Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 35:4 (Autumn 2021)
Article: Book Review The Ministry Of Women In The New Testament: Reclaiming The Biblical Vision For Church Leadership By Dorothy A. Lee (Baker Academic, 2021)
Author: Jeff David Miller

PP 35:4 (Autumn 2021) p. 29

Book Review
The Ministry Of Women In The New Testament: Reclaiming The Biblical Vision For Church Leadership
By Dorothy A. Lee (Baker Academic, 2021)

Jeff Miller

Jeff Miller is editor of Priscilla Papers.

Dorothy Lee’s work on ministering women displays exemplary research and is especially well written. It has affirmed and expanded many of my views; it has also challenged me and sparked my thinking. I will return to her work repeatedly. I have, in fact, already added this book to the required reading for an upcoming seminary course.

Lee is a NT professor and Anglican priest in Melbourne, Australia; it is therefore not surprising that her book features both Bible interpretation and concern for congregational ministry. She states her thesis clearly: “This study argues from a New Testament perspective that women should have full access to the church’s ministry” (11).

After a preface and introduction, the book is organized in two parts. The first, and longer, section treats essentially all NT women and texts about women. It gives twice as much attention to the Gospels and Acts (80 pgs. in 4 chs.) than to Paul’s letters (40 pgs. in 2 chs.). Though this inverts the more common ratio,1 it is neither imbalanced, since the Gospels and Acts are more than twice as long as Paul’s thirteen letters, nor surprising, since Lee’s published scholarship has largely been about the Gospels.2

Lee works through the several NT texts in an integrative way—constantly tending to literary contexts, for example—and thus avoids falling prey to a criticism she makes in the book’s preface: “The biblical basis some claim for disqualifying women is a handful of texts, and in asserting this claim, these interpreters blithely ignore the weight of New Testament theology and the basic principles of the gospel” (xi). Lee also safeguards against her own critique by including the book’s second section, which brings history and theology to bear on her interpretation and application.

The Gospels And Acts

Chapter 1 addresses Matthew and Mark together, both because of their similarities and because Lee accepts the dominant theory that Mark is Matthew’s primary source. Though the similarities are extensive, Lee also gives helpful commentary on the differences, especially Matthew’s genealogy and Mark’s abrupt ending. In this chapter we encounter the expected women—Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Peter’s mother-in-law, Jairus’s daughter, etc. We also read about “antiheroes” and their narrative function, most notably Herodias and her daughter: “These figures contr...