Liberation and Universality: Women in Luke’s Gospel

It has long been observed that Luke’s Gospel* shows greater interest in women than any other New Testament writing. The observation is based on the frequent mention of, or reference to, women not only in the narrative of Luke’s Gospel – which recounts the story of Jesus’ birth, public ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension – but also its sequel the Book of Acts which recounts the story of the movement of the good news of salvation from Jewish territory to the ends of the Gentile world mainly through the labor of Peter and Paul under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. What merits attention is Luke’s distinctive organization of the material on women. Terms like “doubling” or “pairing” have been suggested to describe a Lukan literary device or technique whereby stories about, or references to, women characters are set beside stories about, or references to, men characters so as to create a deliberate gender pair