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Finding Phoebe: What New Testament Women Were Really Like
Forget what you think you know about women in the early church.
In this learned yet accessible book, Susan E. Hylen introduces first-century primary sources to illuminate readers’ understanding of New Testament women. Perfect for clergy, spiritual reading groups, and all curious minds, Finding Phoebe combines incisive scholarship and instructional sensibility to encourage readers to develop their own informed interpretations of Scripture.
Contrary to popular conceptions of “biblical womanhood” as passive and silent, women often served as leaders and prophets in their communities. Women owned one-third of all property during the period, granting them access to civic power through patronage. Many women worked outside the home and were educated according to the needs of their professions. Through careful examination of “modesty” and “silence” in the Greco-Roman world, Hylen reveals the centrality of these virtues to both men and women practicing self-control in service of communal good.
Hylen’s work will challenge readers to free their minds of modern preconceptions and consider New Testament women on their own terms. This practical book includes historical context, scriptural evidence, and questions for discussion.
Foreword Reviews INDIES Book of the Year Award in Women's Studies Finalist (2023)
In this learned yet accessible book, Susan E. Hylen introduces first-century primary sources to illuminate readers’ understanding of New Testament women. Perfect for clergy, spiritual reading groups, and all curious minds, Finding Phoebe combines incisive scholarship and instructional sensibility to encourage readers to develop their own informed interpretations of Scripture.
Contrary to popular conceptions of “biblical womanhood” as passive and silent, women often served as leaders and prophets in their communities. Women owned one-third of all property during the period, granting them access to civic power through patronage. Many women worked outside the home and were educated according to the needs of their professions. Through careful examination of “modesty” and “silence” in the Greco-Roman world, Hylen reveals the centrality of these virtues to both men and women practicing self-control in service of communal good.
Hylen’s work will challenge readers to free their minds of modern preconceptions and consider New Testament women on their own terms. This practical book includes historical context, scriptural evidence, and questions for discussion.
Foreword Reviews INDIES Book of the Year Award in Women's Studies Finalist (2023)
196 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 17, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
January 5, 2023
Hylen's book is unique among books exploring women's roles in ancient times. It's a resource that doesn't just serve fish, but teaches students and non-specialists in biblical studies how to fish. She doesn't simply explain women's roles in the first-century Roman empire, she presents historical sources and invites readers to draw their own conclusions about it.
Finding Phoebe functions as a self study or group study of ancient inscriptions alongside biblical texts. It would work well in an undergraduate class on Bible backgrounds or on women in the Bible, but it would also work for an adult small group that wants to delve into this issue. The book contains all the group needs to navigate the study. Hylen asks readers to pause and consider what these texts teach us about women and their roles in society. The result is a picture more complex than the average stereotype that does not fit neatly into either of the traditional camps (egalitarian or complementarian). That picture is meant to inform what readers imagine about Phoebe, the woman who delivered the apostle Paul's letter to the church in Rome.
Finding Phoebe functions as a self study or group study of ancient inscriptions alongside biblical texts. It would work well in an undergraduate class on Bible backgrounds or on women in the Bible, but it would also work for an adult small group that wants to delve into this issue. The book contains all the group needs to navigate the study. Hylen asks readers to pause and consider what these texts teach us about women and their roles in society. The result is a picture more complex than the average stereotype that does not fit neatly into either of the traditional camps (egalitarian or complementarian). That picture is meant to inform what readers imagine about Phoebe, the woman who delivered the apostle Paul's letter to the church in Rome.
December 29, 2024
I enjoyed the way this book was set up — each chapter was a bit like a lesson with homework at the end. The author presents historical and biblical source material and asks the reader to make their own conclusions. I particularly enjoyed the use of ancient inscriptions to give us historical context for how women in New Testament times were living. This book will not answer every question about women in ministry or about Phoebe herself (no book can!), but it gives a great deal of food for thought on the subject.
June 5, 2024
I guess I was expecting this to be more academic and footnoted. Instead, this is a synthesis of her other research simplified for the lay reader. Fortunately Hylen has already written a more academic book, Women in the New Testament World, and I will hunt for that. This book is friendly to the casual reader and provides workbook exercises for interpreting NT passages afresh. Hylen dusts off the cobwebs of what we think we know about ancient Rome and looks at source material to reconsider women's lives in that time period. I wanted something a little meatier, so I am eager to explore Hylen's other work. Finding Phoebe would be a great resource for a Sunday school class or Bible study for those who wish to understand women in the NT on their own terms, not through reading recent ideas about women's subjugation into the ancient world.
September 17, 2024
Repetitive at first, picked up as it went along. Main takeaways:
Modesty in NT times was less about how little/much body was shown and more about demonstrating self-control, wisdom, and restraint (e.g. lavish displays of wealth were sometimes appropriate, but other times not).
Speech/silence in NT times were not hard and fast "rules," but social norms that included the following implicit guidelines (see p. 162), helping to explain apparent "contradictions" in examples from ancient texts:
1) Silence was evidence of virtue for men and women when it showed self-control in the presence of people with higher status (eg, as determined by age, wealth, gender, free/slave, citizenship...).
2) Sometimes women were socially superior to men, and then they could be expected to speak.
3) Bold speech on behalf of a woman's city or family was virtuous.
