First Converts by Shelly Matthews (9780804735926)

Description - First Converts by Shelly Matthews

It has often been said that rich pagan women, much more so than men, were attracted both to early Judaism and Christianity. This book provides a new reading of sources from which this truism springs, focusing on two texts from the turn of the first century, Josephus's Antiquities and Luke's Acts. The book studies representation, analyzing the repeated portrayal of rich women as aiding and/or converting to early Judaism in its various forms. It also shows how these sources can be used in reconstructing women s history, thus engaging current feminist debates about the relationship of rhetorical presentation of women in texts to historical reality.

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