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The "topical lessons and ideas" forum you are in includes resources for teaching about Peace, Justice, Prayer, Redemption, Women in the Bible, and some teaching resources related to holidays, such as Mother's Day.  This forum is something of a "catch-all" for Sunday School ideas and lessons that don't neatly fit into our Bible story-specific forums but are often taught in Sunday School.

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This topic is collecting ideas and resources for teaching about Women in the Bible. Please add your ideas and suggestions.

If you already know a specific story about a woman in the Bible, look it up in our Bible Lesson Forums.  This topic is for more general discussion, ideas, and resources related to teaching about Women in the Bible.




From member Noreene...

I try to include Bible stories in our Rotation scope and sequence that feature women in prominent roles, if not the feature role. It's not easy to find the material though in or outside the Bible!

I wrote some lessons about Hannah and found Gien Karssen's "Her Name is Women" books I & II, Navpress 1975 helpful. She has all the other women in the Bible in their too.

I'm thinking Liz Curtis Higgs "Bad Girls of the Bible And what we can learn from them" Waterbrook Press, 1999 might lend some rotation lessons if handled properly.
Just some food for thought.

--Noreene

Last edited by Neil MacQueen
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Restoring Women to the Stories

Women were a big part of Jesus's ministry. Still working out the details, but needless to say, we do have to imagine them INTO the stories because the male disciples take center stage.

We are doing a lesson on the call of the disciples that broadens the "call" stories to imagine the call which some of the women surrounding Jesus surely felt. While women can certainly hold any job these days that men can, we tried to imagine the kinds of job women held in Jesus' day to add some flavor. We came up with:

  • Jesus calls a weaver
  • Jesus calls a young mother
  • Jesus calls a potter
  • Jesus calls a grandma
  • Jesus calls the owner of an inn
  • Jesus calls a bread maker

Jesus called the fishermen to fish for people. What would Jesus want each of those women to be "called to" in their roles?  

What special vocabulary (metaphor) would he use with each call. "I will make you a baker of food for all who hunger after God," "I will make you a nurturer of all God's children."  etc. etc. We made a special attempt to help children understand that these roles/jobs were NOT gender specific in our day!

Last edited by Neil MacQueen
Women in the Bible: Crafts and Activites
by Sharon Van Houten, Mary Wenger, Greg Cross (Illustrator), Baker Books, 2000, ISBN: 0801044502.
OUT OF PRINT - try Amazon.com for new & used copies.

Description:
Covers thirty-four women in the Bible.
2 simple crafts and 2 reproducible activity sheets for each woman (two age groups 3-5 and 6-10).

Their is no index in this book so below I've listed the women covered.
Deborah
Dorcas
Elizabeth
Esther (Hadassah), Queen
Eunice
Eve
Hannah
Jedidah
Jeminah
Jochebed
Leah
Lois
Lydia
Mary
Mary & Martha
Mary Magdalene
Miriam
Naomi
Nympha
Phoebe
Poor Widow
Priscilla
Queen of Sheba
Rachel
Rahab
Rebekah
Rhoda
Ruth
Salome (bought spices for Jesus’ body)
Samaritan Woman
Sarah
Susanna
Widow at Zarephath (Elijah)
Last edited by Luanne Payne
Another reference to consider is Wisdom's Daughters: Stories of Women Around Jesus, Pilgrim Press 1997. By Elizabeth Watson. What I especially like about this book is the format of the stories: first-person voice with each woman describing her cultural context and her relationship with Jesus. Watson fleshes the stories out with far more detail than the Bible provides, but she explains her rational for each supposition so you can decide for yourself how much of it to accept.

kay
WONDER WOMEN OF THE BIBLE: Character-Building Lessons from 15 Wonderful Women, by Julie Lavender, Carson-Dellosa, 2007, 9781594417825.
Women covered are: Eve, Sarah, Naomi, Ruth, Hannah, Widow of Zarepath, Esther, Elizabeth, Mary, Anna, Martha, Mary Magdalene, Tabitha, Mary (Martha's Sister), and Lydia.
Reproducible comic book templates allow students to create their own comics with their new knowledge! Includes questions, crafts, skits, Bible stories, and songs! Grades 1-3.

One of my "go to" resources for interesting "takes" peculiar treasureson Bible characters is Frederick Buechner's Peculiar Treasures; A Biblical Who's Who.   It has chapters on many women in the Bible -major and minor. He writes very creatively about each character -imagining a little more of their backstory, humanizing them. humoring them -and us. 

It's a great book and a regular read for me when I'm writing lessons about characters in the Bible I need to know a little more about.

Available at Amazon and elsewhere.

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Last edited by Luanne Payne

Crossroads Kids has produced a number of good short videos about Women in the Bible. 

See their playlist here. They're nicely done, peppy, and ecumenical.

Here's one about Rahab...



Rahab
Deborah (Younger Kid Version)
Abraham and Sarah


Anna and Simeon
Ruth
Mary And Martha




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