The Women in the Gospel of John

When Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code, was published, it did something that many biblical scholars were not able to do. It posed difficult questions about the role of women in Jesus' life and in the early church, and brought these questions to the forefront of biblical conversations. Many grew up with only a sketchy acquaintance with the many women whose stories march through the pages of the Old and New Testaments. Their stories were not told, and their heroism was unsung. Today, however, more and more scholars are turning their attention to the stories of those women of valor. Nowhere are they as prominent and as central as in the Gospel of John. Judith Kaye Jones contends that the Gospel of John does not just include stories about women, it is structured around stories of women. In this unique testament, women and their encounters with Jesus provide the framework for the central message of Jesus.