Have Bible readers missed the point of some scriptural stories by assuming the women in them were “bad girls”? Did Bathsheba seduce King David or was she a #MeToo victim? Was Mary Magdalene really a reformed prostitute? Did the Samaritan woman really divorce five husbands in a world where women rarely divorced even one?

Bible Gateway interviewed Sandra Glahn (@sandraglahn) about her book, Vindicating the Vixens: Revisiting Sexualized, Vilified, and Marginalized Women of the Bible (Kregel Academic, 2018).

Vindicating the Vixens is a collaboration written by an international team of scholars. How did the concept and execution of the book come together?

Sandra Glahn: Vindicating the Vixens: Revisiting Sexualized, Vilified, and Marginalized Women of the Bible has been on my heart for more than a decade. When I served as editor-in-chief of Dallas Theological Seminary’s magazine for many years, I worked with male and female scholars across the world who had a high view of Scripture—and were good writers. In a number of cases their work focused on Bible stories that featured women. And these 14 scholars brought correctives to how many in the West, especially those of us in privileged positions, have interpreted the text. At times we have wrongly sexualized, vilified, and/or marginalized the women we’ve read about. Consequently, we’ve missed how their stories function in the Bible’s overall narrative.

Simultaneously, as I studied history and ancient backgrounds at the doctoral level, my work often validated what these authors were saying. For example, the woman Jesus met at the well in Samaria (John 4) would not have marched into court alone and dumped five husbands before living with some guy. Often on Easter, we remind people that a woman’s testimony was invalid in court at the time. Yet we forget that when we read John 4. It’s more likely that the woman Jesus met at the well had been widowed many times. Ultimately, to eat she probably ended up as a concubine. And if that is true, Jesus was not confronting her with her sin, but meeting her at her point of greatest pain.

I wanted to bring all this research together and include male and female scholars who have a variety of ethnicities and educational backgrounds—but all of whom have at least one advanced degree in biblical studies. We need all eyes on the biblical text to help us see where biases have blinded us.

Who are the women of the Bible that the book features?

Sandra Glahn: We took a fresh look at 16 women, though we could have included more. We begin with the women in Jesus’s genealogy: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and the Virgin Mary. Then we go back and include a sampling from the Old Testament—Eve, Sarah, Hagar, Deborah, Huldah, and Vashti. And from the New Testament we consider the Samaritan Woman, Mary Magdalene, and Junia/Joanna.

Why is it important to re-examine what the Bible says about these women and challenge traditional views of them?

Sandra Glahn: In many cases, we challenge only recent views of these women. People today may think of Mary Magdalene as a reformed prostitute, but the Church Fathers called her the “apostle to the apostles” because she was the first to tell the disciples that Jesus was alive (John 20:18). The only thing the text actually says about her past is that Jesus freed her from seven demons (Mark 16:9).

One reason for a fresh look is that, since the invention of the Internet and email and distance education, our access to information about biblical backgrounds has exploded. But the main reason for a fresh look is that we need to handle the biblical text accurately. And when we find out we’ve misread it, we must have the humility to revisit what God has said and how we apply it.

Additionally, we must acknowledge how our victim-blaming of good women in the Bible has affected how we’ve perceived women. I received an email recently in which a woman wrote this: “I’ve always struggled with the (presumed) fact that there were no female role models in the Bible. I had enough sense to know that this didn’t mean that God doesn’t care about women, but I was frustrated with the apparent lack of representation. [The book] introduced and reintroduced me to characters that I had never considered role models, let alone relevant to the story of the Bible as a whole. I have a passion for the exhortation and empowerment of women … and it’s encouraging to feel that same empowerment come from God, himself, through his word.”

I’ve been working on this project for ten years. So who could have imagined the book would release at a cultural moment when #MeToo and #ChurchToo would be dominating social media, the Grammy Awards, the news…? Bathsheba’s experience is a #MeToo story. The Bible is as relevant today as it’s always been. And we’re at a unique time in history—a time in which we’re realizing that our wrongly sexualizing and marginalizing women in the Bible reveals something to us about ourselves. It’s not only “out in the world” where thinking about women has been distorted.

