Women of the Bible

Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer depicted “Christ in the House of Martha and Mary” some time between 1654 and 1656. (The image, which we obtained from Wikipedia, is in the public domain.)

By one person’s count, there are only 188 women named in the Bible (compared to 956 men). Of course, every woman is important, whether or not she is named, unnamed, or even mentioned in the Bible. Moreover, Jesus died on the cross for all people, male and female, and, risen from the grave, He puts His Triune Name upon us in Holy Baptism, in that same Name forgives our sins in Holy Absolution, and under the authority of that Name gives us His Body and Blood for life and salvation.

In connection with Pilgrim’s Mary/Martha Society‘s monthly gatherings (which took a hit from the pandemic and are not quite as regular as they could be), Pastor Galler is leading women of the congregation, their guests, and friends on a study of some of the women of the Bible, not all of them named. And, while some such studies consider only the “great” women of the Bible, those whose lives should be imitated, also included in Pilgrim’s study are the “not so great” women of the Bible, those women whose lives should not be imitated but who are for that reason useful counter-examples.

Check the church calendar for the date of the next Society gathering, and so the next in-person study, and see the list below for both the studies that have been done (with their dates and PDFs of the study handouts linked, where they were available) and those studies that are planned for the future.