Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible

and Theology
http://btb.sagepub.com

The Women From Galilee and Discipleship in Luke

Rosalie Ryan
Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology 1985; 15; 56
DOI: 10.1177/014610798501500204

The online version of this article can be found at:

http://btb.sagepub.com

Published by:

http://www.sagepublications.com

On behalf of:

Biblical Theology Bulletin Inc.

Additional services and information for Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology can be found at:

Email Alerts: http://btb.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts

Subscriptions: http://btb.sagepub.com/subscriptions

Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav

Permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav

Citations http://btb.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/15/2/56

Downloaded from http://btb.sagepub.com by on March 23, 2009

 THE WOMEN FROM GALILEE
AND DISCIPLESHIP IN LUKE
Rosalie Ryan, CSJ
College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, MN 55105
uke’s gospel with its many incidents about women
L and their needs has been traditionally regarded as
most favorable to women. Recently, however, state-
ments have been made, chiefly by women scholars,
which argue that Luke’s treatment is not really favorable
to women. Elizabeth Tetlow argues:
It would seem that women had an important and active
role in Luke’s own first-century community. This was
such that he could not ignore the importance of women
altogether, but, reacting negatively to their present active
role, he could, through the theology of his gospel, attempt
to argue for the restriction of women’s role in the Church
of his day. ( 101 )
Elizabeth Schiissler-Fiorenza, discussing Luke 14:26
states:
A more careful scrutiny of the synoptic texts, which
speak about leaving one’s house and family for the king-
dom or Jesus’ sake, clearly shows that it is not the Q
traditions (but rather the Lukan redaction) which count
the wife among those family members who are to be left
behind in following Jesus.... Thus Luke presents the
only textual basis for assuming that the Jesus movement
was a charismatic movement of wandering men, sons and
husbands. (145)
On the other side, there are scholars who see in Luke’s
writings the entrance of women into leadership roles in
the earliest communities and the model of true disciple-
ship. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is seen as the perfect
disciple (Beare:461 ), and Mary and Martha are called to
follow Jesus as disciples (male: 104). One group of women
who have not been widely discussed, the Galilean
women, provides a good focus for the study of women
and discipleship in Luke.
Were Women Disciples?
A question to be dealt with first is: Were there women
disciples? Luke’s treatment of the followers of Jesus is
quite consistent in giving prime attention to the Twelve
as specially called and delegated. But Luke makes it clear
that the Twelve were a group called out of a larger group
of disciples: ’He called his disciples and chose from them
Twelve, whom he named apostles&dquo; (6:13~. After naming
the Twelve, &dquo;he came down with them and stood in a
56
Downloaded from http://btb.sagepub.com by on March 23, 2009
level place, with a great crowd of his disciples&dquo; (6:17/.
Luke is the only synoptic who introduces a second
mission of Jesus’ followers. After calling and instructing
the Twelve to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal,
he appoints 70 others whom he &dquo;sent on ahead of him
two by two into every town and village where he was
to come&dquo; ( 10:1 /. Luke seems to be reflecting on the situa-
tion of a later time, the early Church, when many more
were called to preach and heal and participate in the
ministry. Only Luke indicates that even in the early days
in Galilee there were women with him participating in
the ministry. &dquo;He went on through cities and villages
preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom
of God, and the Twelve [were] with him and also some
women who had been healed of evil spirits and infir-
mities&dquo; (8:1-2). Seemingly the disciples, both men and
women, participated in the ministry from the beginning.
Paul Minear, in an extensive study of Jesus’ audiences,
makes it clear that Luke’s gospel anticipates the time
in Acts when all followers of Jesus were called disciples
(mathetai) (88). He adds: &dquo;Luke even appears to include
various women in the group.&dquo; Luke’s special interest in
the disciples, including women, is reflected in the inci-
dent of the visit of Jesus to the home of Martha and Mary,
where Mary is praised because &dquo;she sat at the Lord’s feet
and listened to his teaching&dquo; (10:39).
CHARACTERISTICS OF DISCIPLES
What then were the characteristics of disciples at the
time of Jesus? In Judaism the would-be followers of a
rabbi first had to seek out a teacher, then apply them-
selves to the study of the Torah. Moses was regarded as
the primary teacher. The rabbi and his followers formed
a fellowship, seeking a better understanding of the Torah.
It was far different for the disciples of Jesus. The call
came from Jesus and invited a lasting personal commit-
ment to his person. The basic qualities of discipleship
were: (1) the call, (2) personal attachment to Jesus,
(3) sharing the life, destiny, and dignity of the Lord.
Outside of the call-narratives of Peter, James, John, and
Levi, and the special designation of the Twelve (6:14-16),
the call of the many other disciples is not mentioned.
The one thing that seems certain is that the call is per-
sonal and that the call comes from Jesus. Schuyler Brown

