About Susan Hylen

Susan Hylen

Susan E. Hylen is Almar H. Shatford Professor of New Testament at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. She is the author of six books, including Finding Phoebe: What New Testament Women Were Really Like (Eerdmans), and Women in the New Testament World (Oxford University Press). She serves as General Editor of the Journal of Biblical Literature.


Presenter at

Spring Bible & Archaeology Fest 2025, April 5-6, 2025
Women in the World of the New Testament

We often imagine ancient women’s lives as constrained by norms of female virtue and the power of their husbands or fathers. But women in the Roman period were also expected to serve their communities as civic and religious leaders. In this lecture, Susan Hylen offers a way to understand the conflicting evidence for women’s lives in the New Testament period. She sketches a picture of ancient life drawing on literary and material culture and then reconsiders New Testament texts in light of that knowledge.

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