Women in the New Testament

Even though the Christian church was dominated by men throughout much of its history, many of Jesus’ disciples and early leaders within the Church of the first century were women. BAS editors have compiled this special collection to showcase the women in the books of the New Testament who stood out from among their male peers.

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Clearly, no woman has had more influence on Christian faith and practice than Mary, the mother of Jesus. Yet it would be extremely difficult to explain her tremendous role throughout history solely on the basis of what is said about her in the New Testament. To learn how Mary came to fulfill this role, we must look outside the Bible. In “The Favored One: How Mary became the Mother of God,”, Ronald F. Hock of the University of Southern California explores the earliest Christian text to describe Mary’s life in detail—the Infancy Gospel of James. Although excluded from the Bible, this account has had enormous influence on later traditions.

If you think you know who Mary Magdalene was, chances are you’re wrong. She was not the “woman in the city who was a sinner” (Luke 7:37). Nor was she the woman caught in the act of adultery (John 7:53–8:11), nor the Samaritan woman said to have five husbands and to be living with a man not her husband (John 4:8–29). She was actually a leading participant in some of the principal events of Christian faith and possibly a source of apostolic authority for women. In “How Mary Magdalene Became a Whore,” Jane Schaberg redresses a longstanding slander and restores the Magdalene to her rightful place of dignity in Biblical history.

A late-second-century apocryphal text tells of a woman who defied society to follow the apostle Paul. In the succeeding centuries, her fame extended from Asia Minor to the eastern borders of the church, to the sands of Egypt and into Europe. As described in “Thecla: The Apostle Who Defied Women’s Destiny” by David R. Cartlidge, Thecla’s story provides valuable insights into the role of women in early Christianity, as well as the challenges a female apostle faced in the Greco-Roman world.

According to the Gospel of Luke, some of Jesus’ most prominent followers were several women of means who supported his ministry, including Mary Magdalene. One of their number, Joanna, who even stood alongside Jesus during his crucifixion, was the wife of a very prominent man—none other than the personal steward of Herod Antipas, tetrarch and ruler of Galilee. What happened to this devoted disciple of Jesus who was also a political liability for Herod’s household? In “Joanna: Apostle of the Lord or Jailbat?” Ben Witherington III looks to the writings of the Apostle Paul to discover the possible fate of Joanna in the early decades of the Christian movement.