Some women in the Bible most certainly fall into the category of “bad girls.” How do those women differ from the ones discussed in the book?

Sandra Glahn: It’s not our desire to vindicate women unworthy of vindication—Potiphar’s wife and Jezebel come to mind (though many think Jezebel’s sin was sexual because she put on eye makeup, and that’s inaccurate—see 2 Kings 9:30). Lots of women pegged as “bad girls of the Bible” deserve that moniker. We’re interested only in vindicating those wrongly sexualized, vilified, or marginalized.

When discussing the genealogy of Jesus outlined in Matthew 1, it’s not uncommon to point out the few women included and refer to their sordid past. Why do we have the tendency to focus on the negatives of their history, especially when the men in the bloodline had as many flaws as the women?

Sandra Glahn: Jesus’s genealogy in Matthew (chapter 1) is full of both male and female sinners, but the women’s sinfulness is not the point Matthew is making by including them. By making their sex lives our focus, we misconstrue their actions (for example, Hagar), blame the innocent (for example, Bathsheba) and ultimately miss what the author is telling his Jewish readers.

By even including women, Matthew is up to something. In his Gospel, foreign kings worship Jesus at his birth (Matt. 2). A Roman soldier requests healing for his servant and “amazes” Jesus with his faith (8:5–13). Matthew salts his narrative with the faith of Gentiles. And in the genealogy, Matthew is setting up his readers, the Jewish faithful, to accept cultural and racial outsiders into the community of faith through belief, not blood.

Judah married the Gentile Tamar (Gen. 38). Bathsheba is the wife of a Hittite (2 Sam. 11). Rahab is a Caananite woman (Josh. 2). Ruth is a Moabite girl (Ruth 1). Judah says of Tamar, “You’re the righteous one, not I” (Gen. 38:26). Rahab says she believes in Yahweh Adonai as Elohim (Josh. 2:11). Ruth says Naomi’s God will be her God (Ruth 1:16). Bathsheba suffers a great injustice and is grafted into the royal line. The idea of Gentiles being righteous and included would have blown the minds of Matthew’s readers.

Were you surprised by anything you learned or viewed differently as the chapters of the book came into you from their respective writers?

Sandra Glahn: Yes. When I asked people to contribute, I assumed I’d receive only a chapter from each person showing how we had misinterpreted these women. But the authors pleasantly surprised me by also exploring what we’d missed in the grander narrative by misreading parts of the stories.

When all the chapters came in, I saw a consistency in how God went out of his way to include the marginalized, choose the outsider, and confound the insider/outsider mentality to demonstrate his love for the entire world. That part of the project came as somewhat of a surprise.

Proceeds from the sales of the book will go to benefit the work of the International Justice Mission. Explain the work this organization does.

Sandra Glahn: Those of us who contributed chapters are academicians. It would be difficult for us to spend our days serving on the front lines helping sexualized, vilified, and marginalized people across the world. But International Justice Mission (IJM) does precisely that. So rather than pocketing the profit from book sales, everyone on this project agreed to donate all profits to IJM. Hopefully our years of study can indirectly serve to support the work of those in the trenches.

Bio: Sandra Glahn, ThM, PhD, is a professor in Media Arts and Worship at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) where she teaches courses on the arts, gender, and human sexuality. She holds a Master of Theology degree from DTS and a PhD in The Humanities—Aesthetic Studies—from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Dr. Glahn is author or coauthor of more than 20 books, including Bible studies in the Coffee Cup Bible Study series and both fiction and non-fiction relating to bioethics, sexuality, and reproductive technologies. She is a regular blogger at Engage, Bible.org’s site for women in Christian leadership, is the owner of Aspire Productions, and previously served as editor-in-chief for Kindred Spirit.

Get access to more than 40 top Bible study resources by becoming a member of Bible Gateway Plus. Try it right now!