambridge University Press)

 

William G. Witt, Icons of Christ: A Biblical and Systematic Theology for Women’s Ordination (Baylor University Press, 2021).

 

Websites with academic information

Christians for Biblical Equality (which sponsors the journal, Priscilla Papers)

Marg Mowczko (website dedicated to women in Scripture, history, and ministry)

Women Biblical Scholars

Complementarian Resources

The vast majority of this bibliography is oriented towards egalitarian literature. In this section I am listing a few key complementarian resources.

Kathy Keller, Jesus, Justice, and Gender Roles: A Case for Gender Roles in Ministry (Zondervan)

Andreas J. Köstenberger and Thomas R. Schreiner, Women in the Church: An Interpretation and Application of 1 Timothy 2:9-15 (Crossway, 2016)

Andreas J. Köstenberger and Margaret Elizabeth J. Köstenberger, God’s Design for Man and Woman: A Biblical-Theological Survey (2014)

John Piper and Wayne Grudem, ed. Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (2012).

 

Women and the Old Testament

Catherine Kroeger and Mary J. Evans, ed. The IVP Women’s Bible Commentary (IVP, 2002).

Jacqueline E. Lapsley, Whispering the Word: Hearing Women’s Stories in the Old Testament (WJK, 2005)

Jennifer Matheny, “Ruth in Recent Research,” CBR 19 (2020): 8-35.

Carol Meyers, “Double Vision: Textual and Archaeological Images of Women,” Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 5.2 (2016): 112-131.

*Ronald Pierce, Rebecca Merrill Groothius, and Gordon Fee, ed. Discovering BIblical Equality (IVP Academic, 2005)

 

 

 

Michael E. Williams, ed. The Storyteller’s Companion to the Bible Volume 4 Old Testament Women (Abingdon, 1993)

 

Women in the Greco-Roman World

Holly Beers, A Week in the Life of a Greco-Roman Woman (IVP, 2019)

*Lynn Cohick, Women in the World of the Earliest Christians (Baker Academic, 2009)

 

 

 

*Suzanne Dixon, The Roman Family (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992)

*Elaine Fantham et al., Women in the Classical World (Oxford University Press, 1994)

Judith Evans Grubbs, Women and the Law in the Roman Empire: A Sourcebook on Marriage, Divorce and Widowhood (Routledge, 2002)

*Emily Hemelrijk, Hidden Lives, Public Personae: Women and Civic Life in the Roman World (Oxford University Press, 2015)

*Susan Hylen, Women in the New Testament World (Oxford University Press, 2018)

 

 

 

*Mary R. Lefkowitz, Women’s Life in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook in Translation (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016)

Beryl Rawson, ed. A Companion to Families in the Greek and Roman World (Blackwell, 2011)

*Richard P. Saller, Patria Potestas and the Stereotype of the Roman Family (Cambridge University Press, 1986)

*–. Patriarchy, Property, and Death in the Roman Family (Cambridge University Press, 1995)

*Bruce W. Winter, Roman Wives, Roman Widows: The Appearance of New Women and the Pauline Communities (Eerdmans, 2003)

 

 

 

Women in Early Judaism

Mayer Gruber, “The Status of Women in Ancient Judaism,” in Judaism in Late Antiquity (Brill, 1999)

 

Women in the Gospels and Acts

Mary Ann Beavis, ” ‘Like Yeast That a Woman Took’: Feminist Interpretation of the Parables,” R&E 109.2 (2012): 219-231.

Jeffrey Aernie, “Cruciform Discipleship: The Narrative Function of Women in Mark 15-16,” JBL 135.4 (2016): 779-797.

Susanna Asikainen, “Women Out of Place: The Women Who Challenged Jesus,” Neotestamentica 52.1 (2018): 179-193.

*Richard Bauckham, Gospel Women: Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels (Eerdmans, 2002)

Teresa Calpino, “Tabitha and Lydia: Models of Early Christian Women Leaders,” 42.2 (2016).

Joanna Dewey, “Women in the Gospel of Mark,” Word & World 26.1 (2006): 22-29.

