The women were never missing from the story. They were simply pushed to the edges of it.

In The Women Who Walked With Jesus, Bryn Thomas returns to the world of the Gospels to recover the women who followed, questioned, funded, served, witnessed, and carried the message of Jesus when others stepped back.

Mary Magdalene was not the fallen woman later tradition imagined, but a devoted follower, financial supporter, and first witness of the resurrection. Martha of Bethany was more than the busy sister in the kitchen. She was a woman of faith, courage, and theological depth. Mary of Bethany sat at the feet of Jesus as a student, claiming a place usually reserved for men. The Samaritan woman at the well held the longest recorded theological conversation Jesus has with any individual in the Gospels. Joanna, Susanna, Salome, the woman with the flow of blood, the Syrophoenician mother, the widow with two coins, and the women at the cross all appear with startling force when their stories are read closely.

Blending Gospel text, historical context, archaeology, first-century Jewish life, and careful attention to later Christian tradition, this book explores the women who stood at the heart of Jesus's ministry.

Inside you will discover:

• The real Mary Magdalene beyond centuries of myth • Why the Samaritan woman's conversation with Jesus was so radical • How women helped fund and sustain Jesus's ministry • The courage of the women who remained at the cross • Why women were trusted as the first witnesses of the empty tomb • How forgotten women shaped the earliest Christian movement

Respectful, vivid, and deeply researched, The Women Who Walked With Jesus is a powerful journey into the overlooked lives of the women who were present from Galilee to Jerusalem, from the road to the cross, and from the tomb to the beginning of a faith that would change the world.

They were not background figures. They were witnesses.