I’ve followed Suzanne McCarthy’s blog, Suzanne’s Bookshelf for at least three years. First I have to apologize to Suzanne (as I do with most bloggers I follow) because I tend to be a lurker and don’t comment that much. I know that’s not what you’re supposed to do, but that’s how I am. I do a lot of reading, and if the planets are aligned just right, I leave a comment. Most of the time when I read Suzanne’s posts, I think: “This woman is freaking brilliant.” And she is.

Suzanne’s knowledge of both Koine Greek (the everyday Greek that the New Testament is written in) and Classical Greek is broad and deep. The woman knows her dead languages, and she knows how to communicate that knowledge, so you don’t have to have a degree in linguistics to understand what she’s talking about. She’s also a strong advocate for women’s full equality in the church and women in ministry. Suzanne was voted as one of the Top 10 Bibliobloggers in May. Congratulations Suzanne!

Suzanne has two current blogposts that I wanted my readers to know about it. The first one is about one of my favorite women in the Bible: Phoebe. Suzanne points out that one of the words Paul uses to describe Phoebe, prostasis, one of the early church fathers, Clement, uses to describe Jesus. She shows how this word is used for leaders in the early church.

Her second post is compiling lists from Bible Archaeology of the kind of work women did in the Bible to support themselves and their families, which included food preparation; carding, spinning and weaving wool and flax, as well as making tents, setting them up and breaking them down. (Again I highly recommend the book Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years by Barbara Wayland Barber.)

Go read the posts and explore Suzanne’s Bookshelf. You’ll find all sorts of goodies there.