Because there are more women in the Gospel of Luke than in any other gospel, feminists have given it much attention. In this commentary, Shelly Matthews and Barbara Reid show that feminist analysis demands much more than counting the number of female characters. Feminist biblical interpretation examines how the female characters function in the narrative and also scrutinizes the workings of power with respect to empire, to anti-Judaism, and to other forms of othering. Matthews and Reid draw attention to the ambiguities of the text-both the liberative possibilities and the ways that Luke upholds the patriarchal status quo-and guide readers to empowering reading strategies.

Shelly Matthews is the series editor for the SBL Press series Early Christianity and Its Literature and coeditor of the Feminist Studies in Religion Book Series, FSRBooks. She is the author of Perfect Martyr: The Stoning of Stephen and the Construction of Christian Identity (Oxford University Press) and The Acts of the Apostles: Introduction and Study Guide: Taming the Tongues of Fire (T&T Clark).

Barbara E. Reid, general editor of the Wisdom Commentary series, is a Dominican Sister of Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is the president of Catholic Theological Union and the first woman to hold the position. She has been a member of the CTU faculty since 1988 and also served as vice president and academic dean from 2009 to 2018. She holds a PhD in biblical studies from The Catholic University of America and was also president of the Catholic Biblical Association in 2014–2015. Her most recent publications are Wisdom’s Feast: An Invitation to Feminist Interpretation of the Scriptures (Eerdmans, 2016) and Abiding Word: Sunday Reflections on Year A, B, C (3 vols.; Liturgical Press, 2011, 2012, 2013).