has noted that the phrase to be with him (syn auto eimi)
is a technical expression for discipleship (8:38; 9:18;
22:56) and means much more than physical presence
(83). It means also a willing attachment to Jesus. When
Luke summarizes the Galilean ministry, he describes the
activities of Jesus and notes: &dquo;And the twelve were with
him and also certain women who had been healed of evil
spirits and infirmities&dquo; (8:12). From the beginning of the
ministry the women were &dquo;with him&dquo; and were faithful
to the call they received.
Discipleship demands a strong personal attachment
to Jesus. The one in the gospels who is able to extend
the invitation, hollow me,&dquo; is also the one who has the
authority to preach the good news and bring people to
the Father. Hence there is no one else who has the right
to attach disciples permanently to himself. But the
disciple’s attachment to Jesus means a corresponding
detachment from other ties: possessions, (18:22-24),
family relationships (14:25-26; 18:29), personal plans and
projects (9:57-62). Such detachment requires a radical
commitment to Jesus.
WHY LUKE ADDS &dquo;WIFE&dquo;
Luke indicates how complete the break is in his listing
of family ties which must be given up: &dquo;If anyone comes
to me without turning his back on his father and mother,
his wife and his children, his brothers and sisters, indeed
his very self, he cannot be my follower&dquo; (14:26; 18:29).
Luke alone of the synoptics adds &dquo;wife&dquo; to the list of fam-
ily members who must be given up. Elizabeth Schfssler-
Fiorenza sees in this Lukan redaction a desire to restrict
the following of Jesus to men (146). Instead it seems that
Luke is demanding a more radical detachment from
family than Matthew or Mark, to make possible a more
complete attachment to Jesus.
As a result of call and commitment disciples will share
the destiny and dignity of the Master. As has already
been noted, they share directly in the ministry-to
preach the Kingdom, to heal, to cast out demons (9:1;
10:19). Luke uses the Q material to indicate the blessed-
ness of the revelation which the disciples are to receive:
&dquo;Then turning to the disciples he said privately, ’Blessed
are the eyes which see what you see. For I tell you that
many prophets and kings desired to see what you see and
did not see it and to hear what you hear and did not hear
it&dquo;’ (10:23-24).
DISCIPLES’ DESTINY
If they are conformed to Jesus in his ministry, they will
also share in his destiny, which involves suffering. The
synoptic gospels agree that to be a disciple one must
&dquo;deny himself and take up his cross and follow me&dquo; (8:34
par.). Discipleship may even involve laying down one’s
life for the sake of Jesus (8:24). But they are told not to
Downloaded from http://btb.sagepub.com by on March 23, 2009
~ ~ ~~
57
&dquo;fear those who kill the body and after that have no more
that they can do&dquo; (12:4). Persecution will follow them:
&dquo;they will be brought before the synagogue and the rulers
and authorities&dquo; (12:11). &dquo;You will be delivered up even
by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and
some of you they will put to death; you will be hated
by all for my name’s sake&dquo; (21:16-17).
Jesus hastens to tell them: &dquo;Not a hair of your head
will perish&dquo; (21:10) and to assure them of the Father’s care
and protection in all their needs. He gives them the
eschatological promises, &dquo;to eat and drink at my table
in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve
tribes of Israel&dquo; (22:29-30).
Such is the life of the disciples in Luke’s gospel-a life
of attachment to Jesus, of laboring for the Kingdom, of
suffering persecution of many kinds, being sustained by
the hope of a glorious reward. It is generally agreed that
Luke was writing of discipleship in Jesus’ time and also
the later time of the Church for which he was writing.
The Women from Galilee
As we have seen, women followed Jesus and played
a part in the ministry from the beginning. One group
especially noted by Luke is the Galilean women. They
were introduced at 8:3 as &dquo;women who had been healed
of evil spirits and infirmities and provided for them
(variant-him) out of their means.&dquo; That more than
material sustenance is meant seems to be indicated by
the fact that they were &dquo;with him&dquo; and the Twelve on
the mission of preaching and proclaiming the good news
of the Kingdom.
Luke notes their names-&dquo;Mary, called Magdalene,
from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the
wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna and many
others.&dquo; Mary Magdalene is named first because of her
prominence among the women disciples and because she
was first to receive a vision of the risen Lord. Joanna, the
wife of Herod’s steward, was evidently a woman of
wealth and high position. She is named also as one who
was at the tomb on Easter morning. Susanna may have
been known to Luke’s audience, but she is not mentioned
elsewhere and is otherwise unknown. Luke in his usual
way with the disciples merely says that there were &dquo;many
others.&dquo;
&dquo;WHO HAD FOLLOWED HIM&dquo;
In their appearances in the passion narrative, Luke
describes them as &dquo;the women who had followed him
from Galilee&dquo; (23:49). The word Luke uses synakolou-
theu, in its simple form akolouthein is a technical term
for discipleship of Christ: &dquo;They left everything and
followed him&dquo; (5:11). The word is found exclusively in
the four gospels except for one reference in Revelation
58
(14:4). The exclusiveness of its use in the New Testa-
ment seems to come from the early Christian concept
that there is only one discipleship and therefore only one
following, that of Jesus. Luke uses the term twice (23:49,
