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The Ministry of Women in the New Testament: Reclaiming the Biblical Vision for Church Leadership
Respected scholar Dorothy Lee considers evidence from the New Testament and early church to show that women's ministry is confirmed by the biblical witness. Her comprehensive examination explores the roles women played in the Gospels and the Pauline corpus, with a particular focus on passages that have been used in the past to limit women's ministry. She argues that women in the New Testament were not only valued as disciples but also given leadership roles, which has implications for the contemporary church.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published February 16, 2021
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239 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 14, 2025
This book deserves more attention. It’s an academic book. It reads like an academic book, but it is good and worthwhile.
*Read for a class at Northeastern Seminary.
*Read for a class at Northeastern Seminary.
March 10, 2021
I’m writing this review the day after reports that Beth Moore is formerly leaving the Southern Baptist Convention. That’s a relevant fact because, for decades, Moore has been the SBC’s most prominent female leader. In recent years, you began to see the cracks in the relationship as the SBC grew more patriarchal and Moore grew more egalitarian. It all finally reached a formal breaking point and, I expect, Moore will have no shortage of support from egalitarian denominations.
During this same time, the conversation about women in ministry has grown even louder and even into the more conservative and patriarchal sections of evangelical Christianity. More and more women are attending seminary, leading churches, preaching the Gospel, and contesting the notion that Scripture forbids female leadership.
Dr. Dorothy A. Lee’s The Ministry of Women in the New Testament is a firm, clear, concise exploration of women in ministry from the ministry of Jesus into the early church that unapologetically concludes that Scripture empowers women to minister, to preach, to teach, and to be Spirit-indwelled beings who live out their God-given callings. I use the term “unapologetically” not to mean that Lee writes brashly or with a chip on her shoulder, but in the sense that she is not mounting some sort of defense of women in ministry. This is not an argument, not an apologia; it is an exploration of fact that leaves very little to argue against.
The first part of the book covers the ministry of women as portrayed in the New Testament writings. The second covers women in ministry as portrayed in the tradition of the Early Church. It’s this latter section, even though it’s more of an addendum to the book proper, that really caught my attention. It’s one thing to exegete Paul, for instance, and conclude that the typical passages used to preclude women from ministry actually don’t mean that within their cultural contexts. The comeback to that is always to complain about a new faulty “liberal” interpretation of sacred Scripture.
By showing that the early church relied upon women in leadership positions, Lee is able to prove that an egalitarian ecclesiology is present from the time of Jesus. Those with better tools to know contextually, culturally, and linguistically what those passages meant obviously didn’t conclude they meant women couldn’t lead. In this section, Lee is also able to highlight mothers of the faith who have been overlooked because of the patriarchal nature of the church.
Elsewhere, Lee’s exploration of the person of Mary, the virginal conception of Christ, and the resultant female-created humanity of Jesus is nothing less than paradigm-shifting. To quote, in part:
“It is painfully ironic that Mary’s role in orthodox Christian theology as the ‘God-bearer’ (Theotokos), the one who conceives and carries that Son of God in her womb—who nurtures him through her placenta and feeds him with her breast when he is born—could lead to a diminished perspective on women’s relationship to Christ…By being the sole guarantor of his humanity, Mary raises women’s status as nothing else could…Christian belief in the virginal conception confirms that women are as closely bound to Christ as men are. Their historical unlikeness in one sense is compensated by their oneness to Christ in another sense—their gender confirmed in Jesus’s female-generated humanity.”
The bulk of the book is spent painstakingly going through the New Testament and exploring each passage and person relevant to women in ministry. While Lee is thorough, I don’t know that I saw anything I would consider revolutionary. Her positions are strong, bold, and obvious. They won’t the debate because these points have settled it thus far. Lee is content to not even try to bring up counterpoints. The merits of the original point stand on their own. While I would’ve liked to have seen a bit stronger response—or a direct response—to the complementarian position, that’s not Lee’s purpose nor does she pretend that it is.
Her final conclusion is simple:
“If Christ represents—and in doing so redeems—females as well as males, gentiles as well as Jews, slaves as well as free people, then the concomitant is also the case. Any human being, by virtue of the humanity that she or he shares by virtue of being made in the divine image and remade in Christ through the incarnation, is capable of representing Christ, a representation dependent not on gender but on vocation—whether at the altar or in the pulpit, whether in day-to-day acts of service or in martyrdom."
