Women, Work and Leadership in Acts

Teresa J. Calpino’s social-historical examination opens out the significance of two women often bypassed in studies of Acts of the Apostles, Tabitha (Acts 9:36-43) and Lydia (Acts 16:11-15). In this first ever work to analyze these women as a pair, Calpino takes special notice of the ways in which depictions of the ideal woman in Greco-Roman literature are at variance with the descriptions of Tabitha and Lydia. She uncovers the signals to the Greco-Roman audience concerning each woman’s portrait, as single, financially independent and socially respected as benefactresses, but each in her own unique manner. While recognizing certain differences in the societal parameters and cultural conventions that still held in the Greek East and Roman West, the author shows how each woman clearly belongs to the new movement across the Empire in which women take a more active part in business and commerce, as leaders and entrepreneurs. The particular cameo appearance of each woman reflects in an important manner that rather than shrinking into the background, women continued to play a vital role in post-Pauline, emergent Christianity.