Beverly Gaventa, Mary: Glimpses of the Mother of Jesus (Fortress, 1999)

Frances Taylor Gench, Back at the Well: Women’s Encounters with Jesus in the Gospels (WJK, 2004)

Marianne B. Kartzow, “Resurrection as Gossip: Representations of Women in Resurrection Stories in the Gospels,” Lectio Difficilior 1 (2010): 1-28.

Matthew Malcolm, “Did the Syrophoenician Woman Change Jesus’ Mission,” BBR 29.2 (2019): 174-186.

 

Barbara E. Reid and Shelly Matthews. Luke 1-9. Wisdom Commentary. Liturgical Press, 2021.

 

 

Barbara E. Reid and Shelly Matthews. Luke 10-24. Wisdom Commentary. Liturgical Press, 2021.

 

F. Scott Spencer, Dancing Girls, Loose Ladies, and Women of the Cloth: The Women in Jesus’ Life (Continuum , 2004)

*–. Salty Wives, Spirited Mothers, and Savvy Widows: Capable Women of Purpose and Persistence in Luke’s Gospel (Eerdmans, 2012).

 

The Magnificat (Luke 1:46b-55)

Kenneth E. Bailey, “The Song of Mary: Vision of a New Exodus (Luke 1:46-55),” Theological Review 2.1 (1979): 29-35.

John L. Bell, “‘Blessed Be Jael Among Women’: Judges 4:4-24; Luke 1:46-55,” McMaster Journal of Theology and Mission 5 (2002).

N. Clayton Croy, “Mantic Mary? The Virgin Mother as Prophet in Luke 1.26-56 and the Early Church,” JSNT 34.3 (2012): 254-276.

Nijay K. Gupta, “Teach Us, Mary: Authority of Women Teachers in the Church in Light of the Magnificat,” Priscilla Papers 29.3 (2015): 11-14.

Barbara Reid, “An Overture to the Gospel of Luke,” CTM 39.6 (2012): 428-434.

–. “Prophetic Voices of Elizabeth, Mary, and Anna in Luke 1-2,” New Perspectives on the Nativity, ed. Jeremy Corley (2009) 37-46.

David M. Scholer, “The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55): Reflections on Its Hermeneutical History,” in Conflict and Context: Hermeneutics in the Americas, ed. Mark L. Branson and René Padilla (Eerdmans, 1986).

Matthew L. Skinner, “Learning from Mary in Our Age of Endless War”

Gerturd, Wittenberg, “The Song of a Poor Woman: The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55),” in Women Hold Up Half the Sky: Women in the Church in Southern Africa, ed. Denise Ackermann et al (1991).

 

Women in Paul

General resources

*Craig S. Keener, Paul, Women, and Wives (Baker, 1992)

Carolyn Osiek, “Diakonos and Prostasis: Women’s Patronage in Early Christianity,” HTS 61.1-2 (2005): 347-370.

Carolyn Osiek, “Women Leaders of Households in Early Christianity,” Emmanuel 115.2 (2009): 141.

Philip Barton Payne, Man and Woman, One in Christ (Zondervan, 2009)

Sandra Hack Polaski, “Paul and Real Women,” Word & World 30.4 (2010): 391-398.

Christoph Stenschke, “Married Women and the Spread of Early Christianity,” Neotestamentica 43.1 (2009): 145-194.

*Cynthia Long Westfall, Paul and Gender: Reclaiming the Apostle’s Vision for Men and Women in Christ (Baker Academic, 2016)

 

 

 

Galatians

Beverly Gaventa, “Is Galatians Just a ‘Guy Thing’? A Theological Reflection,” Interpretation 54.3 (2000): 267-278.

Romans 16

Mary Ann Beavis, “I Commend to You Our Sister: Women in Romans 16,1-16,” The Bible Today 46.4 (2008): 227-232.