The Ministry of Women in the New Testament is a book that needs to be read, digested, grappled with, and above all, implemented. Dorothy Lee has handed us an exploration of the ancient tradition. It is up to us to follow it, even if it contravenes our more modern ones.
During this same time, the conversation about women in ministry has grown even louder and even into the more conservative and patriarchal sections of evangelical Christianity. More and more women are attending seminary, leading churches, preaching the Gospel, and contesting the notion that Scripture forbids female leadership.
Dr. Dorothy A. Lee’s The Ministry of Women in the New Testament is a firm, clear, concise exploration of women in ministry from the ministry of Jesus into the early church that unapologetically concludes that Scripture empowers women to minister, to preach, to teach, and to be Spirit-indwelled beings who live out their God-given callings. I use the term “unapologetically” not to mean that Lee writes brashly or with a chip on her shoulder, but in the sense that she is not mounting some sort of defense of women in ministry. This is not an argument, not an apologia; it is an exploration of fact that leaves very little to argue against.
The first part of the book covers the ministry of women as portrayed in the New Testament writings. The second covers women in ministry as portrayed in the tradition of the Early Church. It’s this latter section, even though it’s more of an addendum to the book proper, that really caught my attention. It’s one thing to exegete Paul, for instance, and conclude that the typical passages used to preclude women from ministry actually don’t mean that within their cultural contexts. The comeback to that is always to complain about a new faulty “liberal” interpretation of sacred Scripture.
By showing that the early church relied upon women in leadership positions, Lee is able to prove that an egalitarian ecclesiology is present from the time of Jesus. Those with better tools to know contextually, culturally, and linguistically what those passages meant obviously didn’t conclude they meant women couldn’t lead. In this section, Lee is also able to highlight mothers of the faith who have been overlooked because of the patriarchal nature of the church.
Elsewhere, Lee’s exploration of the person of Mary, the virginal conception of Christ, and the resultant female-created humanity of Jesus is nothing less than paradigm-shifting. To quote, in part:
“It is painfully ironic that Mary’s role in orthodox Christian theology as the ‘God-bearer’ (Theotokos), the one who conceives and carries that Son of God in her womb—who nurtures him through her placenta and feeds him with her breast when he is born—could lead to a diminished perspective on women’s relationship to Christ…By being the sole guarantor of his humanity, Mary raises women’s status as nothing else could…Christian belief in the virginal conception confirms that women are as closely bound to Christ as men are. Their historical unlikeness in one sense is compensated by their oneness to Christ in another sense—their gender confirmed in Jesus’s female-generated humanity.”
The bulk of the book is spent painstakingly going through the New Testament and exploring each passage and person relevant to women in ministry. While Lee is thorough, I don’t know that I saw anything I would consider revolutionary. Her positions are strong, bold, and obvious. They won’t the debate because these points have settled it thus far. Lee is content to not even try to bring up counterpoints. The merits of the original point stand on their own. While I would’ve liked to have seen a bit stronger response—or a direct response—to the complementarian position, that’s not Lee’s purpose nor does she pretend that it is.
Her final conclusion is simple:
“If Christ represents—and in doing so redeems—females as well as males, gentiles as well as Jews, slaves as well as free people, then the concomitant is also the case. Any human being, by virtue of the humanity that she or he shares by virtue of being made in the divine image and remade in Christ through the incarnation, is capable of representing Christ, a representation dependent not on gender but on vocation—whether at the altar or in the pulpit, whether in day-to-day acts of service or in martyrdom."
The Ministry of Women in the New Testament is a book that needs to be read, digested, grappled with, and above all, implemented. Dorothy Lee has handed us an exploration of the ancient tradition. It is up to us to follow it, even if it contravenes our more modern ones.
June 6, 2022
The Ministry of Women in the NT
Dorothy Lee’s presentation of Biblical texts and church history is well-referenced and annotated. I have read many, many books, texts and articles on women in ministry in the past two years as I have been on a journey to better educate myself on what the Bible has to say on women in ministry BEYOND what I had been taught and had modeled for me my entire life.
I think this book will challenge anyone’s understanding and cause Christians to think more deeply about God’s calling to ministry.
The impact and spread of the gospel to every tribe, tongue and nation depends on all believers to fully embrace their calling and gifting in the power of the Holy Spirit.
There is neither male nor female. God created them male and female. God created them.
From Genesis to Revelation AND on to church history, Dorothy Lee takes the reader on a journey to exam what the Bible and the historical church teaches and practiced for women and men to fully operate in God’s kingdom.
