Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church

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Synopsis

The Bible is clear that women were there during the founding and building of the early Christian church, but scholarship seems to focus more on the male leaders. Nijay Gupta endeavors to bring these women, including Phoebe, Prisca, Junia, and others, out of the shadows by shedding light on their contributions to the faith and the healthy functioning of the church. He does so by exploring the lives of first-century women in the proper context, while addressing common misconceptions. In doing so, he is able to show that early Christian women were more than merely support personnel, but also active participants and trusted leaders who were trained, equipped, well-traveled, and sometimes even imprisoned for their faith. 

Review

In Tell Her Story, Dr. Nijay K. Gupta seeks to amplify the voices of women who were instrumental in the founding and continuing ministry of the early church, but who have largely been overlooked and lost to history. He starts by taking a look further back to the Old Testament, where he explores the life of the wise judge and prophetess, Deborah, and how she was a leader of the people of Israel, as well as looking at the very beginning of creation in Genesis. He also explains in great detail what life was like in general for women of the New Testament age by using the historical record of the lives of women in the Greco-Roman world, where perhaps surprisingly some women did lead independent lives despite the prevailing patriarchy. Dr. Gupta then discusses the women who were important in the life and ministry of Jesus, including His mother, Mary, Elizabeth, Mary Magdalene, and the many others whom He cared for, had deep conversations with, or who in some way ministered to Him. From there, Dr. Gupta explores the founding and structure of the early church, followed by the idea that women, in some cases, were indeed leaders in these churches. He then has chapters devoted to three specific women mentioned in the New Testament, Phoebe, Prisca, and Junia, all of whom seemed to be indispensable to Paul's ministry. Dr. Gupta then wraps up the book with a deeper study of Paul's seeming prohibition of women in ministry and the submission texts in the New Testament household codes.

I ran across Tell Her Story in the LibrayThing giveaways section and thought that it sounded fascinating. I immediately signed up, hoping to win a copy, which I did. I grew up with a mother who had unfulfilled ambitions of going into ministry and I've been attending a church for the past several years that is completely led by women, so women in ministry is something that's always been a part of my life and that I'm fully comfortable with. However, because of certain scripture passages that seem to prohibit women ministers, there were unanswered questions in the back of my mind, just things I couldn't quite explain with the literal interpretation of the Bible that so many church leaders seem to subscribe to. Tell Her Story, though, put all those questions to rest. Dr. Gupta makes solid and well-reasoned arguments for, not only the presence of women in early church life, but their active participation in various aspects of ministry. He takes a deep dive into the lives of the women mentioned throughout the New Testament as being faithful servants of Christ, and through historical and Biblical context and interpretation, shows how they were very likely much more important figures than most people have ever given them credit for, thereby amplifying their voices. He also offers up exciting new insights into the scripture passages that seem to prohibit women from teaching, again putting them into proper context to show that a mere literal reading isn't necessarily the correct interpretation.

Everything Dr. Gupta expounds upon makes perfect sense, because he builds his case by laying it out piece by piece, showing how his conclusions are solidly rooted through the translation of ancient Biblical languages and historical context. The book is clearly very well-researched. Overall, Tell Her Story was perhaps a bit more academic than I was expecting, something that I fully recognize was necessary for the author making his case, but even so, it was definitely still accessible to the ordinary reader. I'd highly recommend it to anyone trying to create a case for women in ministry or who wants to learn more about women in the early church.

Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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