This is a short e-book, a long essay really, and a passionate and forceful argument for the equality of women in all aspects of church life. Scot McKnight uses the example of Junia, a woman who the Apostle Paul refers to in Romans 16:7 as 'outstanding among the apostles', but who for many years was referred to as Junias in a number of Bibles, due to the idea that women could not be apostles. She was given a 'sex change'! Indeed, in many Bibles today you will still find Junia referred to by a male name, Junias, who in actual fact 'is a man who didn't exist with a name that didn't exist in the ancient world'.
McKnight uses this basic premise, that Junia was a woman, and an outstanding apostle, and tells stories of other outstanding women in the Bible like Deborah, Huldah and Miriam, and then three powerful stories of women in church history who did extraordinary things but have largely been overlooked because of their gender. He ends with a call for the church to seek out and tell these stories of the great women of the faith. We need some balance to the years of male domination, although as he points out 'if we want real historical balance it would mean telling nothing but women's stories for the next two millenia'.
I would definitely recommend this book. It may be short, but it's worth it. Even if you have read The Blue Parakeet, which contains some similar material in more detail, there are some fresh stories and points here. To end with McKnight's words: Junia was a ‘Christ-experiencing, Christ-representing, church-establishing, probably miracle-working, missionising woman who preached the gospel and taught the church’