*James D.G. Dunn, Romans (2 vols; WBC)

*Beverly Gaventa, When in Romans (Baker)

Robert Jewett, Romans (Hermeneia, 2006)

Veronica Koperski, “Women in Romans: Text in Context,” in the Letter to the Romans (Leuven, 2009)

Richard N. Longenecker, Romans (NIGTC, 2016)

*Scot McKnight, Reading Romans Backwards (Baylor University Press, 2019)

Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, “The Pauline Network: A Glimpse from Romans 16,” The Bible Today 42.4 (2004): 218-223.

Christoph Stenchke, “Paul’s References to Women in His Letter to the Romans and Their Function in the Argument of the Letter: A Modest Proposal,” Neotestamentica 54.1 (2020): 1-45.

N.T. Wright, Romans (NIB, 2002)

 

1 Corinthians 11

Roy Ciampa and Brian Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians (PNTC, 2010)

*Gordon D. Fee, 1 Corinthians (NICNT, 2014)

David E. Garland, 1 Corinthians (BECNT, 2003)

Richard B. Hays, First Corinthians (Interpretation, 1997)

Craig S. Keener, 1 & 2 Corinthians (NCBC, 2005)

*Craig S. Keener, Paul, Women, and Wives (Baker, 1992)

Preston T. Massey, “Is There a Case for Elite Roman ‘New Women’ Causing Division at Corinth?” Revue Biblique 118.1 (2011): 76-93.

Preston T. Massey, “Women, Talking, and Silence: 1 Corinthians 11.5 and 14.34-35 in the Light of Greco-Roman Culture,” JGRCJ 12 (2016): 127-160.

*Lucy Peppiatt, Unveiling Paul’s Women: Making Sense of 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 (Cascade, 2018)

Anthony Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC, 2000)

*Cynthia Long Westfall, Paul and Gender: Reclaiming the Apostle’s Vision for Men and Women in Christ (Baker Academic, 2016)

Ben Witherington III, Conflict and Community in Corinth (Eerdmans, 1995)

 

1 Corinthians 14

Roy Ciampa and Brian Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians (PNTC, 2010)

Gordon D. Fee, 1 Corinthians (NICNT, 2014)

*David E. Garland, 1 Corinthians (BECNT, 2003)

*Richard B. Hays, First Corinthians (Interpretation, 1997)

*Craig S. Keener, 1 & 2 Corinthians (NCBC, 2005)

*Craig S. Keener, Paul, Women, and Wives (Baker, 1992)

Anthony Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC, 2000)

*Ben Witherington III, Conflict and Community in Corinth (Eerdmans, 1995)

 

1 Timothy 2

Linda Belleville, “Exegetical Fallacies in Interpreting 1 Timothy 2:11–15: Evaluating the text with contextual, lexical, grammatical, and cultural information” CBE website (Click Here)

Adela Yarbro Collins, “The Female Body as Social Space in 1 Timothy,” NTS 57.2 (2011): 155-175.

Gordon D. Fee, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus (NIBC/UBNT, 1989)

Timothy Foster, “1 Timothy 2:13-15 as an Analogy,” JSPL 7.1-2 (2017): 53-67.

Kevin Giles, “A Critique of the ‘Novel’ Contemporary Interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:9-15 Given in the Book, Women in the Church. Part 1′, EQ 72:2 (2000): 151-67.

Kevin Giles, “A Critique of the ‘Novel’ Contemporary Interpretation of1 Timothy 2:9-15 Given in the Book, Women in the Church. Part 2″ EQ 72:3 (2000): 195-215.

*Sandra Glahn, “The First-Century Ephesian Artemis: Ramifications of Her Identity,” BibSac 172 (2015): 450-469.

*Sandra Glahn, “The Identity of Artemis in First-Century Ephesus,” BibSac 172 (2015): 316-334.

*James R. Harrison and L.L. Welborn, ed. The First Urban Churches: Ephesus (SBL Press, 2017).

