ReligionProf Podcast with Sara Parks

In this episode of the ReligionProf Podcast I talk with Dr. Sara Parks about her important new book, Gender in the Rhetoric of Jesus: Women in Q. As we discuss in the podcast, you don’t need to accept the existence of the hypothetical Q source to find this book useful, as it is about the historical Jesus. I do nonetheless think that Q skeptics who read it will get a better sense of what kinds of phenomena emerge from the data when Q-related questions are asked, and how this seems to many of us to provide confirmation of the hypothesis. Certain things seem to line up nicely as stemming from Q that make less sense as supposedly the work of Matthew or Luke and then changed by the other.

If you’re not familiar with her work, take a look at Sara’s article on “the Brooten phenomenon” and “historical-critical ministry” to get a sense of what an insightful and creative scholar she is. And then go buy and read her book.

Also related to women in antiquity in general and/or early Christianity more specifically:

Carmen Joy Imes interviewed Holly Beers

Book Review: Holly Beers, A Week in the Life of a Greco-Roman Woman

Review of Mary, Mother of Martyrs

Women in Antiquity (online resource)

Venn Diagrams and the Synoptic Problem

The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath: Synoptic Problems

Rethinking the Gospel Sources with Burkett

“Scribal” Changes?Or Readers’ Changes?

AJR spotlight on Nicholas Elder’s dissertation

Women Doing Ancient History: A Best Of 2019

What’s at Stake When Heresy Sells?

Also, from elsewhere on Patheos blogs:

10 Characteristics of the Canonical Gospels

Why Were the Gospels Written?

Related to the Synoptic problem (and the the matter of Q) I’ve been meaning for a while to share some images that Mark Goodacre blogged a while back, discussing a book by Matthew Larsen. See his posts on how similar the Synoptics are and how similar Luke and Matthew are, as well as Joe Weeks’ contribution to the discussion of graphic representations of the data. See too Mark Goodacre’s podcast on sourcemania and the conference announcement about the history of “women religious” in Britain and Ireland.