Dorothy Lee’s presentation of Biblical texts and church history is well-referenced and annotated. I have read many, many books, texts and articles on women in ministry in the past two years as I have been on a journey to better educate myself on what the Bible has to say on women in ministry BEYOND what I had been taught and had modeled for me my entire life.
I think this book will challenge anyone’s understanding and cause Christians to think more deeply about God’s calling to ministry.
The impact and spread of the gospel to every tribe, tongue and nation depends on all believers to fully embrace their calling and gifting in the power of the Holy Spirit.
There is neither male nor female. God created them male and female. God created them.
From Genesis to Revelation AND on to church history, Dorothy Lee takes the reader on a journey to exam what the Bible and the historical church teaches and practiced for women and men to fully operate in God’s kingdom.
May 31, 2021
[4.5 stars] Happy to have read this in conjunction with The Making of Biblical Womanhood. Lee does an excellent job walking through the good, the bad, and the ugly of women in the New Testament. Her careful exegesis shows the primacy given to women in the early church compared to the larger culture, and the openness of the NT to women in church leadership. A specific shout out to her discussion on Paul, where she walks us through the full extent of his support of women in ministry, a characteristic of his writing often crowded out by the discussion of those “troublesome texts” (which Lee also addressees). The final two chapters of her book: one on the history of women in the early church and one on the theological arguments in favor of women in ministry are underdeveloped, largely because they fall outside her speciality, but both have merit in providing large strokes-style arguments in those fields.
March 24, 2021
I am reviewing this book for the Englewood Review of Books.
January 18, 2022
This is the first book of read from this Author, and am pleased to have discovered another Aussie author whom I enjoy reading. Her Anglican background (I’m Lutheran) enables a good examination of Liturgical practices that is often lacking in other books on leadership, and I found this refreshing.
I admit that I have been for women as pastors / church leaders for well over 40 years, and I have used many of the arguments that the Author has laid out here. I did appreciate the thoroughness with which she has down this. A detailed coverage of all areas of the New Testament is given, fully acknowledging the “difficult” passages - and laying out how they are dealt with in the hermeneutic being proposed. There is also a good coverage of Early Church history - though I would’ve enjoyed even more. As well as a theological examination of the issues - including a nice examination of the Trinity.
I also appreciated that the author points out problem in various feminist approaches as well. I may not agree with all of her conclusions but I do appreciate them, and find this book a valuable addition to this ongoing concern within many of our churches.
I admit that I have been for women as pastors / church leaders for well over 40 years, and I have used many of the arguments that the Author has laid out here. I did appreciate the thoroughness with which she has down this. A detailed coverage of all areas of the New Testament is given, fully acknowledging the “difficult” passages - and laying out how they are dealt with in the hermeneutic being proposed. There is also a good coverage of Early Church history - though I would’ve enjoyed even more. As well as a theological examination of the issues - including a nice examination of the Trinity.
I also appreciated that the author points out problem in various feminist approaches as well. I may not agree with all of her conclusions but I do appreciate them, and find this book a valuable addition to this ongoing concern within many of our churches.
June 24, 2025
Through her book, The Ministry of Women in the New Testament, theologian Dorothy Lee makes it clear that she believes women should have a greater role in our churches than they are currently experiencing. Lee takes us on a journey through the books of the New Testament, examining not only biblical teaching but also biblical examples of women’s roles, which are far more extensive than generally recognised. Lee refers to Luke’s description of the women involved in Jesus’ ministry (Luke 8:1-3). These verses reveal that many other people travelled with Jesus apart from his disciples, including women. We notice this larger group in other places, such as when Jesus sent out the seventy (Luke 10:1).
When Lee looks at Jesus’ death and resurrection, she notes that it is the women who are at the Cross. They see Jesus’ death, burial and the empty tomb. Without their witness, the Gospel accounts would be limited if we had to rely on Peter and John’s brief appearances at these events. Furthermore, Jesus rebukes the eleven disciples “for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen” (Mark 16:4). Elsewhere, he had to eat something to prove he wasn’t a ghost (Luke 24:39-43). Yet Jesus’ female followers were believing (Matthew 28:8; Mark 16:11; Luke 24:9-11; John 20:18)
Lee explains many of the difficult passages regarding women in the New Testament letters and looks at the roles women fulfilled in Paul’s commendations of his ministry partners in Romans 16. In Peter’s letters, Lee points out that he tells both women and slaves to submit to husbands and masters, respectively (1 Peter 2:18; 3:1). Yet we no longer agree with slavery, so why doesn’t the same freedom apply to women?
