This book examines ancient generative theories, physiological understandings of breast milk, and presentations of prominent mothers to analyze these themes in the New Testament and several early Christian writings. Identifying themselves as members of God's household, ancient Christians utilized motherhood as a theological category and a contested ideal for women disciples.

• Chapter 1: Introduction: Motherhood and Womanhood in New Testament Contexts


• Mothers, Anthropology, and Theology in the New Testament


• Cults of Motherhood: Matrons Ancient and Contemporary


• Maternal Theologies, Maternal Bodies: Method, Argument, and Overview


• Chapter 2: Maternal Bodies: Constructing Women in Mediterranean Antiquity


• Sexes amongst the Sects: Debates on the Female in Greco-Roman Medicine


• [Hu]man or Un[hu]man: Masculinity in the Greco-Roman World


• What Makes a Woman? Femininity, the Female Body, and Motherhood


• Wo/man Made: Summary


• Chapter 3: Conceiving Christ and Community: Mary, Mothers, and God's Household in the Gospels and Acts


• Is the Mother a Parent? Ancient Theories of Conception, Generation, and Childbirth


• Conceiving Christ and Community: Mary and Other Mothers in God's Household


• Conclusions


• Chapter 4: Taste that the Lord is Good! Breastmilk and Character Formation in the New Testament


• The Sacred Fount: Breastmilk, Paideia, and Character Formation in Mediterranean Antiquity


• Learning to Drink: Breastmilk and New Testament Paideia


• Conclusions


• Chapter 5: Salvation and Childbearing: Does Motherhood Matter?


• Molding Princes for Rome: Maternal Power in the Augustan Age


• Getting Saved: Multiple Traditions of the Maternal Telos in Early Christian Literature


• Conclusions


• Chapter 6: Conclusions: The Blessedness of Women


• How to Become a Woman: A Core Assumption


• Becoming a Woman after Christ: Mothers and Motherhood in the New Testament


• The Blessedness of Women: Some Lingering Effects of the Maternal Telos


• Bibliography


• Index

Alicia D. Myers is Assistant Professor of New Testament and Greek at Campbell University Divinity School. Her previous publications include Characterizing Jesus: A Rhetorical Analysis on the Fourth Gospel's Use of Scripture in Its Presentation of Jesus (2012) and Abiding Words: The Use of Scripture in the Gospel of John (co-editor, 2015).