Here Ute E. Eisen provides a scholarly investigation of the evidence that women held offices of authority in the first centuries of Christianity. Topics include apostles, prophets, theological teachers, presbyters, enrolled widows, deacons, bishops, and oikonomae. The book concludes with a chapter on "source-oriented perspectives for a history of Christian women in official positions."

There has been little previous research in ancient studies on the narratological notion of metalepses. The essays in this volume describe the forms, functions, and effects of metalepses in texts and artifacts. The authors demonstrate the diversity and ubiquity of metalepses as they occur in Akkadian and Egyptian literature, in the Hebrew Bible, in rabbinical Midrashim, in ancient pagan literature of all periods, and in early Christian literature.