Finally, Lee looks at sources outside the Bible and finds that women in the early years of the church and into the first couple of centuries were fulfilling ministry roles. There are also indications of attempts to obliterate this evidence.
The book is strongly academic, demonstrated by the twenty-two-page bibliography. Nevertheless, it’s a valuable addition to the discussion of women in ministry.
When Lee looks at Jesus’ death and resurrection, she notes that it is the women who are at the Cross. They see Jesus’ death, burial and the empty tomb. Without their witness, the Gospel accounts would be limited if we had to rely on Peter and John’s brief appearances at these events. Furthermore, Jesus rebukes the eleven disciples “for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen” (Mark 16:4). Elsewhere, he had to eat something to prove he wasn’t a ghost (Luke 24:39-43). Yet Jesus’ female followers were believing (Matthew 28:8; Mark 16:11; Luke 24:9-11; John 20:18)
Lee explains many of the difficult passages regarding women in the New Testament letters and looks at the roles women fulfilled in Paul’s commendations of his ministry partners in Romans 16. In Peter’s letters, Lee points out that he tells both women and slaves to submit to husbands and masters, respectively (1 Peter 2:18; 3:1). Yet we no longer agree with slavery, so why doesn’t the same freedom apply to women?
Finally, Lee looks at sources outside the Bible and finds that women in the early years of the church and into the first couple of centuries were fulfilling ministry roles. There are also indications of attempts to obliterate this evidence.
The book is strongly academic, demonstrated by the twenty-two-page bibliography. Nevertheless, it’s a valuable addition to the discussion of women in ministry.
December 23, 2021
This book was a lot to take in, but definitely well-researched overall.
The Author had taken great care to thoroughly explain her position and why she felt the way she did and gave scriptures to back it up - which I greatly appreciated.
While I did not agree with everything in the book, it was nice to see how the Author examines the roles women played in the New Testament, with a special focus that they were seen not only as disciples but also assumed leadership roles, in some cases.
All in all, I found it to be an informative read.
***Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the digital ARC of this book. The views and opinions expressed in this review are my own.***
The Author had taken great care to thoroughly explain her position and why she felt the way she did and gave scriptures to back it up - which I greatly appreciated.
While I did not agree with everything in the book, it was nice to see how the Author examines the roles women played in the New Testament, with a special focus that they were seen not only as disciples but also assumed leadership roles, in some cases.
All in all, I found it to be an informative read.
***Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the digital ARC of this book. The views and opinions expressed in this review are my own.***
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May 1, 2024Women of the early church
I found this book much more geared towards theology than I was wanting. I bought it a while back and just decided to read it. It is very well researched and reviews women in the church by the author of the New Testament book. I wanted something geared more towards a layperson. I'm going to own that I may not have vetted this book very well before I bought it. It's an excellent read for theologians.
I found this book much more geared towards theology than I was wanting. I bought it a while back and just decided to read it. It is very well researched and reviews women in the church by the author of the New Testament book. I wanted something geared more towards a layperson. I'm going to own that I may not have vetted this book very well before I bought it. It's an excellent read for theologians.
June 15, 2022
Gives a very detailed analysis of women’s leadership in the NT and examines all aspects of arguments against and in favor of women’s leadership and ordination. It truly covers every argument and question out there, even some examinations I never imagined! It also helps one understand aspects of Christian theology more clearly and richly.
December 31, 2022
A very insightful resource on the topic of what Scripture says about women in leadership. It has certainly strengthened my view that God has always intended women and men to share leadership in the body of Christ, right from the start. A challenging and important read!
January 2, 2022
Excellent.
January 17, 2021
*I read a digital copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.
December 31, 2023
In this comprehensive volume Dorothy A. Lee traces women's ministry in a systematic way through the New Testament and into the traditions of the early church.
Part 1: Women's Ministry in the New Testament
1. Mark and Matthew
2. Gospel of Luke
3. Acts
4. Gospel of John
5. Paul's Letters: Historical and Thematic Issues
6. Paul's Letters: Key Texts
7. Later New Testament Writings
Part 2: Women's Ministry in the Tradition
8. History and Texts
9. Theology
She combs through each book and letter and includes helpful charts detailing each woman (named and unnamed). Having it all laid out made it easy to see the impressive contributions of women. An important point was to challenge the unconscious bias many of us have when we hear the term disciples. Her continual refrain was to remind us that, unless it was explicitly just the 12 disciples, we should assume women were part of the group. From movies to flannelgraphs women are rarely visually included among the numerous followers and how we consume those images can impact our later reading of the texts.
