Wisdom Commentary Wisdom Commentary: Luke 1–9

You think you know Luke’s gospel? Before you open this book, fasten your seat belt and expect turbulence. Sojourner Truth said the first woman ‘was strong enough to turn the world upside down.’ ‘Women together,’ she says ought to ‘get it right side up again.’ This commentary attempts to do so.

This marvelous commentary is informative, eye-opening, and challenging. It shares an abundance of nourishing insights from national and international feminist biblical interpretation. It opens reader’s eyes, for example, to see both women and men shepherds in Luke 2 and to see the anointing lady of Luke 7:36-50 as neither a prostitute nor as Mary Magdalene. It warms the heart and frequently asks such troubling questions as: What are contemporary disciples going to do locally to alleviate food insecurity for the vulnerable as Jesus did in his day?

Another volume in the Wisdom Commentary series continues the high quality of the project. Many voices, representing different methods, approaches, and judgments, highlight the multiple ways in which feminist interpretation can flourish in some of the most fraught passages of the Gospel. The abundant resources for further study make this first book on Luke a treasure of promise to come in the second volume.

This volume, co-authored by Barbara E. Reid, OP, and Shelly Matthews, is superbly done. The format follows previous publications in this series: a conversation between two primary scholars with diverse voices of scholars punctuating each section.

The authors do an exceptional job breaking down Luke 1–9 into nine accessible, informative, and groundbreaking sections. What for me has always been the subject of exclusivist (as White, Western) scholarship, Luke has been made relevant by this multi-vocative work. Reid and Matthews, up against a text that has been used simultaneously to liberate and oppress, and which mentions the word ‘wisdom’ only a handful of times, shine with their inclusion of scholars of diverse experiences, social locations, disciplines, and methodologies. Additionally, with the adept guidance of Amy-Jill Levine (volume editor), Reid and Matthews address and explicate the often glossed-over anti-Jewish elements of Luke’s Gospel. The volume succeeds in making Luke 1–9 relevant not only for feminists, but for the myriad Christian communities throughout the world.

How extraordinary that ‘the Gospel of Women’ has had to wait so long for a book-length feminist commentary! But this book, the first volume of what promises to be a monumental commentary, fills the gap magnificently. Barbara Reid and Shelly Matthews, together with their large and diverse cast of cameo contributors, manage to do justice to the knotty complexities of Luke’s representations of gender without sacrificing either accessibility or contemporary relevance.

Many commentators have lifted up the Lukan narratives and themes as evidence that women's experiences are taken seriously in scripture. These authors do not dispute that, but they suggest that there are more questions than answers here, more ambiguity and variety than often acknowledged in these commonly used texts. It is a refreshing reality check.

Much of the commentary considers the importance of power rankings and the patriarchal dynamics of Greco-Roman culture, together with the apparent impact of this social context on Luke's perspective. Readers seeking a more standard theological and spiritual commentary on Luke may need to look elsewhere. This unique commentary series is intended as a serious exercise in feminist hermeneutics, a task it carries out with great consistency and clarity.

Reid and Matthews offer a variety of exciting exegetical observations, placing particular emphasis on the reception of the motifs in different contexts worldwide.

The breadth and depth of the scholarship and the application of historical and theological issues to the contemporary church and world makes these volumes a significant addition to any scholarly and pastoral library.

Reid and Matthew's commentary is an excellent contribution to interpretive dialogue on Luke's Gospel. It critically examines short-sighted, androcentric readings, brings feminist voices and concerns to the fore, and evaluates texts with interpretive nuance, making it especially helpful to scholars, as well as to teachers and preachers. The two volumes represent the best of both the authors' interpretive work as well as the Wisdom Commentary series as a whole, yielding a commentary on Luke's Gospel that will be consulted for decades to come.