GOSPEL WOMEN

Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels

Richard Bauckham

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

© 2002 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

All rights reserved

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

255 Jefferson Ave. S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503 /

P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bauckham, Richard

Gospel women: studies of the named women in the gospels / Richard Bauckham.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-8028-4999-7 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Women in the Bible.

2. Bible. N.T. Gospels—Biography. I. Title.

BS2445.B38 2002

226.09221082—dc21

2001059216

www.eerdmans.com

This book is dedicated to my mother

Stephania Lilian Bauckham (née Wells)

1911–1998

who used to say she was a Martha

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. The Book of Ruth as a Key to Gynocentric Reading of Scripture

1. The Female Voice in Ruth

2. Women’s and Men’s Perspectives

3. Female Power and Male Authority

4. The Problem of the Genealogy

5. The Canonical Role of Gynocentric Texts

2. The Gentile Foremothers of the Messiah

1. Why Are These Women Here?

2. The Ancestry of Tamar

3. The Marriage of Rahab

4. The Canaanite Women

3. Elizabeth and Mary in Luke 1: Reading a Gynocentric Text Intertextually

1. Luke 1:5–80: A Gynocentric Text

2. Mary as Agent of God’s Salvation of Israel

3. Mary’s Lowly Status

4. Anna of the Tribe of Asher

1. Introduction

2. Where Were the Asherites?

3. Jerusalem and the Median Diaspora

4. Anna, Phanuel, and the Book of Tobit

5. Anna in Gospel and History

Additional Note A: The Northern Tribes in Exile in 4 Ezra 13

Additional Note B: The Place of Origin of the Book of Tobit

5. Joanna the Apostle

1. On the Road with Jesus and His Disciples

2. Jewish Women as Owners of Property

3. Wife of Herod’s “Steward”

4. Wife of Chuza the Nabatean

5. Patron or Servant?

6. Joanna Also Known as Junia

7. Joanna as Apostolic Witness

8. The Historical Joanna—a Sketch

9. Readers on the Road with Joanna

6. Mary of Clopas

1. WhoWas She?

2. Her Role in the Mission of the Church in Palestine

Additional Note on Tradition in John 19:25–27

7. The Two Salomes and the Secret Gospel of Mark

1. Salome the Sister of Jesus

2. Salome the Disciple of Jesus

3. The Secret Gospel of Mark

Appendix: Some Extracanonical Texts about Salome the Disciple of Jesus

8. The Women and the Resurrection: The Credibility of Their Stories

1. Introduction

2. The Formation of the Gospel Resurrection Narratives

3. The Credibility of Women

4. The Women in Matthew

5. The Women in Luke

6. The Women in John

7. The Women in Mark

8. The Women as Authoritative Witnesses in the Early Church

9. The Women in the Kerygmatic Summaries

Index of Names of Ancient People and Places

Index of Modern Authors

Index of Ancient Literature