Dancing Girls, Loose Ladies, and Women of the Cloth: The Women in Jesus' Life

By F. Scott Spencer

The women in Jesus' life are a raucous and rowdy bunch, including "riotous" foremothers, "loose women," and "distressed daughters of Israel." Reading these new ways of interpreting women in the Gospels, male New Testament scholars have discovered liberating perspectives. In seven scintillating studies, Spencer explores among others the genealogy of Matthew's Gospel to discover the riotous yet righteous nature of Jesus' foremothers, slave girls and prophetic daughters in Luke-Acts, and women leading men in the Gospel of Mark 5-7. Scott Spencer, a virtuoso young New Testament scholar, provides his own lively forays into reading the Gospels through women's eyes. He shows what it is like for a man to read stories about the women in Jesus' life from a new perspective. Spencer is an able and inventive scholar whose broad-ranging insights and engaging style make his work very accessible.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0826416128
• ISBN13: 9780826416124
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Continnuum-3PL
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Seeing the Bible in a new light

This book fascinated me, as known and lesser known accounts of events took on a clarity rarely discerned in conventional study. F. Scott Spencer brings his considerable biblical knowledge to bear on unravelling truths about women related to or otherwise connected to Jesus. His fresh approach with feminist sensibilities and psychological awareness helped me "know" these women who are so often passed over as auxilliary characters in the story. Frequent references to the original Greek or Hebrew texts and a lively sense of humor combine to make an engaging and thought provoking read

An ideal book for Biblical study groups or simple individual contemplation

Expertly written by F. Scott Spencer (Professor of New Testament at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond), Virginia, Dancing Girls, Loose Ladies, and Women of the Cloth is a collection of seven studies with regard to women referred to in the New Testament, from Jesus' foremothers to slave girls, prophetic daughters, leaders, "loose women", "distressed daughters of Israel" and more. Dancing Girls, Loose Ladies, and Women of the Cloth invites lay readers and Biblical scholars alike to re-examine the women of the era not only through the context of faith and study, but also through the lens of modern feminism. The resulting interpretations raise new questions and provoke thought considering the physical and spiritual role of women in Christ's life. Written in straightforward terms and heavily annotated, Dancing Girls, Loose Ladies, and Women of the Cloth is an ideal book for Biblical study groups or simple individual contemplation.