*Gary G. Hoag, Wealth in Ancient Ephesus and the First Letter to Timothy (2015)

*Jamin Hübner, “Revisiting αὐθεντέω in 1 Timothy 2:12: What Does the Extant Data Really Show?” The Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters 4, no. 1 (Spring 2015)

*–. “Translating αὐθεντέω in 1 Timothy 2:12a,” Priscilla Papers (2015)

*Craig S. Keener, Paul, Women, and Wives (Baker, 1992)

Howard Marshall, The Pastoral Epistles (ICC, 2000)

Jerome Murphy O’Connor, St. Paul’s Ephesus (2008) [background on ancient Ephesus]

Geert van Oyen, “The Character of Eve in the New Testament: 2 Corinthians 11.3 and 1 Timothy 2.13-14,” in Out of Paradise: Eve and Adam and Their Interpreters (Sheffield, 2010): 14-28.

*Aida Spencer, 1 Timothy (NCCS, 2013)

*Rick Strelan, Paul, Artemis, and the Jews in Ephesus (deGruyter, 1996).

*Philip Towner, The Letters to Timothy and Titus (NICNT, 2006)

*Paul Trebilco, The Early Christians in Ephesus from Paul to Ignatius (2007)

Cynthia Long Westfall, “The Meaning of Authenteō in 1 Timothy 2.12,” JGRChJ 10 (2014): 138-173.

*Cynthia Long Westfall, Paul and Gender: Reclaiming the Apostle’s Vision for Men and Women in Christ (Baker Academic, 2016)

Ben Witherington, Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians (2006)

Albert Wolters, “A Semantic Study of αὐθέντης and its Derivatives,” JGRChJ 1 (2000): 145–75

Albert Wolters, “Αυθεντης And Its Cognates In Biblical Greek,” JETS 52, no. 4 (2009): 719–29

Henry Baldwin, “An Important Word: αὐθεντέω in 1 Timothy 2:12,” in Andreas Köstenberger and Thomas Schreiner, eds., Women in the Church: An Analysis and Application of 1 Timothy 2:9–15, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005), 39–52

Leland Wilshire, Insight into Two Biblical Passages: Anatomy of a Prohibition 1 Timothy 2:12, the TLG Computer, and the Christian Church (Lanham: University Press of America, 2010)

 

Phoebe

Mary Ann Beavis, “I Commend to You Our Sister: Women in Romans 16,1-16,” The Bible Today 46.4 (2008): 227-232.

Robin Gallaher Branch, “Female Leadership as Demonstrated by Phoebe: An Interpretation of Paul’s Words Introducing Phoebe to the Saints in Rome,” In die Skriflig 53.2 (2019): 1-10.

Paula Gooder, Phoebe: A Story (IVP, 2018)

*Susan Mathew, Women in the Greetings of Romans 16.1-16: A Study of Mutuality and Women’s Ministry in the Letter to the Romans (T&T Clark, 2013)

 

Junia

*Eldon J. Epp, Junia: The First Woman Apostle (Fortress, 2005)

*Susan Mathew, Women in the Greetings of Romans 16.1-16: A Study of Mutuality and Women’s Ministry in the Letter to the Romans (T&T Clark, 2013)

Lin Yii-Jan, “Junia: An Apostle before Paul,” JBL 139.1 (2020): 191-209.

 

Priscilla

Craig S. Keener, Acts (4 volumes; Baker Academic, 2012-2015)

*Susan Mathew, Women in the Greetings of Romans 16.1-16: A Study of Mutuality and Women’s Ministry in the Letter to the Romans (T&T Clark, 2013)

 

New Testament Household Codes (Colossians, Ephesians, 1 Timothy, 1 Peter) And Families in the Roman World

David L. Balch and Carolyn Osiek, ed. Early Christian Families in Context (Eerdmans, 2003)

*Stephen Barton, ed. Family in Theological Perspective (T&T Clark, 2000): ESSAY: James D.G. Dunn, “The Household Rules in the New Testament”

Andrew T. Lincoln.  “The Household Code and Wisdom Mode of Colossians,” JSNT 74 (1999): 93-112.

