You'll laugh and weep and your faith will be renewed with
Those Women
What readers are saying about
Those Women ...
"It is a well-crafted imagining of two women in the Gospel narratives. Neither are named but Esther has named them Hadas and Zizel. Esther brings the two characters vividly to life and paints a rich social background of the time. ... there is much increased interest these days across the whole church in bringing the women of the Gospel to life. Also there is an increasing need for material in this aspect of the Gospel for homiletics."
The Rev. Dr. Herbert O'Driscoll
Author, International Missioner
(formerly Warden of National Cathedral
College of Preachers, Washington, D.C.)
"This is not sentimental, formula writing. North has produced a well-crafted literary work that will be read for the sheer pleasure of curling up with a good book as well as for its insider's view of the Gospels."
Jan Constantinescu, Arts Outreach
Fairview Baptist Church, Vancouver, B.C.
"Faithful to the Gospel accounts and diligently researched ... a valuable resource for the preacher and bible study group."
The Rev. Dr. Neil Mancor, M.A. ,Ph.D., D.Min.
Diocese of Montreal, Theology Lecturer
More Readers' Comments ...
"You brought Yehoshua's brief years of ministry alive ... One aspect of the read surprised me. Although I was familiar with all the incidents and miracles that occurred during this time frame, I found myself turning pages in anticipation of what might take place as if I had never encountered the events before! ... Such a delightful read."
W.S., Gibsons Landing
"For someone like me who has little ability to imagine the settings or behaviour except in the stereotypical child's imagination from Sunday School stories - long hair and flowing robes - Those Women is opening my eyes and, dare I say, my heart to a new vision of the flesh and blood Jesus. So thank you, thank you!"
A.S., St. Mark's Ocean Park
Esther North takes us into the hearts and homes
of the ordinary men, women and children whose lives are turned upside-down as they are healed, become Jesus' disciples, follow him
from Capernaum to Calvary and begin to
pass his story on from generation to generation.
It begins when Jesus walks into Capernaum and heals Simon Peter's mother-in-law. He moves into their home and the crowds follow. Simon Peter's wife (Zizel) urges her friend, the unnamed woman who has had a haemorrhage for twelve years (Hadas) to ask Jesus to heal her. When Hadas finally is healed, her teen-aged daughter's reaction is exactly what most of us would expect:
"Mama! You didn't! ... How could you go running after a travelling faith healer ? What will the neighbours say? What will Papa say? Out on the street with all those men!"
When Mary of Magdala appears in Capernaum, Hadas and Zizel decide that she will be the perfect wife for Jesus! They start planning the wedding in hopes that married life will keep him out of trouble.
We agonize with Zizel and Raananah when their husbands are out on the fish boat during a storm; we delight with Jesus' mother Mary as she tells the women about his birth; we are appalled by the boast of a woman that she could yell 'crucify him'; we relate to Mary of Magdala when she talks about her demons and to Simon Peter when he confesses his denial of Jesus.
Those Women
resonates with our universal human condition
as it mirrors the humour and grief, as well as
the wisdom and joy, of our own relationships with Jesus.
