Twelve Apostolic Women

This is an excellent book for a discussion group. We are using it in a bible study group, and find it an excellent source, and well researched.

In Twelve Apostolic Women we find information about the lives of women just after Jesus left the earth. These women all had a profound influence on Christians of their time. They are not as well known as some of the men because of the place of women in the then known world. It was interesting to read about some of the things that they had done even though they are not recorded in the scriptures but can be found in the secular books from that time. It is well worth the time to check it out.

In reading this book, the reader may have the sense of having met some of these people before...author Joanne Turpin examines twelve strong characters from the New Testament, all of whom happen to be women. Most of their stories are familiar, but Turpin offers the reader the opportunity to not only get to know them a little better, but to garner inspiration from their role models of faith and zeal. Turpin describes her sources in her introducion, supplementing scripture passages with other, non-biblical, sources of information. Whether or not the stories told are rooted completely in historical fact is not the point of this book. In examining the profiles of these women, readers will be lead to emulate their commitment to Christ and their discipleship. Each chapter is concluded with an afterword offering current scholarship on the woman described, questions for group or individual relfection, and an inspirational prayer. The book may be used for group or individual study .

In "Twelve Apostolic Women" Joanne Turpin provides profilles for twelve women who committed their lives to promoting the message of Christ, in different ways depending on their roles and abilties in society. These are real historical characters, and Turpin illustrates the sacrifices and significance that their decisions to accept the message of the gospel had on their lives. Trupin recreates the world in which they lived, based on historical data of the household structure and power dynamics that existed during their lives. She does not put words into their mouths, as is often the case with perspectives on women of Biblical times. Sometimes a character, such as the wife of Peter, has no known name. In such cases, Turpin illustrates the archaeological evidence that exists to indicate where she lvied and the role she played in promoting Chritianity, by opening her house to the early Christian community, offering hopsitality, and traveling with her husband to offer him support in his mission. The book helps flesh out a family tree of those who supported Jesus' early ministry, focusing on characters such as Mary, wife of Cleopas (whom many believe to be the wife of Joseph's brother), and Salome, the mother of the "sons of thunder," James and John. It also helps biblical readers appreciate pervasiveness of Jesus's ministry, which included members of court such as Joanna, the wife of Chuza. It profiels the many different Marys that were present in Jeus's time, which helped me a great deal, because through the ages there has been some confusion in this regards, with Mary of Bethany often being combined with Mary of Magdalene. Each woman addressed in this book sacrificed her time and transformed her identity to different degrees, in order to be faithful to and help promote the mission Jesus. Some gave up their places in society, some opened their houses, some surrendered their inheritance and livelihood. The book provides an excellent example of how there are many way to surrender your life to God, with whatever talents you have; as every person is different, with different gifts and no two ways are exactly the same. Each chapter is organized around a woman's story. The story about the women is relatively brief, becuase the book is based on facts, and concrete facts are limited, but the brevity of the chapters do not diminish the significance of the lessons that the story can offer to modern women espeically, but also to all modern Christians. Each chapter concludes with a list of "faith sharing topics" so that readers can explore the relevance of lessons from each woman's life example to the readers' lifes today; to learn how to these women's lives speaks to them as role models. The last section of each chapter is a prayer, asking the particular character profiled to join with the reader in seeking God's to help to adopt virtues demonstrated by the character in the reader's own life today. Each character is based in the Bible; some are more pree