Good Girls, Bad Girls of the New Testament

Their Enduring Lessons

by T.J. Wray

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Pub Date Mar 01 2016 | Archive Date Mar 11 2016

Rowman & Littlefield

Nonfiction (Adult) | Religion & Spirituality

Description

Good Girls, Bad Girls of the New Testament takes readers on a powerful journey through the vast landscape of Roman-occupied Judea during the first century and the genesis of Christianity. This landscape serves as the backdrop for twelve amazing stories of women whose paths intersect, either by providence or design, with the paths of Jesus or Paul. Some of these women are familiar, such as Mary, the mother of Jesus, while others, like the wife of the infamous Pontius Pilate, are lesser known. Whether she is popular or obscure, good or bad, each woman’s story is an important part of the overall Christian narrative.

Good Girls, Bad Girls of the New Testament invites readers to take a more nuanced look at twelve stories that feature women, to explore their lives more deeply in historical context, and to understand the real story that includes both men and women. The book goes beyond simply telling the story of a particular biblical woman to challenge readers to explore the enduring lessons the ancient writer sought to impart. These timeless lessons are as important for us today as they were thousands of years ago.

T. J. Wray is the author of several books, including Surviving the Death of a Sibling, What the Bible Really Tells Us, and Good Girls, Bad Girls: The Enduring Lessons of Twelve Women of the Old Testament. She is associate professor of religion at Salve Regina University. She has been interviewed on The History Channel and NPR.

Good Girls, Bad Girls of the New Testament takes readers on a powerful journey through the vast landscape of Roman-occupied Judea during the first century and the genesis of Christianity. This...

A Note From the Publisher

This is a set of uncorrected page proofs. It is not a finished book and is not expected to look like one. Errors in spelling, page length, format and so forth will all be corrected by the time the book is published several months from now. Photos and diagrams, which may be included in the finished book, may not be included in this format. Uncorrected proofs are primarily useful so that you, the reader, might know months before actual publication what the author and publisher are offering. If you plan to quote the text in your review, you must check it with the publicist or against the final version. Please contact publicity@rowman.com with any questions. Thank you!

This is a set of uncorrected page proofs. It is not a finished book and is not expected to look like one. Errors in spelling, page length, format and so forth will all be corrected by the time the...

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Life for Women During New Testament Times
Section One: Sisters, Sinners and SupportersChapter 1: Sister Friends: Martha and Mary of Bethany
Chapter 2: Suspicious Sisters: Bernice and Drusilla, the Great-Granddaughters of Herod the Great
Chapter 3: Caught in the Act: The Adulterous Woman in John’s Gospel
Chapter 4: Blood Guilt: The Woman With a Twelve-Year Hemorrhage
Chapter 5: A Woman of Substance: Mary Magdalene
Chapter 6: Widow’s Rising: Tabitha, A Loving Benefactor
Section Two: Mothers, Murderers, and MissionariesChapter 7: Angelic Gift: Elizabeth, Mother of John the Baptist
Chapter 8: Jesus’ Mom: Mary of Nazareth
Chapter 9: Off With His Head! Herodias and the Beheading of John the Baptist
Chapter 10: I Had a Dream: The Wife of Pontius Pilate
Chapter 11: Spreading the Good News: Prisca, a Missionary of Paul
Chapter 12: A Conversation With Jesus: The Woman at the Well
Chapter 13: Concluding Thoughts
Resources
Index

Table of Contents

Introduction
Life for Women During New Testament Times
Section One: Sisters, Sinners and SupportersChapter 1: Sister Friends: Martha and Mary of Bethany
Chapter 2:...

Available Editions

EDITION	Hardcover
ISBN	9781442219373
PRICE	$26.95 (USD)

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Featured Reviews

Victoria I, Media/Journalist

Whether you're a Christian or not, there's no doubting that more often than not the contributions of women to the Christian faith are usually pushed aside for a more masculine view. Enter T.J. Wray's new book, Good Girls, Bad Girls of the New Testament. The book looks at both the popular and often obscure women of the New Testament of the Bible and gives the reader a breakdown of their importance and just what they mean to the Christian movement.

Peppered with history and passages of the Bible itself, Good Girls, Bad Girls of the New Testament was an extremely eye-opening book for me. While I'd always heard the stories of Mary and Martha, Priscilla and Lydia, this was one of the first times I'd read a book that bothered to explain why they were important to the whole scheme of things and support the evidence with Biblical proof. The book covers the importance of Mary Magdalene (not a prostitute, guys) and also women we rarely remember such as John the Baptist's mother, Elizabeth.

The book is definitely geared more towards readers who have a basic idea of Biblical content, although folks who have not spent their whole life reading the book will enjoy the strong descriptions of the various women in the Bible. The book is definitely dense, so this is not exactly light reading for a day at the beach; plan accordingly.

Good Girls, Bad Girls of the New Testament is available March 1, 2016.

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cynde s, Librarian

The women of the Bible are rarely the focus of biblical literature. This book was a fascinating insight into their stories.

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Mandy J, Reviewer

This is a thought-provoking and illuminating exploration of 12 of the key women in the New Testament and their relevance and importance to both their own times and to contemporary Christianity. It’s a scholarly and well researched work, with much historical and cultural detail explained, and it’s written in an accessible and engaging way – although with rather too many exclamation points for my liking. It’s a book of Christian theology, admittedly, and perhaps aimed more at a Christian audience, but for anyone like myself interested in the bible from an historical and cultural stance rather than a religious one, there’s a lot here to learn and discover. But what I really took away from the book is how much of Christian thinking and belief is based on such flimsy evidence. The historical record is patchy to say the least and so many assumptions and so much guesswork seems a poor basis for all the dogma that Christianity is based upon. Nevertheless, an interesting and informative read, which I recommend to anyone interested in biblical studies.