Women and knowledge in early Christianity / edited by Ulla Tervahauta, Ivan Miroshnikov, Outi Lehtipuu, Ismo Dunderberg.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Women and Knowledge in Early Christianity: An Introduction (Lehtipuu and Dunderberg ) -- ‎Part 1. Women and Knowledge in Social-Historical Contexts -- Chapter 1. Women and Independent Religious Specialists in Second-Century Rome (Denzey Lewis) -- Chapter 2. "She Destroyed Multitudes": Marcellina's Group in Rome (Snyder) -- Chapter 3. Some Remarks on Literate Women from Roman Egypt (Salmenkivi).

‎‎Part 2. Afterlives of Women in Biblical Narratives -- Chapter 4. Women, Angels, and Dangerous Knowledge: The Myth of the Watchers in the Apocryphon of John and Its Monastic Manuscript-Context (Bull) -- ‎Chapter 5. Jezebel in Jewish and Christian Tradition (Rasimus) -- ‎Chapter 6. Mary and the Other Female Characters in the Protevangelium of James (Luomanen) -- ‎Chapter 7. What Happened to Mary? Women Named Mary in the Meadow of John Moschus (Tervahauta).

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‎Part 3. Women in Ancient Intellectual Discourse -- ‎Chapter 8. "For Women are Not Worthy of Life": Protology and Misogyny in Gospel of Thomas Saying 114 (Miroshnikov) -- Chapter 9. "Women" and "Heresy" in Patristic Discourses and Modern Studies (Petersen)‎ -- Chapter 10. Astrological Determinism, Free Will, and Desire According to Thecla (St. Methodius, Symposium 8.15-16) (Burns) -- Chapter 11. Monastic Exegesis and the Female Soul in the Exegesis on the Soul (Lundhaug).

‎‎Part 4. The Feminine Principle in Myth and Philosophy -- Chapter 12. Life, Knowledge and Language in Classic Gnostic Literature: Reconsidering the Role of the Female Spiritual Principle and Epinoia (Bak Halvgaard) -- Chapter 13. "Wisdom, Our Innocent Sister": Reflections on a Mytheme (Williams) -- Chapter 14. The Virgin That Became Male: Feminine Principles in Platonic and Gnostic Texts (Turner)‎ -- Bibliography -- ‎Index of Ancient and Medieval Sources.

Women and knowledge are interconnected in several ways in late ancient and early Christian discourses, not least because wisdom (Sophia) and spiritual knowledge (Gnosis) were frequently personified as female entities. Ancient texts deal with idealized women and use feminine imagery to describe the divine but they also debate women's access to and capacity of gaining knowledge. Combining rhetorical analysis with social historical approaches, the contributions in this book cover a wide array of source materials, drawing special attention to the so-called Gnostic texts. The fourteen essays, written by prominent experts of ancient Christianity, are dedicated to Professor Antti Marjanen (University of Helsinki).