The Lady Advances: The Voices of Women in Early Christianity

Abstract:This article examines the purpose and features of womens' writing in early Christianity. Among early Christian texts, only three can be attributed reliably to women authors, and all three are primarily efforts at biblical interpretation. In her section of The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, Perpetua becomes an inspired prophet and interpreter. The Spanish traveler Egeria investigates the sites of biblical episodes and two later stories of apostolic travels in order to teach the women with whom she corresponds; and Proba composes a cento to cast and reinterpret the life of Christ in fourth-century Rome. Finally, a contemporaneous description of Melania the Elder as a teacher and exegete confirms that women in some parts of early Christianity had the ability to teach and interpret scripture; their work should be discussed along with that of contemporary male authors in early Christianity.