New book to explore what Jesus learned from women

New book to explore what Jesus learned from women

A new book released in March will explore what Jesus learned from the women he interacted with.

Written by James McGrath, What Jesus Learned from Women argues that the twin tendency to emphasise Jesus’ divinity and to downplay the contributions of women has led to the church sometimes overlooking the influence key women had on Jesus’ life.

Dr McGrath lectures in New Testament at Butler University in Indianapolis. As Insights previously reported, his projects include a card game called Canon, designed to help students grasp how the Bible came together.

Dr McGrath told Insights that the book addressed a neglected question, namely, “What did Jesus learn from the women that he knew?”

“The neglect of this question is due, I believe, to a tendency to deny Jesus’ humanity in practice (even among those who affirm it as part of their creeds or statements of faith) and the influence of patriarchy ancient as well as modern,” he said.

“In relation to the former, unless one denies that Jesus was a human being then he learned to speak and in other ways went through the same phases of development as other human beings. The Gospel of Luke tells us this explicitly: Jesus grew in wisdom (i.e. he learned) and either stature or maturity (Luke 2:52). All Christians today, as far as I can tell, do not deny that Jesus grew in size over time. Why is there a tendency to deny or at least ignore the other ways that he must have grown as a human being? If no one else taught Jesus, his mother surely did.”

“A distinctive and consistent pattern”

According to Dr McGrath, the idea for the book was prompted by a student who approached him about writing an honours thesis that would explore the relationship between her faith and feminist convictions.

“As I thought about what kind of research I could supervise that would connect with my own areas of expertise, the place of women in early Christianity was an obvious direction to go,” he said.

“Yet whether and what Jesus taught women has been treated quite a bit, and so I suggested it might be interesting to flip that around and ask what women taught Jesus, what he learned from them. Initially I was thinking of his mother, of course, and the other example that is usually thought of in connection with this topic, the Syrophoenician woman who offered a clever retort to what Jesus said to her.”

“As I thought about it, I realised that the same thing could be said about other stories in the Gospels in which Jesus talks with women. When the disciples come back to him at the well in Samaria and are surprised to find him having a conversation with a woman, it tells us this was not his usual practice (John 4:27). The encounter changed and influenced him.”

“Likewise when Mary of Bethany sits at Jesus’ feet and her sister (presumably among others) objected, we are not told that Jesus reminded Martha of his teaching about women learning and asked her why she wasn’t following it. Rather, he says that Mary has chosen the better portion, and he won’t take it away from her (Luke 10:42).”

“There too, it seems to be Mary’s initiative, and even if it was in response to something Mary perceived about Jesus and his outlook, it also seems clear that it influenced Jesus. Time and again, when I asked about Jesus learning from his encounters, the text provided answers, answers that its authors in no way emphasised or showed particular interest in, but for that very reason strike me as likely to reflect something historical.”

Dr McGrath said that he learnt a lot through writing the book, perhaps more so than any other project.

“Readers of John 8 have consistently wondered what Jesus wrote or drew on the floor and why. I’m not going to say I have come up with the definitive solution to that mystery, but I have a new interpretation to offer that I believe deserves consideration, and despite the centuries of attention and speculation, I think it is nonetheless a new proposal,” he said.

Another unexpected addition was a chapter on Joanna.

“When I began writing, I didn’t plan to include a chapter on her, not because she isn’t a fascinating individual, but because I didn’t think I would have enough to say,” Dr McGrath said.

“The possibility of saying more emerges from a suggestion that a couple of other scholars have made that Joanna in the Gospel of Luke is the same person as Junia mentioned in Paul’s Letter to the Romans. I did not initially think there was anything more than speculation to that suggestion.”

“But as I sought to coordinate the little information we have about both, the threads seemed to be connected beneath the surface, or at least, if one viewed them as connected a distinctive and consistent pattern emerged. This was exciting not only because it meant I could say more about a woman who was clearly an influential leader in the early Christian movement. This also brings Paul the Apostle more closely into the orbit of the historical Jesus. It raises the possibility that this relative, who Paul says was in Christ before him (Romans 16:7), and others like her may have been among the motivations for Paul to oppose the movement.”

“Often we may disapprove of some school of thought or group in an abstract way, but if relatives get involved in it, it may prompt us to more direct and fierce opposition. That was another chapter that I learned from. That is perhaps the key thing I’d emphasise: I went into this hoping to learn about Jesus by inquiring into the women he learned from. I found that they not only taught Jesus, and taught me about Jesus, but listening to them taught me a great deal as well.”

Each chapter of the book includes some narrative historical fiction that Dr McGrath uses to flesh out the women’s stories.

“I initially thought this would be a good way of making the historical research in the book accessible and interesting to a wider audience,” he said.

“I soon discovered that trying to narrate the story is also an extremely rigorous method of evaluating our reconstructions of the past. It may sound plausible in academic prose, but if we cannot imagine the motives and conversations that would be required for the events to unfold as we suggest, then something is wrong.”

An opportunity

Dr McGrath hopes that What Jesus Learned From Women will get attention from scholars and historians but will also be useful as a textbook and as the basis for discussion in church groups.

The book features cover art by artist Macey Dickerson.

 “She read a draft of the book and found inspiration in the story of the Samaritan woman as I told it,” Dr McGrath said.

“Her artwork really does capture the essence of the book in a real way. We are seeing her through Jesus’ eyes, or rather over Jesus’ shoulder. She is his conversation partner, with something to offer as well as things that she will learn and take away from the encounter.”

“I suspect that sometimes we resist the idea of a Jesus who learned because we think that, if we then stand with him, we needn’t learn and grow either. The book, like the woman in the cover art, stands offering an opportunity for mutually transformative conversation and dialogue. I hope readers will accept the invitation and will benefit from it.”

What Jesus Learned From Women is available for pre-order here from Wipf and Stock. Insights will post a review.

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