Back to the Well: Women's Encounters with Jesus in the Gospels

by Frances Taylor Gench

Exploring six Gospel texts in which women encounter Jesus, Frances Taylor Gench encourages us to view these stories anew through the eyes of contemporary biblical scholarship. Summarizing and making accessible the work of a diversity of feminist scholars while also engaging many of the more traditional voices of the past, she examines each story's language, structure, and literary and socio-cultural context, and recounts many traditional and contemporary interpretations. In the process, she opens up new possibilities for reading these texts. Includes helpful questions for discussion.

Genres: Theology, Womens, Biblical Studies, Spirituality, Religion, Nonfiction, Christianity

208 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2004

Reviews

[Lyndsey Thackston · Rating 5 out of 5]

My professor gave me a list of books on women in the New Testament and this selection did not disappoint. Solid feminist biblical scholarship that was written in a way that was accessible and readable.

[Sara Pantazes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview of some specific stories that feature women from the Gospels. Gench provides a thorough explanation of each passage, highlights troublesome features and provides alternate lenses of interpretation to help the readers dive deeply into the passages. Gench honors the process of wrestling with Scripture in one’s search to know God and this is an excellent resource for anyone in that endeavor. As a bonus, each chapter concludes with a proposed teaching plan and a wide variety of discussion questions.

[Kevin DaVee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reflects the scholarly background of the author, but is very accessible. This relatively short work manages to highlight a wide variety of perspectives on familiar passages in the Gospels. Many of these perspectives were completely novel to me. The author is very disciplined in characterizing what is informed speculation vs. clear cut linguistic and literary interpretation.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very, very well written insights from a scholar and student of the Bible on six stories of women who encountered Jesus and whose stories we have. She has studied the original Greek and Hebrew writings and her insights are helpful. She covers a lot of ground but her book is extremely readable for the lay person and chock full of lots of things most people haven't thought about previously. I highly recommend it. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on Mary and Martha.

[Ruth Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed that Gench presented viewpoints from numerous scholars which in turn helped our small group to look at the six highlighted women in new ways.

Frances Taylor Gench is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Virginia.

[Kathie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frances Gench presents an in-depth study of 6 women who encountered Jesus. At times her arguments seemed redundant but over-all the book was very thought provoking and stimulates a fresh new interpretation of the texts in light of the culture and possible motives for certain actions.

This book was read for a small group study.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

FTG is the best. This book is a wonderful exploration of biblical texts about women. A good resource for anyone who's into that.