Modesty in NT times was less about how little/much body was shown and more about demonstrating self-control, wisdom, and restraint (e.g. lavish displays of wealth were sometimes appropriate, but other times not).
Speech/silence in NT times were not hard and fast "rules," but social norms that included the following implicit guidelines (see p. 162), helping to explain apparent "contradictions" in examples from ancient texts:
1) Silence was evidence of virtue for men and women when it showed self-control in the presence of people with higher status (eg, as determined by age, wealth, gender, free/slave, citizenship...).
2) Sometimes women were socially superior to men, and then they could be expected to speak.
3) Bold speech on behalf of a woman's city or family was virtuous.
January 31, 2024
Totally offered up a refreshing, liberating, inclusive space for thinking and inviting women into the workplace of ministry! Hylen looks at how writers of the New Testament, mainly Paul, would’ve placed women in their writing and what they meant! Using historical context and the main POV through the female lens of the deacon Phoebe, we learn insightful social context of how a woman was to lead her community in Christ!
March 11, 2024
Great book on the roles of women in Greco-Roman society, with an eye toward NT interpretation, as the reference to Phoebe suggests. She doesn’t offer exegesis of the key passages, but rather asks how they would be heard in their original contexts. Highly recommended!
June 14, 2024
Great information!
November 19, 2024
This is not a bad book by any means, and it has a lot of useful information. But it really is about the cultural context that produced the New Testament and not the New Testament itself. Important background reading, but not what I was expecting from it
April 3, 2023
Summary: A careful examination of the social status of women in the New Testament world, challenging many of our preconceptions of women in the early church.
I’ve been challenged of late that many of the things I thought I knew about the status of women in the New Testament world lack grounding in either the best socio-cultural research of Jewish and Greco-Roman society of this time, or in the biblical texts pertaining to women. For example, Caryn Reeder’s The Samaritan Woman’s Story challenged my assumption (and that of most interpreters) that the Samaritan woman was a sexually “loose” woman.
In this work, Susan E. Hylen looks at the social world of New Testament women, exemplified in the brief portrait of Phoebe in Romans 16:1-2. considering their access to wealth and property, their social influence and status, important virtues of women, and the question of women speaking and being silent. What is unique about her treatment is that in each chapter, she will present pertinent cultural and biblical background material and then offer passages of scripture that she will invite readers to examine in light of this information, with the result of reaching one’s own conclusions.
Hylen begins with establishing the fact that women commonly owned and controlled property, roughly one-third of all property in the Roman empire. Property that a wife inherited from her father remained hers and was not controlled by her husband and some women could be very wealthy, for example, Judith in the Apocrypha. The woman who anointed Jesus in Bethany was likely one such wealthy women, as were those who supported Jesus’ itinerant ministry. Women were commended for the use of their wealth in building public works. They oversaw households on their husbands behalf, or as single or widowed persons, were the head of the household. Phoebe may well have been one such, named as she is as a benefactor of Paul’s. Women also engaged in a variety of occupations outside of household management, from producing cloth to selling food to even being gladiators!
As we know, one of the elements of social influence and status was patronage. Women, as well as men, were patrons, offering loans and assistance, making civic gifts and exercising civic leadership. As already noted, Phoebe was one such person, and thus came highly attested by Paul, to the Romans. While the extent of literacy is somewhat hard to determine, the extensive existence of contracts as well as written receipts suggests that it may have been more common than thought, and that women, while less educated on average than men, were educated to the extent families were able, and thought needed. Some, particularly those with significant influence, were highly educated and that this may have been the case with Phoebe.
So, what made a woman virtuous. Hylen talks first of modesty, which may have had less to do with what was covered or exposed than the choice of simple rather than extravagant garb. It did mean sexual faithfulness, to a higher standard than men but also was associated with self control in civic relations. The virtuous woman was industrious, both inside and outside the home, including in her business and civic endeavors. They were loyal, which meant more than faithfulness. They managed resources well for their heirs, preserving family wealth as well as investing in one’s community. Also, they helped foster marital harmony, with the marriage not being a power struggle, but two people working respectfully of each other to advance the status of one’s family, especially since both often had property resources at their disposal.
Finally, Hylen discusses conventions around speech and silence for women. There is much evidence of women speaking in social, business, and civic settings, often with women engaged in advocacy. In both cultural and biblical texts, women engage in prayer and prophecy. There was a flexibly applied “rule of silence.” Silence in the culture reflected self-control, one being silent in the presence of social superiors, which could apply both to women and men. This also meant that there were situations in which women spoke. It is likely that Phoebe’s was one such situation as a benefactor, a deacon, and Paul’s emissary to Rome, likely bearing, and perhaps even explaining Paul’s letter.
Hylen portrays a more complicated picture than we’ve often heard. While men did have greater status, women also had status and influence, and used it in the household, over their property, and in their business, civic, and religious interests. Yet modesty and self-control meant women also knew when to speak and to be silent. Though there is much we would like to know about Phoebe, it is evident that she was someone who may have navigated this world of status and influence and skill as a trusted ministry partner with Paul, and that there were others like her, who may serve as models of ministry and agency for women today.
I appreciated the approach of this work, combining needed background with the opportunity to engage biblical texts in light of that background. This is a good resource for both individuals and groups wanting to work through the question of women’s influence in the New Testament and what this means for today.
