I’ve been busy these past few weeks and haven’t written anything new worth posting. So I thought I’d post links to some of my older articles about New Testament women who were ministers and leaders in their churches. (This list is updated whenever I post something new on these women.)
The Chosen Lady
The Elder and the Lady: A look at the language of 2 John
Who was the Chosen Lady in 2 John?
Kyria (“Lady”) in Papyrus Letters
Euodia and Syntyche
Women Church Leaders in Philippi
What were Euodia and Syntyche thinking?!
Priscilla
Did Priscilla Teach Apollos?
At Home with Priscilla and Aquila
Were there Women Elders in New Testament Churches?
Phoebe
Phoebe: Deacon of the Church in Cenchrea (Series)
Junia
Junia: The Jewish woman who was imprisoned with Paul
Junia in Romans 16:7
Is Junia well known “to” the apostles?
Junias and Junia in Early Commentaries of Romans 16:7
Philip’s Daughters
Philip’s Prophesying Daughters
Lydia
Lydia of Thyatira: The founding member of the Philippian Church
Lydia and the “Place of Prayer” in Philippi
Rahab and Lydia: Two Faith-filled Women
Apphia
Apphia of Colossae: Philemon’s Wife or another Phoebe?
Nympha
Nympha: A House Church Leader in the Lycus Valley (Col 4:15)
Chloe
“The Co-Elect” Woman in Babylon
Who is “she” who is in Babylon? (1 Peter 5:13)
Tabitha (Dorcas)
Tabitha: An Exemplary Disciple (Acts 9:36-42)
More on the church order of widows here.
Various NT Women, including the Romans 16 women
Partnering Together: Paul’s Female Coworkers
A List of the 29 People in Romans 16:1-16
Paul’s Personal Greetings to Women Ministers
Paul and Women, in a Nutshell
Women Church Leaders in the New Testament
Working Women in the New Testament
Junia, Nympha, Euodia, Stephana(s): Men or Women?
Were Priscilla, Phoebe and Junia friends?
Jezebel of Thyatira
Jezebel of Thyatira: A Female False Prophet
Women mentioned in the Gospels
Some women mentioned in the Gospels served Jesus and probably served the church also: Mary the Mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, Joanna, Susanna, Salome, Mary and Martha of Bethany, and many others.
The Samaritan Woman should get an honourable mention, and Anna and Elizabeth also. However, the two older women, Anna and Elizabeth, probably did not live to see the resurrected Jesus and would not have had the opportunity to serve the church.
Women Mentioned in Acts and the NT Letters
Many of the following New Testament women served the church in some way, a few as leaders. I’ve listed them in alphabetical order.
Apphia, Chloe, Claudia, Damaris, Eunice, Euodia, Julia, Junia, Lois, Lydia, Mary of Jerusalem, Mary of Rome, Nereus’s sister, Nympha, Persis, Phoebe, Prisca, Rufus’s mother, Syntyche, Tabitha (Dorcas), Tryphena, Tryphosa, as well as Philip’s daughters, the chosen lady and her sister, and she who is in Babylon. Most of these women are associated with the apostle Paul.
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Image
Fractio Panis (“Breaking Bread”) is a 2nd or 3rd-century fresco in the Greek Chapel in the Catacomb of Priscilla in Rome. (Image sourced from Wikimedia.) The fresco depicts seven people at a table. All, or some, are women. Several scholars believe it depicts a Eucharist meal. (See Chiara Cecalupo’s paper, here.) However, catacomb art sometimes depicts a deceased person sharing a meal with “those judged by the judgement of the righteous,” as in the banquet scene in the lunette in the Vibia arcosolium. Vibia was a non-Christian Roman woman who died in the second half of the fourth century CE. More on this, here. I take Fractio Panis to be depicting a funerary banquet rather than a Eucharist meal.
Explore more
A Collection of Articles on Paul and Women
A Collection of Articles on the Male Priesthood and Women in Ministry
The First Century Church and the Ministry of Women
There are Women Pastors in the New Testament
Here are articles that address whether women were pastors/ shepherds (poimēn), elders/ presbyters (presbyteroi), bishops/ overseers (episkopoi), deacons/ ministers (diakonoi), or whether they preached in New Testament churches.
Paul’s Theology of Ministry
The Church in Smyrna and Her Women
An Overview of Women Ministers in the Early Church
2 thoughts on “A Collection of Articles on NT Women Church Leaders”
[…] A collection of articles on New Testament Women Church Leaders; The Prominence of Women in the Cultic Life of Ephesus […]
[…] Jezebel was just one of several women in the NT who were leaders. While Jezebel is an example of a bad leader, many other women are mentioned by name in the context of good ministry and house church leadership. These other women serve as precedents for women in leadership today.Jezebel was just one of several women in the NT who were leaders. […]