This post originally appeared on my Substack account, where I share all my newest writing.
When I started writing the Jesus Speaks to Women Bible studies last year, I started collecting books on New Testament women. I really didn’t know where to start at first. I wasn’t familiar with the scholarship about women in the Bible, and I hadn’t even heard of any female theologians doing this work!
So you don’t have to start from scratch if you’re like I was, I’m going to share a list of books I’ve learned from in the last year. Some are more academic than others, but all have been helpful. Here they are:
- The Samaritan Woman’s Story: Reconsidering John 4 After #ChurchToo by Caryn Reeder, Professor of New Testament at Westmont College. Reeder researches the household, gender, and violence in the Bible and its world. #ChurchToo refers to the movement to raise awareness about sexual assault and abuse in the church, and is a reference to the #MeToo movement. In Part One, Reeder traces the history of how the Samaritan woman’s story has been told in the church. In Part Two, she outlines the social and cultural landscape of the world of the Samaritan woman and how this reshapes how we tell her story. The book is thoroughly researched and important beyond just the story of the Samaritan woman. Highly recommend and pivotal to my understanding of the story (which I wrote HERE and HERE).
- Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church by Nijay K. Gupta, Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary, podcaster on the Slow Theology podcast, specializes in Pauline theology and ethics, Greco-Roman and Jewish context, Bible translation, women in the ancient world, and Biblical hermeneutics. Part One covers women leaders in the Old Testament, women in the world of the New Testament, and women in the ministry of Jesus. Part Two covers women leaders in the early church like Phoebe, Prisca, and Junia. After showing all that women DID do in the early church, he closes the book by addressing the Bible passages that typically are used to prohibit women in ministry, such as 1 Timothy 2:11-15 and “household codes” like those found in Colossians 3:18-4:1 and Ephesians 5:22-6:9. Accessible, readable, comprehensive, and super helpful!
- Women Remembered: Jesus’ Female Disciples by Joan Taylor (Professor of Christian Origins and and Second Temple Judaism at King’s College London, specializing in Jesus and his world) and Helen Bond (Professor of Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh, specializing in the social and political history of Judea under Roman rule), both prolific writers. This book started as a documentary about the same subject. After an introduction to women in the world of Jesus, each chapter focuses on a woman in the New Testament. Because they come from a more feminist theological lens on the stories, Bond and Taylor help me see the women in the New Testament in a different light. They often draw on texts outside the canon of Scripture to illuminate the stories. Very interesting and helpful, more academic, but mostly an easy read.
- The Mary We Forgot: What the Apostle to the Apostles Teaches the Church Today by Jennifer Powell McNutt, Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies and of Theology and History of Christianity at Wheaton College, specializing in the history of Christianity and theology, also Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church. Full disclosure, I haven’t finished this one yet! McNutt writes to illuminate the Mary Magdalene of Scripture, her place among the disciples and the early church, and how the church has historically remembered her story. At the end, she makes some conclusions about women in the church today. A very accessible read!
- Gospel Women: Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels by Richard Bauckham, former Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, writer and researcher in many areas of theology and Biblical studies, Anglican. This is an extensively footnoted and academic book, but Bauckham has quickly become one of my favorite theologians. Part 1 is about the book of Ruth and its female voice, Part 2 covers the Gentile foremothers of the Messiah, Part 3 is about Elizabeth and Mary, Part 3 is on Anna of the Tribe of Asher, Part 4 on Joanna the Apostle, Part 6 on Mary of Clopas, Part 7 on the two Salomes, and Part 8 on the women of the resurrection and the credibility of their stories. I don’t always understand what he writes, but I learn something new every time I read his work.
- Finding Pheobe: What New Testament Women Were Really Like by Susan E. Hylen, Professor of New Testament and Director of the Women, Theology and Ministry Program at Emory University. This is not about specific women in the New Testament, but about what their world was like. Part 1 is on wealth and property; Part 2 is on social influence and status; Part 3 is about the virtues of women like modesty, industry, and loyalty; Part 4 is about speech and silence. She closes the book with some questions to help the reader use the book’s information to interpret New Testament texts, specifically the ones about women. The book lays the necessary groundwork for understanding these texts, lest we interpret them through our cultural lens. Really important resource! Academic, but still accessible.
- Imperfect Believers: Ambiguous Characters in the Gospel of John by Susan E. Hylen. This one isn’t specifically about women, but it has chapters on the Samaritan woman and Mary and Mary that I found really helpful. Hylen argues that John writes about people who are complex and nuanced and not easily pegged as one thing or another, as many interpreters tend to do. I really appreciate this approach to the characters of the Bible, and think this reading has many applications for readers today. Leans more academic, really helpful in helping me understand the Samaritan woman and Martha.
Have you read any of these? Any you might want to check out? Anything you’d recommend I check out for my research? I’d love to hear in the comments.
All writing copyright Marydean Draws 2026.
