Sandra L. Glahn > Quotes

“Despite her hesitation about addressing issues related to women, Dorothy L. Sayers eventually felt compelled to speak out. That’s because she noticed some characteristics of Christ’s interactions with women that drive us, too: Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross. They had never known a man like this Man—there never has been such another. A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered or coaxed or patronised; who never made arch jokes about them, never treated them either as “The women, God help us!” or “The ladies, God bless them!”; who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension; who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as he found them and was completely unself-conscious. There is no act, no sermon, no parable in the whole Gospel that borrows its pungency from female perversity; nobody could possibly guess from the words and deeds of Jesus that there was anything “funny” about woman’s nature.3 It is this Jesus whom we hope to help readers see more clearly, love more dearly, and follow more nearly until his kingdom comes and his will is done on earth as it is in heaven.”
― Sandra L. Glahn, Vindicating the Vixens: Revisiting Sexualized, Vilified, and Marginalized Women of the Bible

“Paul is not the one who needs an update—we do, considering that the tools used for interpretation have already been updated. They can help us find where many interpretations of the same texts have varied among those who hold a high view of Scripture.”
― Sandra L. Glahn, Nobody's Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament

“Ethicist Steven Inrig has noted that the vision presented in 1 Timothy aligns with Paul’s vision elsewhere of a community devoid of rank, one that “actively works to ease or erase separations based on class and power.” In such a gathering, “a slave could be an elder over a master, [and] clothing among men and women could subvert and reinscribe social demarcations of power, class, and worth. In such gatherings the poor or slaves would enter feeling welcome, as their appearance lacked the usual markings that revealed their rank in the social hierarchy.”
― Sandra L. Glahn, Nobody's Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament

“Another reason to reexamine some passages is because of what’s at stake. Our own view of women reveals what we think God says about half the people on the planet. And our view of women will also determine how we treat our female friends and coworkers, our mothers, our daughters (if we’re parents), and our wives (if we’re husbands). Our perspective affects how we view power and how we see sex. If our views are based on faulty interpretations of Scripture, we will embrace a faulty view of God. Indeed, God’s very reputation is at stake if we misunderstand how to view those who image him.”
― Sandra L. Glahn, Vindicating the Vixens: Revisiting Sexualized, Vilified, and Marginalized Women of the Bible