Women of the Bible
The women of Scripture, studied carefully
Each study opens with the exact passages, read in your own translation. The explanation comes after the text, and it keeps three things apart: what Scripture says, what it allows us to infer, and what it simply does not tell us.
Before the studies, the text
Loading Galatians 3:26-29…
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Testament
Book
Theme
1 of 12 studies
A to Z
Ruth
The book of Ruth in its legal and social setting, the kinsman read carefully, and the line from Bethlehem to David and to Matthew 1.
Read several together
Learning paths
Women named in the line of Christ
Matthew 1 names four women in the genealogy before Mary. Two of them have written studies here, and the trail follows the line from the promise to Abraham down to the birth in Matthew 1:16.
Their accounts are not variations on one theme. Rahab confesses the LORD before Israel enters the land; Ruth acts under the law of . Matthew names them without explaining why, and this path does not supply a motive the text withholds.
- Joshua 2:11. Her confession about the LORD, before the city falls.
- Ruth 4:13. The redemption completed, and a son born to the line.
- Ruth 4:17. The book ends by naming David.
- Matthew 1:5. Both women named in the descent to Christ.
Songs of reversal
Two women sing about a God who overturns the order of the world, centuries apart. Reading them together shows how much they share about God's character.
Hannah's song looks forward to a Israel does not yet have, 1 Samuel 2:10. Mary sings because the is already coming. Luke never names Hannah, so the connection rests on the overlap itself, not on a citation.
- 1 Samuel 2:8. The poor raised from the dust.
- 1 Samuel 2:10. A king and an anointed one, before Israel has either.
- Luke 1:52. The mighty put down, the lowly exalted.
- Luke 1:55. Her song ends in the mercy promised to Abraham.
Waiting without an answer
Several accounts here involve years of waiting that Scripture never explains. Read together, they close off the idea that unanswered means God is displeased.
The outcomes differ sharply. Sarah and Hannah and Elizabeth receive children; Anna's long widowhood is never reversed, and Luke still records her life as service. The pattern is not a formula.
- Genesis 18:11. The promise given anyway.
- 1 Samuel 1:10. Grief brought to God without arranging it.
- Luke 1:6. Righteous and childless in consecutive verses.
- Luke 2:37. Decades of fasting and prayer, and no reversal recorded.
Still being written
Named now, studied later
These accounts are not linked yet, because a thin page is worse than an honest wait. The passages are here so you can read them now.
- Jael · Judges 4:17-22
- Naomi · Ruth 1:20-21
- Abigail · 1 Samuel 25:23-31
- Bathsheba · 2 Samuel 11:2-5
- Tamar · Genesis 38:26
- Rebekah · Genesis 24:58
- Rachel and Leah · Genesis 29:31-35
- Huldah · 2 Kings 22:14-20
- Mary Magdalene · John 20:15-18
- Martha of Bethany · John 11:25-27
- Mary of Bethany · John 12:3-8
- The Samaritan woman · John 4:28-30
- Lydia · Acts 16:14-15
- Priscilla · Acts 18:26
- Dorcas · Acts 9:36-41
- Lois and Eunice · 2 Timothy 1:5