The Most Extraordinary And Implausible Inventions Ever Woven Out Of Gospel Texts

The lectionary reading for this coming Sunday is one that I devote a chapter to in my book What Jesus Learned from Women. If you’re a minister still trying to figure out what to preach this Sunday, I commend it to you. Indeed, I’d like to hear from anyone who uses my book (whether an individual chapter or the whole thing as a sermon series) for the purpose of preaching. I could see it being helpful, and can even imagine preachers reading the short fiction to their congregations in that context. (Obviously, if you don’t have the book yet and need it for sermon preparation for this coming Sunday then getting the Kindle version of the book is probably the best way to go.)

Let me include other things related to the book in this post. First, I’m grateful to Myrna Kostash for mentioning my book in her recent blog post, “Who Framed Mary Magdalene? Part One.” There she quotes a sentence from the book part of which serves as the title of this blog post. Here it is in full: “The tradition that Mary was a prostitute is among the most extraordinary and implausible inventions ever woven out of Gospel texts” (p.229).

Returning to this week’s lectionary text, John Squires discusses my treatment of the number twelve in the story about Jairus’ daughter and the hemorrhaging woman. See also:

On not stereotyping Judaism when reading the Gospels (Mark 5; Pentecost 5B)

A Time for Healing (Bob Cornwall on Mark 5)

Mark 5:21-43 translations and notes

The healing and purifying power of Jesus in Mark 5

In Bible History Daily, Birger Pearson addresses whether Mary Magdalene was a prostitute and/or Jesus’ wife.

For those of you who speak Romanian, there is a review of the book in that language by Dana Sisoeva. When I thanked her for the review, Dana wrote, “voi mai reveni asupra ei, nu mi-o pot scoate din minte. Lectura a fost o adevărată plăcere!” For those who don’t understand, she said that she will be coming back to the book as she cannot get it out of her head. Reading it was a real pleasure!

Englewood Review of Books has a review of a book that I have been reading and with whose author I am hoping to have a conversation about our related books: Jaime Clark-Soles, Women in the Bible.