____________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
I’ve been challenged of late that many of the things I thought I knew about the status of women in the New Testament world lack grounding in either the best socio-cultural research of Jewish and Greco-Roman society of this time, or in the biblical texts pertaining to women. For example, Caryn Reeder’s The Samaritan Woman’s Story challenged my assumption (and that of most interpreters) that the Samaritan woman was a sexually “loose” woman.
In this work, Susan E. Hylen looks at the social world of New Testament women, exemplified in the brief portrait of Phoebe in Romans 16:1-2. considering their access to wealth and property, their social influence and status, important virtues of women, and the question of women speaking and being silent. What is unique about her treatment is that in each chapter, she will present pertinent cultural and biblical background material and then offer passages of scripture that she will invite readers to examine in light of this information, with the result of reaching one’s own conclusions.
Hylen begins with establishing the fact that women commonly owned and controlled property, roughly one-third of all property in the Roman empire. Property that a wife inherited from her father remained hers and was not controlled by her husband and some women could be very wealthy, for example, Judith in the Apocrypha. The woman who anointed Jesus in Bethany was likely one such wealthy women, as were those who supported Jesus’ itinerant ministry. Women were commended for the use of their wealth in building public works. They oversaw households on their husbands behalf, or as single or widowed persons, were the head of the household. Phoebe may well have been one such, named as she is as a benefactor of Paul’s. Women also engaged in a variety of occupations outside of household management, from producing cloth to selling food to even being gladiators!
As we know, one of the elements of social influence and status was patronage. Women, as well as men, were patrons, offering loans and assistance, making civic gifts and exercising civic leadership. As already noted, Phoebe was one such person, and thus came highly attested by Paul, to the Romans. While the extent of literacy is somewhat hard to determine, the extensive existence of contracts as well as written receipts suggests that it may have been more common than thought, and that women, while less educated on average than men, were educated to the extent families were able, and thought needed. Some, particularly those with significant influence, were highly educated and that this may have been the case with Phoebe.
So, what made a woman virtuous. Hylen talks first of modesty, which may have had less to do with what was covered or exposed than the choice of simple rather than extravagant garb. It did mean sexual faithfulness, to a higher standard than men but also was associated with self control in civic relations. The virtuous woman was industrious, both inside and outside the home, including in her business and civic endeavors. They were loyal, which meant more than faithfulness. They managed resources well for their heirs, preserving family wealth as well as investing in one’s community. Also, they helped foster marital harmony, with the marriage not being a power struggle, but two people working respectfully of each other to advance the status of one’s family, especially since both often had property resources at their disposal.
Finally, Hylen discusses conventions around speech and silence for women. There is much evidence of women speaking in social, business, and civic settings, often with women engaged in advocacy. In both cultural and biblical texts, women engage in prayer and prophecy. There was a flexibly applied “rule of silence.” Silence in the culture reflected self-control, one being silent in the presence of social superiors, which could apply both to women and men. This also meant that there were situations in which women spoke. It is likely that Phoebe’s was one such situation as a benefactor, a deacon, and Paul’s emissary to Rome, likely bearing, and perhaps even explaining Paul’s letter.
Hylen portrays a more complicated picture than we’ve often heard. While men did have greater status, women also had status and influence, and used it in the household, over their property, and in their business, civic, and religious interests. Yet modesty and self-control meant women also knew when to speak and to be silent. Though there is much we would like to know about Phoebe, it is evident that she was someone who may have navigated this world of status and influence and skill as a trusted ministry partner with Paul, and that there were others like her, who may serve as models of ministry and agency for women today.
I appreciated the approach of this work, combining needed background with the opportunity to engage biblical texts in light of that background. This is a good resource for both individuals and groups wanting to work through the question of women’s influence in the New Testament and what this means for today.
____________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
January 24, 2023
What were New Testament women really like?
The conventional opinion is that they were powerless. “Women were subject to men and unable to wield real authority,” writes Susan E. Hylen, summarizing this view. “They did not own property or participate in civic life in significant ways. They were not educated. Although a few interpreters suggest that some women were acting contrary to this, they usually agree that this behavior was unusual or new.”
Hylen challenges conventional opinion in Finding Phoebe, which takes its title from a woman the apostle Paul named in Romans 16:1–2: “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me.”
These verses describe Phoebe’s ecclesial office (“deacon”) and social role (“benefactor”). They imply that Phoebe was a higher status individual than Paul, with whom she had had a patron-client relationship.
Some scholars further believe that Phoebe carried Paul’s letter to Rome because he commended her at the top of a list of named individuals. She may have read the letter publicly to the church there and perhaps even answered congregational questions about it.
If so, then Paul’s commendation of Phoebe necessarily qualifies his apparent prohibition of women’s speech in 1 Timothy 2:12: “ I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.” Rather than being contradictory, however, Paul’s commendation and prohibition were contextually consistent.
Ancient hearers of both letters would have interpreted his words according to what Hylen calls “the rules of culture,” in which we see “the ideal of silence alongside so many instances of women speaking.”
These cultural rules were at work in both the New Testament and the broader society, and not just regarding women’s silence and speech. Hylen surveys data on three other topics: wealth and property, social influence and status, and feminine virtues.