Lynn Cohick, The Letter to the Ephesians (NICNT, 2020)

*Nijay K. Gupta, Colossians (SHBC, 2013)

James P. Hering, The Colossian and Ephesian ‘Haustafeln’ in Theological Context: An Analysis of Their Origins, Relationship, and Message (Peter Lang, 2007)

*Scot McKnight, The Letter to the Colossians (NICNT, 2018)

Halvor Moxnes, ed. Constructing Early Christian Families: Family as Social Reality and Metaphor (Routledge, 1997)

Carolyn Osiek and David L. Balch, Families in the New Testament World: Households and House Churches (WJK, 1997)

 

 

 

*Carolyn Osiek, Margaret MacDonald, and Janet Tulloch, A Woman’s Place: House Churches in Earliest Christianity (Fortess, 2000)

 

Methodology and Hermeneutics

Feminist Interpretation

Jennifer Garcia Bashaw, ” ‘When Jesus Saw Her…’: A Hermeneutical Response to #MeToo and #ChurchToo,” R&E 117.2 (2020); 288-297.

*Barbara Reid, Wisdom’s Feast: An Invitation to Feminist Interpretation of the Scriptures (Eerdmans, 2016)

 

 

 

See the Wisdom Commentary, a Feminist Interpretation series  (Liturgical Press)

Hermeneutics and Social Ethics

*Gary Meadors, ed. Four Views on Moving beyond the Bible to Theology (Zondervan, 2009)

*Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible (Zondervan, 2016)

 

 

 

*William Webb, Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis (IVP, 2001)

 

 

 

*N.T. Wright, Surprised by Scripture: Engaging Contemporary Issues (HarperOne, 2015)

 

Maternal/Womanly Imagery in the Bible

Beverly Gaventa, Our Mother Saint Paul (WJK, 2007)

 

“Masculinity” and “Femininity” in the Bible

Greg W. Forbes and Scott Harrower, Raised from Obscurity: A Narratival and Theological Study of the Characterization of Women in Luke-Acts (Pickwick, 2015)

*Brittany E. Wilson, Unmanly Men: Refigurations of Masculinity in Luke-Acts (Oxford University Press, 2015)

 

 

 

Women in the Patristic Era/2nd Century+ Christianity

*Lynn H. Cohick and Amy Brown Hughes, Christian Women in the Patristic World: Their Influence, Authority, and Legacy in the Second through Fifth Centuries (Baker Academic, 2017)

Margaret Y. MacDonald, “Was Celsus Right?: The Role of Women in the Expansion of Early Christianity,” in Early Christian Families in Context (Eerdmans, 2003).

Patricia Cox Miller, ed. Women in Early Christianity: Translations from Greek Texts (CUAP, 2005)

Christine Schenk, Crispina and Her Sisters: Women and Authority in Early Christianity (Fortress, 2017)

 

Women in Christian History

Amy Oden, In Her Words: Women’s Writings in the History of Christian Thought (1994)

 

Raymond E. Brown, Karl P. Donfried, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and John Reumann, eds. Mary in the New Testament: A Collaborative Assessment by Protestant and Roman Catholic Scholars. New York: Paulist Press, 1978.

Barbara J. MacHaffie, Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition. 2nd ed. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2006.

 

Mary T.Malone. Volume I: Women and Christianity: The First Thousand Years. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001.

Mary T. Malone. Volume II:Women & Christianity:mFrom 1000 to the Reformation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2002.

Mary T. Malone.  Volume III: Women & Christianity: From The Reformation To The 21st Century. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2003.

Women in Ministry Today

Tara Beth Leach, Emboldened: A Vision for Empowering Women in Ministry (IVP, 2017)

Kristen Padilla, Now That I’m Called: A Guide for Women Discerning a Call to Ministry (Zondervan, 2018)

*Alan F. Johnson, ed. How I Changed My Mind about Women in Leadership (Zondervan, 2010)

*William G. Witt, Icons of Christ: A Biblical and Systematic Theology for Women’s Ordination (Baylor University Press, 2020).

 

Video Resources

Lynn Cohick

 

Beverly Gaventa, “Listening to Phoebe Read Romans”

Beverly Gaventa, “Listening to Romans with Junia and Her Sisters”

Lidija Novakovic, “There is No Longer Male and Female”

Ben Witherington, “Women and Their Roles in the New Testament”

N.T. Wright

 


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