The World She Knew

This is a book about the women of the Bible, the wives and widows, the daughters and mothers, the prophetesses, and the many unnamed women who appear for a moment and then slip out of the story. Scripture mentions them often, but it rarely stops to explain the world they lived in. It assumes the reader already knows.

The World She Knew fills in what Scripture leaves unsaid. Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, and the recorded history of Palestine and the wider Bible lands, it describes the ordinary details of these women's lives, the work of the household, the customs of marriage and widowhood, and the times when women served at the sanctuary, sang in the Temple, spoke for God, or were the first to carry the news of the resurrection.

It is written plainly and honestly. It does not overlook the limits these women lived within, and it does not overlook what they did inside them. The tone is warm and unhurried, meant for readers who simply want to understand Scripture in its own setting.

If you have ever read past these women without quite seeing them, this book is an invitation to meet them, and to know the world they knew.

The book moves in six parts.

• The World She Lived In, daily life in the household, the path from daughter to wife, and the weight of widowhood.
• Women Before the Kings, Miriam, Deborah, Ruth and Naomi, and Hannah.
• Women and the Sanctuary, the women who served at the Tabernacle, the Levite women of the Temple choirs, and Huldah the prophetess.
• Women in the Prophetic and Wisdom Tradition, Esther, the beloved of the Song of Solomon, and the women of Proverbs.
• Women in the Gospel, Mary of Nazareth, Anna, the women who followed Jesus, and the women at the cross and the empty tomb.
• Women in the Early Church, Lydia, Priscilla, Phoebe, and Dorcas, and the prophesying daughters of Philip.