A consistent pattern emerges from these data: “Many passages of the New Testament communicate the commonly accepted idea [in ancient society] that women were inferior to men,” she writes. “However, alongside these norms were other ideals that allowed and even encouraged women’s active participation in their communities. And the New Testament texts conveyed those ideals as well.”
In other words, on many occasions, ancient society applauded women’s work, civic and religious roles, social influence, and public speech, finding them consistent with feminine virtues such as modesty, industry, loyalty, and marital harmony. Women were not powerless, even if they did not have power equal to men.
Hylen wrote Finding Phoebe for a general audience. Its aim is to help readers develop a more accurate understanding of women in the New Testament era. It quotes a variety of ancient writings to good effect, without getting bogged down in technical academic discussions.
(For those interested in a more academic treatment of the same topic, see Hylen’s Women in the New Testament World, published by Oxford University Press in 2018.)
Each chapter concludes with questions for reflection and/or discussion, which makes this a good text for book clubs, small groups, and Sunday school classes.
“My argument in this book has not been that the ancient church was egalitarian,” Hylen writes on the book’s penultimate page. I differ from Hylen on that point, believing the New Testament advocates the equality of women and men, though I’m not going to argue that matter here.
By the same token, however, the data she surveys offers a compelling rebuttal of any form of patriarchy that entirelyprohibits women’s leadership, silences their voices, or confines them to domestic work. Neither ancient culture nor the New Testament limited women in these absolute ways.
We shouldn’t do so either.
Book Reviewed
Susan E. Hylen, Finding Phoebe: What New Testament Women Were Really Like (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2023).
P.S. This review is cross-posted from InfluenceMagazine.com by permission.
The conventional opinion is that they were powerless. “Women were subject to men and unable to wield real authority,” writes Susan E. Hylen, summarizing this view. “They did not own property or participate in civic life in significant ways. They were not educated. Although a few interpreters suggest that some women were acting contrary to this, they usually agree that this behavior was unusual or new.”
Hylen challenges conventional opinion in Finding Phoebe, which takes its title from a woman the apostle Paul named in Romans 16:1–2: “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me.”
These verses describe Phoebe’s ecclesial office (“deacon”) and social role (“benefactor”). They imply that Phoebe was a higher status individual than Paul, with whom she had had a patron-client relationship.
Some scholars further believe that Phoebe carried Paul’s letter to Rome because he commended her at the top of a list of named individuals. She may have read the letter publicly to the church there and perhaps even answered congregational questions about it.
If so, then Paul’s commendation of Phoebe necessarily qualifies his apparent prohibition of women’s speech in 1 Timothy 2:12: “ I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.” Rather than being contradictory, however, Paul’s commendation and prohibition were contextually consistent.
On many occasions, ancient society applauded women’s work, civic and religious roles, social influence, and public speech, finding them consistent with feminine virtues.
Ancient hearers of both letters would have interpreted his words according to what Hylen calls “the rules of culture,” in which we see “the ideal of silence alongside so many instances of women speaking.”
These cultural rules were at work in both the New Testament and the broader society, and not just regarding women’s silence and speech. Hylen surveys data on three other topics: wealth and property, social influence and status, and feminine virtues.
A consistent pattern emerges from these data: “Many passages of the New Testament communicate the commonly accepted idea [in ancient society] that women were inferior to men,” she writes. “However, alongside these norms were other ideals that allowed and even encouraged women’s active participation in their communities. And the New Testament texts conveyed those ideals as well.”
In other words, on many occasions, ancient society applauded women’s work, civic and religious roles, social influence, and public speech, finding them consistent with feminine virtues such as modesty, industry, loyalty, and marital harmony. Women were not powerless, even if they did not have power equal to men.
Hylen wrote Finding Phoebe for a general audience. Its aim is to help readers develop a more accurate understanding of women in the New Testament era. It quotes a variety of ancient writings to good effect, without getting bogged down in technical academic discussions.
(For those interested in a more academic treatment of the same topic, see Hylen’s Women in the New Testament World, published by Oxford University Press in 2018.)
Each chapter concludes with questions for reflection and/or discussion, which makes this a good text for book clubs, small groups, and Sunday school classes.
“My argument in this book has not been that the ancient church was egalitarian,” Hylen writes on the book’s penultimate page. I differ from Hylen on that point, believing the New Testament advocates the equality of women and men, though I’m not going to argue that matter here.
By the same token, however, the data she surveys offers a compelling rebuttal of any form of patriarchy that entirelyprohibits women’s leadership, silences their voices, or confines them to domestic work. Neither ancient culture nor the New Testament limited women in these absolute ways.
We shouldn’t do so either.
Book Reviewed
Susan E. Hylen, Finding Phoebe: What New Testament Women Were Really Like (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2023).
P.S. This review is cross-posted from InfluenceMagazine.com by permission.
February 24, 2023
It is undeniable that women had a valued voice in New Testament times. Yes, their voices were less numerous because of the culture in which they lived, but speaking women weren't “the exception to the rule” (a favored phrase of complementarians) and they weren't disobedient. There was a standard precedent for women's public and private speech. To see all the biblical evidence and continue to silence women is to choose to ignore God's valuable image-bearers.