55) to indicate that the women followed Jesus from
Galilee to Jerusalem, the climax of his ministry.
The following of Jesus begins in Galilee and continues
through the long travel account (9:51-19:27) which Luke
uses as a preparation for Jesus’ departure in Jerusalem.
Besides moving Jesus toward the goal of his mission, the
travel account contains a collection of sayings, parables,
pronouncement stories and other materials, which Jesus
uses for the further training of the disciples. They must
be prepared for their future work as witnesses and evan-
gelizers, spreading the good news (Fitzmyer:826). All the
disciples, including the women, are the recipients of this
instruction (Witherington:247).
WOMEN AT THE LAST SUPPER?
The focus of the attention that Luke gives to the
Galilean women is on the final days of the ministry in
Jerusalem. A question which has been discussed is
whether there were women at the Last Supper. Quentin
Quesnell has done a detailed study of the matter (59-97).
His conclusion, that the women and other disciples were
present, seems warranted by several considerations.
When Jesus sends Peter and John to prepare a place for
them to eat the passover, he tells them to ask: ’Where
is the guest room, where I am to eat the passover with
my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room
fumished&dquo; (22:11-12). Jesus expects to eat the passover
with his disciples, which in Luke’s usage indicates the
larger group, and the room is to be large enough to
accommodate them. Quesnell argues that the room
requested by Jesus, katalyma, is not merely a dining
room but rather &dquo;an inn, a lodging place, a spot to stay
overnight&dquo; (62). After the supper when Jesus went to the
Mount of Olives, &dquo;the disciples followed him&dquo; (22:39).
Hence it seems that in spite of the fact that Luke says,
&dquo;And when the hour came he sat at table and the apostles
with him&dquo; (22:14), there was a larger group of disciples
present.
The disciples are still with Jesus at the time of his
arrest in Gethsemane, but after that their actions are very
shadowy. Mark says bluntly: &dquo;And they all forsook him
and fled&dquo; (14:50) and Matthew agrees. Luke never says
directly that the disciples fled. Peter follows at a distance.
Conzelmann states: &dquo;Luke says nothing of a flight of the
disciples; they ’continue&dquo;’ (200). Brown argues: &dquo;The
omission of the flight of the apostles and the resulting
impression that they remain at Jesus’ side in his hour
of need is by no means the only indication in the Lukan
passion account that the apostles ’stand by’ Jesus during
his passion, even as they had done during his public
ministry&dquo; (68). The faithfulness of the apostles is
Downloaded from http://btb.sagepub.com by on March 23, 2009
necessary to Brown’s thesis: &dquo;Apostolic testimony and
apostolic faith are both necessary to preserve without
a break the continuity of the Age of Jesus and the
Age
of the Church&dquo; (72). Peter’s denial and Judas’s apostasy
are a stumbling block to this theory, which Brown
explains as part of the dual possible outcome of dis-
cipleship-perseverance or apostasy.
APOSTLES AND DISCIPLES
Whatever their actions during the interim, the apostles
appear only as distant figures present at the cross. There
Luke makes special mention of the women who had
followed him: &dquo;And all his acquaintance and the women
who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance
and saw these things&dquo; (23:40). They remained faithfully
standing by during the hours of the crucifixion and did
not leave when all the multitudes &dquo;returned home beat-
ing their breasts&dquo; (23:48). Whether the women had any
part in urging Joseph of Arimathea to arrange for Jesus’
burial is not explained. But the women remained &dquo;and
saw the tomb and how the body was laid&dquo; (23:55). Luke
mentions for the second time that these faithful wit-
nesses were &dquo;the women who had come with him from
Galilee&dquo; (23:55a). They left only when all was over and
then went to prepare spices and ointments for the body.
The synoptic gospels agree that the women were first
at the tomb on Easter Sunday morning. For Mark they
were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and
Salome; for Matthew, Mary Magdalene and the &dquo;other
Mary&dquo;; for Luke, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of
James, Joanna and &dquo;the other women with them&dquo; (24:10/.
Again Luke is widening the group of disciples with the
idea that they are to carry on the good news after the
departure of Jesus.
The synoptics also agree that the women received the
glad news: &dquo;He is risen, he is not here&dquo; (Mark 16:6). But
Luke has a further message which links the women to
the days in Galilee: &dquo;Remember how he told you while
he was still in Galilee, that the Son of man must be
delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified,
and on the third day rise. And they remembered his
words&dquo; (24:7-8). Remember! Most of the sayings about
Jesus’ suffering and death were given privately to the
disciples (9:22; 9:43-45; 17:25; 18:31-34). Since the
women remembered what he had said, they make it clear
that they were indeed instructed by Jesus. In spite of their
fear and wonder, the women return to the rest of the
disciples and carry the resurrection message. Although
they are not believed, they do articulate the message and
witness to what they have seen. They continue with the
company of disciples, and when the Emmaus travellers
return to Jerusalem, they find &dquo;the eleven gathered
together and those who were with them&dquo; (24:33). The
presence of the women during the subsequent appear-
ances of the Lord is confirmed by Acts 13:31: &dquo;God raised
 59

