The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles were among the most popular
extracanonical writings of the second century. The Acts of John,
Peter, Paul, Andrew, Thomas and Xanthippe tell stories of the
legendary wanderings, preaching and miracles of the apostles.
Besides talking beasts, extravagant healings and moral discourses,
the Apocryphal Acts reserve an important place for stories about
women. Each of the Acts describes a woman who converts to
Christianity, leaves her husband for the sake of the church and
then lives in sexual abstinence. Davies argues that such women were
known as "'Widows', a group which could at times include both wid
ows and virgins; widows were sexually continent, often dependent
upon the church for financial support, often of advanced age,
expected to pray constantly, and resolved to remain faithful to
Christ. Such a group of women would have had a collective identity,
even a semi-clerical status." He shows that these texts featured
sexually continent Christian women in their narratives and they
they are likely to have been authored by Christian women. By
analyzing the social world behind the apocryphal Acts, Davies
reveals the way in which Christian women in early centuries
sometimes sought to have equal standing with men by rejecting their
traditional roles as wives and mothers. In addition to surveying
the roles of women in ancient Christianity.Revolt of the Widows
emphasizes the magical world view that dominated in ancient times
both among Christians and pagans, In an extensive new afterword
Davies tackles the canonical Acts of the Apostles and provides
convincing evidence that the author-traditionally identified as
Luke-was a woman, a "mother of the church." "opens up whole new
vistas on the self-understanding of women in the early church." -
Carolyn Osiek, Catholic Biblical Quarterly "provocative . . .
deserves to be taken seriously as another attempt, in turn, to take
seriously those voices which have been muted by an aristocratic
scholarly establishment for these many centuries." - Devon Wiens,
Journal of Biblical Literature "Davies perceptively notes how the
apocryphal Acts represent males as ethically dangerous, liable to
temptation, and confused about their faith-the very tendencies most
patristic writers ascribed to women." Elizabeth Clark, Church
History
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