The above paragraph was my concluding statement written on page 166 of Susan Hylen’s newest release, Finding Phoebe: What New Testament Women Were Really Like. This fascinating book uniquely presents “just the facts, ma’am” without directing readers to a particular conclusion. Hylen, an egalitarian herself, promises in her introduction that her “intention is … to help you think about the historical background and then interpret the New Testament yourself…Each chapter will describe the social background, and it’s your job to imagine yourself as a reader who is shaped by those conventions.” (p. 5) Demonstrating her compelling teaching skills, Hylen accomplishes this goal successfully by providing exercises to complete at the end of each chapter which include biblical texts to consider in light of what the chapter has just taught. Hylen keeps her promise throughout the book. The only clue I have from the book that she is an egalitarian comes from the credentials in her bio on the back cover. I imagine the time spent in her classroom is time well spent.
As I read each chapter, my brain was wild with activity, recalling passages of Scripture and connecting what I was learning from Finding Phoebe to texts I have studied before. Hylen’s historical research and knowledge are vast and she has kindly distilled that knowledge to a popular level book for those who aren’t looking for an academic treatment of the topic. Everyone can read this book, do the simple exercises at the end of the chapters, and be rewarded with understanding the social background of New Testament books more clearly.
I have devoted a significant portion of my Bible study and research time to developing a more comprehensive understanding of women in church life and leadership. I have read works from all the popular authors in both egalitarian and complementarian circles. I have heard all the arguments from both sides and I find neither side compels me to plant my feet firmly in their soil. There are good (and bad) faith arguments from each position. There is much to learn. I’ve lost count of the hours I’ve spent reading, praying, journaling, studying, crying, and begging God to just make things black and white. If you’ve ever studied a secondary church doctrine, you probably know that black and white aren’t ever the shades you find. Instead, the pursuit usually brings you to discovering a glorious grey palette with hues you never imagined bursting forth from every new discovery, all forming together into such vibrancy of color, you wonder how you never noticed them before.
Hylen’s book adds a new dimension to this color palette, shaping your understanding of the life of New Testament women. In our millennia-clouded haze, we tend to flatten out our understanding of human social relationships and think that there was only one cookie-cutter lifestyle option for women during the time Jesus and the apostles walked the earth. But, much like our own cultures, there was so much more complexity to behold than we allow for in our limited imaginations. I appreciate Hylen’s honest admission that, while there’s much we simply can’t reconstruct about New Testament life, there is enough historical evidence available to cause us to humbly reconsider our past assumptions we have ignorantly mapped over the biblical text.
The above paragraph was my concluding statement written on page 166 of Susan Hylen’s newest release, Finding Phoebe: What New Testament Women Were Really Like. This fascinating book uniquely presents “just the facts, ma’am” without directing readers to a particular conclusion. Hylen, an egalitarian herself, promises in her introduction that her “intention is … to help you think about the historical background and then interpret the New Testament yourself…Each chapter will describe the social background, and it’s your job to imagine yourself as a reader who is shaped by those conventions.” (p. 5) Demonstrating her compelling teaching skills, Hylen accomplishes this goal successfully by providing exercises to complete at the end of each chapter which include biblical texts to consider in light of what the chapter has just taught. Hylen keeps her promise throughout the book. The only clue I have from the book that she is an egalitarian comes from the credentials in her bio on the back cover. I imagine the time spent in her classroom is time well spent.
As I read each chapter, my brain was wild with activity, recalling passages of Scripture and connecting what I was learning from Finding Phoebe to texts I have studied before. Hylen’s historical research and knowledge are vast and she has kindly distilled that knowledge to a popular level book for those who aren’t looking for an academic treatment of the topic. Everyone can read this book, do the simple exercises at the end of the chapters, and be rewarded with understanding the social background of New Testament books more clearly.
I have devoted a significant portion of my Bible study and research time to developing a more comprehensive understanding of women in church life and leadership. I have read works from all the popular authors in both egalitarian and complementarian circles. I have heard all the arguments from both sides and I find neither side compels me to plant my feet firmly in their soil. There are good (and bad) faith arguments from each position. There is much to learn. I’ve lost count of the hours I’ve spent reading, praying, journaling, studying, crying, and begging God to just make things black and white. If you’ve ever studied a secondary church doctrine, you probably know that black and white aren’t ever the shades you find. Instead, the pursuit usually brings you to discovering a glorious grey palette with hues you never imagined bursting forth from every new discovery, all forming together into such vibrancy of color, you wonder how you never noticed them before.
Hylen’s book adds a new dimension to this color palette, shaping your understanding of the life of New Testament women. In our millennia-clouded haze, we tend to flatten out our understanding of human social relationships and think that there was only one cookie-cutter lifestyle option for women during the time Jesus and the apostles walked the earth. But, much like our own cultures, there was so much more complexity to behold than we allow for in our limited imaginations. I appreciate Hylen’s honest admission that, while there’s much we simply can’t reconstruct about New Testament life, there is enough historical evidence available to cause us to humbly reconsider our past assumptions we have ignorantly mapped over the biblical text.
March 27, 2025
I didn't realize that this was structured more as a church-group study guide. It's based on the author's book "Women in the New Testament World," which I suspect goes into a bit more detail.
I liked the approach of this project as giving a crash course in cultural history for lay readers. Basically, the author is trying to help modern readers understand the historical context in which the new testament advice to the church is given. There's a LOT of ground to cover here, because the Roman patronage system is extremely complicated but would have made intuitive sense to the readers of the time. Someone's status was more nuanced than today.
