This episode previews the CHT's new book The Biblical World of Gender: The Daily Lives of Ancient Women and Men. Three of the authors from the book (Carmen Imes, Nijay Gupta, and Cynthia Shafer-Elliott) discuss their contributions. They touch on the gender assumptions in the ancient Near East and Roman Empire, along with some of the Bible's challenging passages about slavery and authority.

Carmen Imes is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Biola University and the author of Bearing God's Name: Why Sinai Still Matters. She has been a missionary to the Philippines and releases "Torah Tuesday" videos on her YouTube channel. Nijay Gupta is Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary, Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin for Biblical Research, and the author of Paul and the Language of Faith. Cynthia Shafer-Elliott is Associate Dean and Associate Professor in the School of Theology and Leadership at William Jessup University. She does archaeological research on ancient Israel, including households, food preparation, and gender dynamics in the family, and is an editor of the recent T&T Clark Handbook of Food in Ancient Israel and the Hebrew Bible.

Show notes:

Carmen Imes

• 0:00 Why we need to examine the biblical authors' view of gender
• 3:42 The "sanctified imagination" and entering into the biblical story
• 5:20 A selection from Carmen Imes's essay "Freedom Fighters of the Exodus"

Nijay Gupta

• 9:07 Understanding Paul's "harshness"
• 11:58 The biblical authors on the rape of slaves
• 14:15 Examples of radical early Christian ethics
• 16:26 Gender differences in the first-century Roman Empire

Cynthia Shafer-Elliott

• 18:48 The importance of household archaeology
• 21:19 Understanding the cultural assumptions of the biblical texts
• 25:44 Hierarchy versus heterarchy

Show notes by Micah Long

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