A FRIENDLY GUIDE TO WOMEN IN THE NEW TESTAMENT sample Rosemary Canavan FG Women final pages 23feb.indd 1 1/30/2019 5:00:21 PM Published in Australia by Garratt Publishing Contents 32 Glenvale Crescent Mulgrave, Vic. 3170 Introduction 3 www.garrattpublishing.com.au Dedication 4 Copyright © Rosemary Canavan 2017 All rights reserved. Except as provided by the Australian copyright law, no part of this Women in the Gospels 5 book may be reproduced in any way without Mary 6 permission in writing from the publisher. Mary Magdalene (Mary a woman of Magdala) 12 Design and typesetting by Lynne Muir Elizabeth 15 Attributions List from Creative Commons: Anna (Hannah in Hebrew, Hanna in Greek) 18 Page 13 Joanna 19 © 2011 Ted, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2 St Mary Magdalene & the Risen Christ, Shkolnik Susanna 20 icon in St Paul Church. Dayton, OH. Mary the mother of James (and Joses/Joseph) 21 Page 24-25 Creative Commons Mary of Clopas 21 Pic of woman anointing Jesus' feet, CC BY SA 4 Martha and Mary 22 Page 33 The dream of Pilates' wife by Alphonse Francois Woman who anointed Jesus 24 Permission, PD-US A woman healed and a daughter restored to life 26 Images from iStockphoto on pages 5, 6, 10, 17, 20, 23, 30, 34, 37, 48. Samaritan woman at the well 29 Other photos by Rosemary Canavan. The Syrophoenician woman and the Caananite woman 31 Scripture quotations are drawn from the New Peter’s mother-in-law 32 Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Pilate’s wife 33 © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of Herodias and her daughter 34 the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Widows 36 Widow of Nain 36 Used by permission. All rights reserved. Nihil Obstat: Reverend Monsignor Peter J Kenny Women in the Pauline Letters 37 STD Junia 38 Imprimatur: Monsignor Greg Bennet MS STL VG Prisca (Priscilla) 39 EV Vicar General Date: 9 February 2017 Phoebe 41 Women in Rome 42 The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free Other Women of the Pauline Household Communities 43 of doctrinal or moral error. No implication is Apphia, Chloe, Euodia and Syntyche, Nympha 43 contained therein that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions or statements expressed. Women in Acts 44 They do not necessarily signify that the work is approved as a basic text for catechetical Lydia 45 instruction. Tabitha (Dorcas) 47 ISBN 9781925073355 Sapphira 47 Other women in Acts 48 Cataloguing in Publication information for this title is available from the National Library of Damaris, Drusilla, Bernice 48 Australia. www.nla.gov.au More women 49 The author and publisher gratefullysample acknowledge Lois and Eunice 47 the permission granted to reproduce the Claudia 47 copyright material in this book. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright Conclusion 50 material. The publisher apologises for any errors or Bibliography 51 omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book. Endnotes 52 2 FG Women final pages 23feb.indd 2 1/30/2019 5:00:22 PM Introduction Friendly Guide to Women Palestine, Asia Minor, Greece, and Pauline corpus. The portrayals of in the New Testament Rome. This is a world and time very women are not always consistent Ailluminates the women who distant from our own. To understand across the writings, giving different accompanied Jesus on his mission, these women and their roles, we perspectives and glimpses of these those he met on the way, those who need to take off our shoes and walk women in narratives written for appear in the letters of Paul as co- in theirs. We need to enter their specific communities and purposes. workers and members of the early world and see with their eyes and Always we remember that the focus communities of Christ of the New Testament is Jesus. followers and those Mark's Gospel begins: “The who are encountered beginning of the good news in the growth of the of Jesus Christ Son of God”. It Church in Acts. These is the ongoing good news of women were disciples the initiative of God, who gifts and apostles, mothers, the world with Jesus, God's wives, daughters son, and the outpouring of the and sisters, witnesses Holy Spirit. As we come to to the resurrection, know the women we do so in and co-workers and relation to this meta-narrative. followers of Paul in If we are disappointed that proclaiming Christ to there is not more about the the Gentiles. Naturally, women, we also rejoice that Mary has pride of