Making it even more tricky is that women in the past are usually as seen as completely without agency by most modern readers, so the author has to spend lots of time providing examples of women just doing various things, like running farms and businesses or giving instructions to servants. Like no, women were not just sitting around staring adoringly up at their husbands in the ancient world - cows had to be milked, etc.
Overall, I think the author does a good job of showing how cultural prescriptions are highly situational and depend a lot on individuals understanding how the "social rules" apply to them. Hence, you can have a woman praised for modesty while delivering a political speech in Plutarch, because it's in the service of the city, which was seen as virtuous and proper.
Similarly, Paul can command women to be silent in one spot and commend females for praying and prophesying publicly in another, because those are contextual situations that depend on the social status of the people around them.
Basically, she's supporting the argument that the first century church prioritized orderliness, which included the orderly conduct of its women members. This meant adhering to the norms of the particular cultural context, but then it follows that other Christians in other social situations should potentially follow their own cultural "rules" for the sake of orderly worship.
I think it's in Westfall's "Paul and Gender," but I've seen it argued elsewhere that since women's public behavior was being closely watched during Augustus's reign, the early Christians had to be especially careful to avoid being seen as a "women's cult," which was looked down upon by the regime.
I really would have liked to see the author consider the perpetual guardianship of women more. She talks about it and its exceptions, but that seems like a pretty foundational limit on women's lives. I'll have to check out her other book, I think.
I liked the approach of this project as giving a crash course in cultural history for lay readers. Basically, the author is trying to help modern readers understand the historical context in which the new testament advice to the church is given. There's a LOT of ground to cover here, because the Roman patronage system is extremely complicated but would have made intuitive sense to the readers of the time. Someone's status was more nuanced than today.
Making it even more tricky is that women in the past are usually as seen as completely without agency by most modern readers, so the author has to spend lots of time providing examples of women just doing various things, like running farms and businesses or giving instructions to servants. Like no, women were not just sitting around staring adoringly up at their husbands in the ancient world - cows had to be milked, etc.
Overall, I think the author does a good job of showing how cultural prescriptions are highly situational and depend a lot on individuals understanding how the "social rules" apply to them. Hence, you can have a woman praised for modesty while delivering a political speech in Plutarch, because it's in the service of the city, which was seen as virtuous and proper.
Similarly, Paul can command women to be silent in one spot and commend females for praying and prophesying publicly in another, because those are contextual situations that depend on the social status of the people around them.
Basically, she's supporting the argument that the first century church prioritized orderliness, which included the orderly conduct of its women members. This meant adhering to the norms of the particular cultural context, but then it follows that other Christians in other social situations should potentially follow their own cultural "rules" for the sake of orderly worship.
I think it's in Westfall's "Paul and Gender," but I've seen it argued elsewhere that since women's public behavior was being closely watched during Augustus's reign, the early Christians had to be especially careful to avoid being seen as a "women's cult," which was looked down upon by the regime.
I really would have liked to see the author consider the perpetual guardianship of women more. She talks about it and its exceptions, but that seems like a pretty foundational limit on women's lives. I'll have to check out her other book, I think.
August 17, 2023
Many Christian conservatives make a loud case for the social subordination of women through New Testament texts. They argue that women should take neither leadership nor speaking roles. Some limit the reach of these to religion, but others even advance such typology towards all of society. Were women always admonished to submit? And must religion still be an oppressive force today? In this book, Susan Hylen takes on these lingering issues by addressing the historical and cultural record surrounding the New Testament era. In so doing, she finds plenty of counterexamples to current-day rules.
I taught this book in a Sunday School class of older professionals at a mainline church in Tennessee. Some of us come from conservative backgrounds with strict gender roles; others did not. All of us did not accept such strictness in our present-day lives. Nonetheless, class members – especially the women – appreciated the depth of Hylen’s approach. They saw that the narratives from Scripture that we were brought up with are not as simple as we were first taught. Just like today, women were considered simultaneously virtuous and admired leaders.
From a variety of historical artifacts, Hylen brings out that women in the New Testament era managed property, preached, prayed, advocated for others, and lived full lives. There was indeed a social tendency towards male dominance, not as pronounced as many Biblical interpreters make it seem like today. Then, she takes this culture and learns from New Testament texts. After all, the historical and cultural setting influenced the way the original listeners of the Bible would have understood the message. Her book is neither a polemic nor an argument, but rather a collection of historical data around how we understand ancient women.
This book is not written to forcefully change people’s minds about how women should be treated in the church. In fact, Hylen herself expresses doubts that it will alter many views. However, it can teach readers how to interpret Biblical texts with a greater appreciation of cultural forces surrounding both the first hearers and the writers. This book’s reach extends beyond mere interpretation, though. Women who feel a call to religious leadership can read this and be encouraged to overcome oppressive forces around them. Men can learn to better advocate for their female compatriots. We can all learn that our religious lives can expand far beyond any limits gender places upon us.
I taught this book in a Sunday School class of older professionals at a mainline church in Tennessee. Some of us come from conservative backgrounds with strict gender roles; others did not. All of us did not accept such strictness in our present-day lives. Nonetheless, class members – especially the women – appreciated the depth of Hylen’s approach. They saw that the narratives from Scripture that we were brought up with are not as simple as we were first taught. Just like today, women were considered simultaneously virtuous and admired leaders.