him from the dead; and for many days he appeared to
those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem,
who are now his witnesses to the people.&dquo; Those whom
Luke specifically mentions as those who accompanied
him from Galilee to Jerusalem are the women.
It seems evident that the women were present for the
outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost. Luke says: All
these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer,
received the hope of a share in the messianic kingdom.
A long and sometimes heated debate is taking place
today about the role of women in the Church. The tradi-
tion for those who would limit the position of women
in the Church has been to point to Biblical figures like
Eve as a sinful prototype or Sarah as a strong matriarch.
It would seem that the example of Jesus and his Galilean
women disciples provides a better model of faithful,

together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, active, full discipleship for women in the Church.
and with his brothers&dquo; (Acts 1:14). Their presence gives
specific application to the prophecy from Joel (2:28-29)
quoted by Peter. Right there before them the Jews see Source Material
the fulfillment of the prophecy, &dquo;Your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy&dquo; and the pouring out of the Beare, Patrick
Spirit on &dquo;my manservants and maidservants&dquo; (Acts 1981 "Mary, the Perfect Disciple: a Paradigm for
2:17-18). Mariology," Theological Studies 41:461-504
The references to women in Acts are few and scattered.
Brown, Schuyler
Paul on his way to Damascus was about to arrest &dquo;any 1969 Apostasy and Perseverance in the Theology of
belonging to the Way, men or women.&dquo; Paul and his com- Luke. Analecta Biblica #36. Rome: Pontifical
panions stayed at Caesarea in the home of Philip the Biblical Institute.
Evangelist, who had &dquo;four unmarried daughters who Conzelmann, Hans
prophesied&dquo; (21:9). But Luke’s attention in Acts turns 1961 The Theology of St. Luke. Philadelphia: Fortress.
chiefly to the Churches of the Diaspora and the new con- Fitzmyer, Joseph A.
verts there. What happened to the Galilean women is 1981 The Gospel According to Luke, I-IX. The Anchor
Bible. New York: Doubleday.
lost to us, as is much of the story of the early Christian
communities.
Maly, Eugene
1980 "Women and the Gospel of Luke." Biblical
Theology Bulletin 10:99-104.
FATE OF GALILEAN WOMEN Minear, Paul
1974 "Jesus’ Audiences According to Luke," Novum
Elizabeth Schfssler-Fiorenza gives them this tribute: Testamentum 16:81-109.
’By keeping alive the good news about the manifestation Quesnell, Quentin
of God’s life-giving power in Jesus of Nazareth, among 1983 ’The Women at Luke’s Supper," in Political Issues
the followers and friends of Jesus, the Galilean women in Luke-Acts, ed. Richard Cassidy and Philip
continued the movement initiated by Jesus&dquo; (138). The Scharper. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 59-79.
apocryphal writings have Mary Magdalene pursuing a Schüssler-Fiorenza, Elizabeth
1983 In Memory of Her. New York: Crossroad.
missionary career as far as Gaul, but the New Testament Tetlow, Elizabeth
is silent about her later actions and those of the other
1980 Women and Ministry in the New Testament.
women. They achieved their goal, which was to follow
New York: Paulist.
Jesus on his Way and minister to him. In doing so they Witherington, Ben
provided a model of true discipleship. They heard the 1979 "On the Road with Mary Magdalene, Joanna,
call of Jesus to follow him, they attached themselves to Susanna and Other Disciples: Luke 8:1-3," Zeit-
him in his ministry and suffering, they gave faithful schrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
witness to his resurrection victory. In return they 70:243-48.

Downloaded from http://btb.sagepub.com by on March 23, 2009