place they are inextricably woven as the mother and into the fabric of the life and first disciple of Jesus. mission of Jesus from his birth Among these women to his death, as first witnesses there are some who of the resurrection and in the are unnamed yet take spread of the good news to the their place as significant ends of the earth. women of faith and These are women of a witness to Jesus, particular time, whom we such as the woman glimpse through cultural, who anointed Jesus: political and social lenses that “wherever the good do not always give them voice news is proclaimed, or precedence. Sometimes Byzantine icon, copy what she has done will be told in there is need to imagine and read remembrance of her” (Mark 15:9; their faith. Many are inspirational between the lines. These women Matt 26:13). To keep this true to women, and yet they are also like the continue to inspire women and men the fullness of the New Testament,sample women of today, acting authentically today, and they offer their legacy of some more unlikely characters are to answer their call in their own faith and service to the story of the included: Herodias and her daughter, world. Church. and Sapphira. What we know of the women These are all women of the first of the New Testament comes to us century CE living in places across from the writings of men, mainly Dr Rosemary Canavan the Greco-Roman world under the the evangelists and Paul, as well as Catholic Theological College regime of the Roman Empire in the writers of the letters outside the University of Divinity 3 FG Women final pages 23feb.indd 3 1/30/2019 5:00:24 PM This book is dedicated to all the women who have inspired, encouraged and journeyed with me. sample Cover image and right: Virgin Mary mosaic Title page: The Mona Lisa of the Galilee from a mosaic in Sepphoris 4 FG Women final pages 23feb.indd 4 1/30/2019 5:00:26 PM Women in the Gospels sample 5 FG Women final pages 23feb.indd 5 1/30/2019 5:00:32 PM Mary ary holds the Joachim as Mary's father and Anna as scriptural references will help us hear hearts of believers her mother. Much of this text echoes and understand these accounts in all Mthroughout the Luke's narrative and attributes similar the richness that the first audiences centuries as mother and first sayings to Mary as are noted of Jesus enjoyed. disciple of Jesus. Muslims also in the Gospel of Luke. hold her dear. Throughout Turkey Mary and the she is held in great reverence, as Meeting Mary in the Annunciation is shown by the enormous statue Birth Narratives and Birth of Jesus near Mary's House in Ephesus. The according to Luke tradition that surrounds Mary is very The Gospels of Luke and Matthew much larger than the person we add accounts of the birth and infancy Luke's Gospel, written around 85 CE, discover in the New Testament. The of Jesus primarily to establish who relates a divine annunciation to Mary Protoevangelium (Infancy Gospel) Jesus is from the beginning. These are and the birth of Jesus. Mary receives the of James, written no earlier than the not historical accounts. Rather, they word of God via the angel Gabriel: second century CE, is subtitled “The draw on the Old Testament scriptures And behold, you will conceive in Birth of Mary the Holy Mother of artfully and theologically to weave your womb and bear a son, and you God and Very Glorious Mother of the backdrop for the arrival of the will name him Jesus. He will be Jesus Christ”. It is the best known Messiah and the fulfilment of God's great, and will be called the Son of of the later texts containing legends promise. We need to remember the Most High, and the Lord God about Mary and her birth, life, death as we focus on Mary that she too will give to him the throne of his and bodily ascension into heaven. It is threaded into this backdrop. ancestor David. (Luke 1:31–32*) is this apocryphal text that recounts Our attention to the symbols and Below: Mary's House, Ephesus, Turkey Right: Statue of Mary, Ephesus, Turkey sample * an asterisk denotes the author's translation 6 FG Women final pages 23feb.indd 6 1/30/2019 5:00:40 PM The entrance of Gabriel signifies Mary embrace as kinswomen, old and that have become the prayer of the a message from God, a divine young, both with the promise of God, faithful through the ages: “Blessed are intervention. His appearance to bearing the herald of the good news you among women, and blessed is announce both the birth of John the and Jesus the Messiah.