Includes bibliographical references (pages 469-509) and index

Preface to the English edition / Amy-Jill Levine -- Introduction / Mercedes Navarro Puerto and Marinella Perroni -- Subsidiary biblical sciences and feminist perspective : a fruitful intersection / Carolyn Osiek -- New Testament canon formation and the marginalization of wo/men / Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza -- Between empire and synagogue : exploring the roles of women in early Roman Palestine through a Markan lens / Sean Freyne -- "Behold, these are my sisters" (Matt 12:49) : female disciples of Jesus the Messiah in the major cities of the Roman empire / Luise Schottroff -- Déjà-vu for proving soteriological pertinence : gender-relevant reception of the Hebrew Bible in the narrative texts of the New Testament / Irmtraud Fischer -- Which Messiah for women? : Jewish Messianisms and early christologies from the perspective of gender / Luca Arcari -- The Gospel of Matthew : between breaking and continuity / Amy-Jill Levine -- Female disciples in Mark? : the "problematizing" of a concept / Mercedes Navarro Puerto -- Disciples, not apostles : Luke's double message / Marinella Perroni -- Women and negotiations of gender in the Gospel of John / Turid Karlsen Seim -- Johannine epistles : the contribution of gender exegesis / Pius-Ramon Tragan -- Babylon and Jerusalem as female characters in the Apocalypse : visions, traditions, and intermediality / Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati -- Some christological models from the perspective of gender in the canonical Gospels / Romano Penna -- In and out of the house : changes in women's role from Jesus's movement to the early churches / Adriana Destro and Mauro Pesce -- Jesus between story and theology : the infancy gospels (Matthew 1-2; Luke 1-2) / Enrico Norelli -- Mary of Nazareth : a story of transformation / Silke Petersen -- Martha / Bernadette Escaffre -- Nameless women in the canonical Gospels / Silvia Pellegrini -- Mary of Magdala, first apostle? / Andrea Taschl-Erber -- Masculine and feminine narrative figures in the Fourth Gospel : gender perspectives / Judith Hartenstein

"This first volume in the New Testament section of the Bible and Women series, devoted to the Synoptic Gospels and the Johannine literature, displays the fruits of collaboration of American and Western European scholars. Ranging among historical-critical investigation, archaeological discovery, cultural anthropology, social-scientific modeling, narrative analysis, theological speculation, and reception history, the essays attend to the constructions of gender, the roles and representations of women, nd the impact biblical studies has had--and can have--on people's lives."-- Publisher description