This is a deeply scholarly read (over 600 endnotes!) diving into issues of textual criticism as well as theories on authorship and source material like Q. It may not be the best resource for a casual reader but it is not over the head of someone with a basic familiarity of Biblical criticism or those willing to dive deeper.
I particularly appreciated the last chapter covering the contributions women made to theology during the unfortunately named Patristic period. In seminary I am currently studying Theology 1 and having this resource alongside my textbooks has enabled me to see the hidden women who have been obscured in favor of the early church fathers.
Her fire burned brightest in the conclusion as she gave a passionate defense for the full inclusion of women in every aspect of ministry, lay and ordained. I hold to a generous complementarian theology and I did not agree with all of her conclusions. She made strong arguments regarding how feminine imagery such as mothering complements the androcentric language for God and challenges assumptions. Another area of strength was in pointing out the inaccuracy of translating 'adelphoi' as simply 'brothers' instead of a more accurate and inclusive term. However, one argument I thought was a bit overstretched centered on the household codes. She argued that authority structures within marriage were null and void. "Because slavery is now universally opposed we ought by definition to oppose the other." However, she did not mention the other group commonly found in those codes, parents and children and did not argue for the abolition of parental authority on the same principal.
Nevertheless, the entirety of the book was so compelling to the case that women's ministry need not be limited as much as it is now. No matter your views on the roles of women in ministry, I'd recommend it as an excellent resource in order to see the fuller picture of how women engaged in ministry roles in the first century.
I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.
Part 1: Women's Ministry in the New Testament
1. Mark and Matthew
2. Gospel of Luke
3. Acts
4. Gospel of John
5. Paul's Letters: Historical and Thematic Issues
6. Paul's Letters: Key Texts
7. Later New Testament Writings
Part 2: Women's Ministry in the Tradition
8. History and Texts
9. Theology
She combs through each book and letter and includes helpful charts detailing each woman (named and unnamed). Having it all laid out made it easy to see the impressive contributions of women. An important point was to challenge the unconscious bias many of us have when we hear the term disciples. Her continual refrain was to remind us that, unless it was explicitly just the 12 disciples, we should assume women were part of the group. From movies to flannelgraphs women are rarely visually included among the numerous followers and how we consume those images can impact our later reading of the texts.
This is a deeply scholarly read (over 600 endnotes!) diving into issues of textual criticism as well as theories on authorship and source material like Q. It may not be the best resource for a casual reader but it is not over the head of someone with a basic familiarity of Biblical criticism or those willing to dive deeper.
I particularly appreciated the last chapter covering the contributions women made to theology during the unfortunately named Patristic period. In seminary I am currently studying Theology 1 and having this resource alongside my textbooks has enabled me to see the hidden women who have been obscured in favor of the early church fathers.
Her fire burned brightest in the conclusion as she gave a passionate defense for the full inclusion of women in every aspect of ministry, lay and ordained. I hold to a generous complementarian theology and I did not agree with all of her conclusions. She made strong arguments regarding how feminine imagery such as mothering complements the androcentric language for God and challenges assumptions. Another area of strength was in pointing out the inaccuracy of translating 'adelphoi' as simply 'brothers' instead of a more accurate and inclusive term. However, one argument I thought was a bit overstretched centered on the household codes. She argued that authority structures within marriage were null and void. "Because slavery is now universally opposed we ought by definition to oppose the other." However, she did not mention the other group commonly found in those codes, parents and children and did not argue for the abolition of parental authority on the same principal.
Nevertheless, the entirety of the book was so compelling to the case that women's ministry need not be limited as much as it is now. No matter your views on the roles of women in ministry, I'd recommend it as an excellent resource in order to see the fuller picture of how women engaged in ministry roles in the first century.
I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.
March 28, 2023
Thank you for the chance to read this. Timely given what's been highlighted in the news related to "women's roles" in the church (Beth Moore, Rachel Held Evans, etc). This is a topic that has been discussed for centuries, many, including myself, not knowing where some misconceptions are coming from. She examines the roles women have in the Gospels as well as Paul's letters which are often used to explain why women aren't allowed in leadership roles. Throughout the Christian Bible (New Testament) women are seen being students of Jesus, leading in his ministry, and preaching in the community. An excellent read.
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