Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 35:1 (Apr 2023)
Article: Book Review: "Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, And Ministered In The Early Church"
Author: Anonymous

Conspectus 35:1 (April 2023) p. 94

Book Review: Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, And Ministered In The Early Church

Gupta, Nijay K. 2023. Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church. Downers Grove: IVP Academic. xiii + 209 pp. ISBN 978- 1–5140–0074–8. Approx. 433 ZAR ($24 USD). Paperback.

1. Introduction

Nijay K. Gupta is a full professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in the greater Chicago area; formerly he held the same position at Portland Seminary. He is well-known to the South African Theological Seminary (SATS) community, having offered Master Classes for SATS on 1 Thessalonians (2021) and Philemon (2022). He has published commentaries on 1–2 Thessalonians, in the New Covenant Commentary Series (Cascade Books, 2016), and on Galatians, in the Story of God Bible Commentary Series (Zondervan Academic, 2023). His monographs include Paul and the Language of Faith (Eerdmans, 2020) and 15 New Testament Words of Life: A New Testament Theology for Real Life (Zondervan Academic, 2022). In Tell Her Story, Gupta examines some often-hidden figures—albeit hidden in plain sight—of women in ministry, as seen in the biblical texts. He starts with an examination of the era prior to the establishment of the Church, looking at key texts in the Old Testament and in the Gospels as well as the general role and place of women in the world of the New Testament. He then proceeds to assess the known women leaders in the early Church. Next, he asks, “What About…?” and scrutinizes the common objections raised to women in ecclesial leadership. The book includes both a general index and a Scripture index. Tell Her Story has footnotes rather than endnotes, which the reader will find helpful.

2. Overview

Like many, Gupta’s Christian journey began in an ecclesial tradition in which only men were allowed to lead. Also like many, he simply accepted that things were the way they were and the way they should be. Unlike the Bereans, he did not examine whether his inherited theology and ecclesiology were grounded in Scripture. He was simply “content with the assumption that the church is for everyone to attend and participate in, but should be led by men, because that’s the way it has always been according to the Good Book” (p. 2). Fortunately for New Testament scholarship and for readers of this book, he moved beyond the views he had inherited and examined the evidence for himself.

2.1 Backgrounds: Part 1, “Before The Woman Leaders Of The Early Church”

In this section, Gupta highlights the background to his exploration of Christian women leaders which comprises the core of his book in the following section. In a section with four chapters, he explores four topics: “Deborah, Prophet, Judge,...