From a variety of historical artifacts, Hylen brings out that women in the New Testament era managed property, preached, prayed, advocated for others, and lived full lives. There was indeed a social tendency towards male dominance, not as pronounced as many Biblical interpreters make it seem like today. Then, she takes this culture and learns from New Testament texts. After all, the historical and cultural setting influenced the way the original listeners of the Bible would have understood the message. Her book is neither a polemic nor an argument, but rather a collection of historical data around how we understand ancient women.
This book is not written to forcefully change people’s minds about how women should be treated in the church. In fact, Hylen herself expresses doubts that it will alter many views. However, it can teach readers how to interpret Biblical texts with a greater appreciation of cultural forces surrounding both the first hearers and the writers. This book’s reach extends beyond mere interpretation, though. Women who feel a call to religious leadership can read this and be encouraged to overcome oppressive forces around them. Men can learn to better advocate for their female compatriots. We can all learn that our religious lives can expand far beyond any limits gender places upon us.
September 9, 2023
"Finding Phoebe: What New Testament Women Were Really Like" by Susan E. Hylen.
5🌟/5🌟
I think this is a book every evangelical Christian needs to read to better understand the context of women in the 1st century. When we understand historical context, we can more appropriately evaluate the women of the New Testament and come to a clearer understanding of controversial texts in the New Testament used to subjugate women in the church.
Many in evangelical spaces argue that Paul commands silence in speech, or that women must not engage in industry, or that women did not have occupations or did not own property in the 1st century. Susan Hylen presents evidence from the 1st century to show women often were civic leaders, religious prophets, or ambitious property owners with social influence and education.
This book is divided into 4 parts, which examine wealth and property, social influence and status, virtues of women, and speech and silence in the 1st century. Susan shows how women operated in a highly patriarchal and hierarchical society, but nonetheless, they still served in their homes and communities. Phoebe was a deacon and trusted by Paul to deliver his letter to the Romans.
If you come from a complementarian background, I think this book can help you disentangle misconceptions you may have regarding the historical context of 1st century women. This book would be helpful for anyone in a complementarian church to at least understand the egalitarian perspective, even if they don't reach the same conclusion.
5🌟/5🌟
I think this is a book every evangelical Christian needs to read to better understand the context of women in the 1st century. When we understand historical context, we can more appropriately evaluate the women of the New Testament and come to a clearer understanding of controversial texts in the New Testament used to subjugate women in the church.
Many in evangelical spaces argue that Paul commands silence in speech, or that women must not engage in industry, or that women did not have occupations or did not own property in the 1st century. Susan Hylen presents evidence from the 1st century to show women often were civic leaders, religious prophets, or ambitious property owners with social influence and education.
This book is divided into 4 parts, which examine wealth and property, social influence and status, virtues of women, and speech and silence in the 1st century. Susan shows how women operated in a highly patriarchal and hierarchical society, but nonetheless, they still served in their homes and communities. Phoebe was a deacon and trusted by Paul to deliver his letter to the Romans.
If you come from a complementarian background, I think this book can help you disentangle misconceptions you may have regarding the historical context of 1st century women. This book would be helpful for anyone in a complementarian church to at least understand the egalitarian perspective, even if they don't reach the same conclusion.
February 4, 2024
This book provides rich data to recreate the image of how women in the first century inherited and distributed property, managed household affairs, engaged in commerce, and participated in public affairs. It's important to recognize the real differences in gender roles and education levels, but after reading this book, I have some questions about how we should approach the patriarchal system in the ancient world. The author's perspective leans towards incorporating the pagan background (Barr emphasized the pagan nature of patriarchy BTW). While I understand the desire to bridge the gap between our modern understanding and the original audience of the New Testament, some of the interpretations may lead to unnecessary biases, such as suggesting that wealthy and powerful women are superior to poor male citizens or slaves. This may not align with the values we want to adopt.
Also, the title of the book, Finding Phoebe, has something of a non-sequitur (or forced upward pull) in the body of the text. Of course, Phoebe is an enigma, as well as there really isn't enough information given in the book of Romans to explore only from marginal material. But what struck me most after reading the whole book were the women who financially supported Jesus, the steward's wife, and the women who didn't stay silent, but instead stood up and spoke out in the NT. The author asks us to imagine Phoebe's occupation, status, marital status, etc. ...... I can't really picture it. （lol……
But all in all, it's a good Bible study group reading material, and may see more in the discussion.
Also, the title of the book, Finding Phoebe, has something of a non-sequitur (or forced upward pull) in the body of the text. Of course, Phoebe is an enigma, as well as there really isn't enough information given in the book of Romans to explore only from marginal material. But what struck me most after reading the whole book were the women who financially supported Jesus, the steward's wife, and the women who didn't stay silent, but instead stood up and spoke out in the NT. The author asks us to imagine Phoebe's occupation, status, marital status, etc. ...... I can't really picture it. （lol……
But all in all, it's a good Bible study group reading material, and may see more in the discussion.
February 5, 2023
I was not expecting much new insight from Finding Phoebe, because I've read a few books on the cultural background of the New Testament, and books on women's participation in ministry in the early church.
However, I was surprised by how much I didn't know and how much those other books are missing that Finding Phoebe provides in scope, complexity, and nuance.
