Scripture Untangled

Season 11: Episode 6 | Marion Taylor | How Did Women Since 320 AD Interpret the Bible?

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Explore more Scripture Untangled episodes.

• Dr. Marion Taylor’s books and research in discovering the influence of women interpreting Scripture, from as early as the year 320.
• How a biblical interpreter is defined as anyone who engages Scripture through letters, poetry, art, or other creative expression.
• The impact of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was a Biblical Interpreter that used novels like Uncle Tom’s Cabin to preach and teach Biblical truth beyond the pulpit.
• Forgotten women writers who have been revealed through the years and the research journey that uncovered diaries, commentaries, and Scriptural interpretations long buried in archives.
• Courageous interpreters of the Reformation like Katarina Zell who boldly defended clergy marriage, wrote pastoral letters, and ministered side by side with their husbands.
• Florence Nightingale’s annotated Bible and how it reveals how she wrestled with faith, science, and Scripture in her private notes.

Dr. Marion Taylor

PhD (Yale), BA (Toronto), MA (Toronto), MDiv (Knox/Toronto), STM, MPhil

Marion Taylor grew up in Toronto and began her academic studies at the University of Toronto. Questions about how to negotiate the worlds of faith and the academic study of the Bible pushed her to pursue an MA in Near Eastern Studies and a Master of Divinity degree. Ultimately her journey took her to Yale University, where her interest in the history of the interpretation of the Bible was solidified. Under the direction of Brevard Childs, she wrote her doctoral thesis on the history of Old Testament studies as they developed at Princeton Seminary from 1812 to 1929.

At Yale in a class on apocalyptic literature, Marion met her husband Glen. Glen was from Calgary, but they returned to Toronto to teach at Wycliffe College. With Glen as residence dean, they lived at the College while raising three children and continuing to teach.

Marion’s interests in the Old Testament are broad. She teaches a variety of courses, including Introduction to the Old Testament, Jeremiah, Psalms, Old Testament Theology, Reading Scripture through the Ages, Bad Boys and Bad Girls in the Bible, the Books of Esther and Ruth, and Women Interpreters of the Bible. Most recently she has focused on forgotten women interpreters of the Bible.

Marion began her search for forgotten women interpreters of the Bible in 2002, when a student asked if she could write a paper on a woman interpreter from the 19th century. This question has taken Marion on the greatest adventure of her life, as she and a team of students and scholars have unearthed the names and writings of hundreds of women throughout history. In 2006 she and Heather Weir co-published a collection of texts from 50 forgotten women interpreters on the stories of women in Genesis: Let her Speak for Herself: Nineteenth-century Women Writing on Women in Genesis. Marion and Christiana de Groot of Calvin College co-edited Recovering Nineteenth-Century Women Interpreters, a volume of essays published in the SBL’s symposium series. Marion’s award-winning book, Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters: a historical and biographical guide (Baker, 2012), provides an exciting new resource for those interested in the forgotten voices of women interpreters of the Bible. Women of War, Women of Woe, a collection of 19th-century women’s writings on the women in Joshua and Judges, co-authored with Christiana de Groot, was published in 2016; and in November 2016, Women in the Story of Jesus: The Gospels through the Eyes of Nineteenth-Century Female Biblical Interpreters, a collection of 19th-century women’s writings on the women in the gospels which Marion co-authored with Heather Weir, was published by Eerdmans.

Marion completed a commentary on Ruth and Esther, published in the Fall of 2020 in Zondervan’s Story of God Series. She is very excited that the book that she co-authored with Joy Schroeder, Voices Long Silenced: Women Biblical Interpreters through the Centuries, which features more than 400 women biblical interpreters, was published in 2022 by Westminster John Knox. It is available as an audio book. Marion is currently working on a book on Paul through the eyes of women in the sixteenth to the long nineteenth century.

In her spare time, Marion loves to spend time with her grandchildren, read, write, and walk her dog at the family cottage in northern Ontario.

Lorna Dueck

Lorna Dueck has explored the intersection of journalism and Christianity for over 30 years. Her most recent full-time role was as CEO of Crossroads Christian Communications, Inc. and the show, “Context with Lorna Dueck”.

Lorna was a regular commentary writer on faith and public life in Canada’s leading national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, and is a frequent media commentator. She has travelled the world reporting on church-led response to humanitarian crisis.

Lorna earned a Master of Arts in Evangelism and Leadership from Wheaton College. She has received honorary doctorate degrees from Trinity, Tyndale, Briercrest and Wycliffe Universities. Lorna has received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for contributions to Canadian society.

Learn more about Lorna Dueck:

Instagram: instagram.com/lorna_dueck
Website: lornadueckcreative.com