The chapter on "Silence" was like reading a good mystery novel, with revelation on top of revelation unfolding on every page. Susan Hylen sets up what we assume the norms are, then returns to those stories and sources to uncover just how complicated the social totems were in that ancient world.
Hylen challenges us to return to the biblical text with a greater appreciation for the society the Apostles wrote in, and let our richer understanding guide our exegesis and application of the text.
For example, 1Timothy 2 in particular will never read the same to me any more. I highly recommend Finding Phoebe.
However, I was surprised by how much I didn't know and how much those other books are missing that Finding Phoebe provides in scope, complexity, and nuance.
The chapter on "Silence" was like reading a good mystery novel, with revelation on top of revelation unfolding on every page. Susan Hylen sets up what we assume the norms are, then returns to those stories and sources to uncover just how complicated the social totems were in that ancient world.
Hylen challenges us to return to the biblical text with a greater appreciation for the society the Apostles wrote in, and let our richer understanding guide our exegesis and application of the text.
For example, 1Timothy 2 in particular will never read the same to me any more. I highly recommend Finding Phoebe.
May 15, 2024
The insights gained from the historical context provided by her offer some understanding of the cultural norms and social expectations surrounding women during the time the New Testament was written, proving somewhat useful. I actually found the chapter on modesty and some others in the second half of the book to be interesting.
I appreciate the author for attempting to reconcile contemporary perspectives with those of the original audience of the New Testament, even if I find some of her arguments to be, at least, insufficiently considered. She claims to provide historical facts to let readers interpret the actual related biblical texts, but her arguments seem to subtly lead readers to her own conclusions, even if she doesn't outright say so.
I appreciate the author for attempting to reconcile contemporary perspectives with those of the original audience of the New Testament, even if I find some of her arguments to be, at least, insufficiently considered. She claims to provide historical facts to let readers interpret the actual related biblical texts, but her arguments seem to subtly lead readers to her own conclusions, even if she doesn't outright say so.
February 2, 2023
A very useful and necessary read for anyone wanting to better understand the culture of the New Testament women. I've read a few books that try to describe the culture at the time of the early church and each one is a bit different due to new and updating historical information. This has been the most helpful to me so far, and I appreciate the tension that the author addresses instead of everything being black and white. At the end of each chapter, the author has an assignment for the reader to practice breaking down the text with this new information in mind. This would make a great group read!
July 1, 2023
Finding Phoebe is a nuanced, scholarly examination of women's roles in antiquity. There are original Latin and Greek sources describing how women exerted influence, controlled money, and lived within the cultural norms of the times. One of the final chapters, Speech and Silence, is refreshing and would not make Conservative evangelicals happy. Thank you, Professor Hylen, for giving us a clarifying word on Paul and the misuse of his letters.
August 19, 2023
This book is serves as a good intro or primer to understanding the role of women both in 1st century Christian communities and the larger society as a whole. It’s probably a good book to use in a small group discussion and is designed as such.
Would recommend for anyone trying to expand their view of women’s roles in the church (and family and society), but also note that the book doesn’t make any specific doctrinal conclusions and leaves that to the reader.
Would recommend for anyone trying to expand their view of women’s roles in the church (and family and society), but also note that the book doesn’t make any specific doctrinal conclusions and leaves that to the reader.
December 3, 2024
There was so much information about the cultural and political landscape of the Roman world at the time of the early Church, and its fascinating in how it all ties in to the names of persons that we get scarce glimpses of in Scripture. But just those tiny descriptions can tell us so much about them! I enjoyed Hylen's insights into how many opportunities there really were for Roman women in this era, much more than we might have been led to believe previously.
October 16, 2025
A very interesting book that tries to dechiper the biblical view and description of women by the examples both from within the new testament, but more so - the culture around, both roman and Jewish, to show that the view in the new testament fit pretty well into the picture. It is a solid book, that can be a bit dry as it feels repetative, but every chapter has it own points to make. Worth a read to ad a lesser looked into aspect of the topic of women in the bible.
November 25, 2025
Great book with many valuable insights into the role of women in New Testament times. I was mildly disappointed that the author did not come down on one side or the other in the complimentarian, egalitarian debate. Still it was a very informative book and helped me understand the world of the NT better. Well worth reading.
May 22, 2023
This was way kewl. And we only think we know what life was like in Graeco-Roman times, which this book dispels much of the mythos with excellent references and data, which tied in well with what we studied in Dr. Heiser's CPMA-201/202 courses.
January 14, 2025
This is Hylen's popular version of her more academic work on the subject of women's behavior in the Roman empire during the time surrounding the New Testament and how that impacts our understanding of women's behavior and expected behavior in the NT. It is easy to read and absolutely excellent!
January 20, 2025
So many books around this topic are very focused on a particular conclusion, this academic book translated well to be a broadening of knowledge around 1st century womanhood and encouraged reflection on various texts and the way women show up in scripture.
May 15, 2023
Fairly solid, contextual overview on women in the church. Neither reading into, nor ignoring historical cultural norms. Came away with a deeper respect for women of that time.
September 16, 2023
One of the more nuanced and accessible works out there on the role that women played in the church and broader society in the first and second century.
January 29, 2024
interesting to learn about ancient norms but there’s better books on ancient women - would’ve been better if it was *actually* about phoebe
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