As information has emerged that claims to show Jesus Christ had female disciples as well as male, we ask what the latest evidence is and who has uncovered it
JESUS is conventionally thought to have had 12 male disciples - but new information has emerged that claims to show that he had female disciples as well.
Here we ask what the latest evidence is and who are theologians Helen Bond and Joan Taylor who have uncovered it.
According to a documentary screened on Channel 4 on April 8, theologians Helen Bond and Joan Taylor believe at least half of Jesus' disciples were women, and paired up with the male disciples to spread the word.
In addition, they also believe the women bankrolled the movement and Jesus' preaching.
Bond and Taylor both said they were appalled - but not surprised - to discover evidence that the female disciples were airbrushed from Christian history.
According to research presented by Bond and Taylor, evidence throughout the Bible suggests women such as Joanna, Susanna and Salome were prominent disciples of Jesus at the time.
In the gospel of Luke, there is a passage in which Jesus appoints 70 disciples, translated in some places as 72, and sends them out “two by two” to heal the sick and share his message about the kingdom of God.
These disciples are not identified in the Bible but Professor Bond told : “That phrase ‘two by two’ reminds you of Noah’s Ark and the idea that it is a male and a female. We are suggesting that Jesus has a much larger group of disciples and that includes women as well, pairs of males and females together.”
![Professor Bond said: “They are actually bankrolling [the travels], providing money and resources, so these are wealthy, high-status women lending their support and money to the Jesus movement.”](http://mcb777.site/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/nintchdbpict000397516721.jpg?strip=all&w=720)
She said men would not have been expected to enter women-only spaces, and suggested that a female disciple would have been sent with every male to ensure that Jesus’s message was spread to all.
In Luke VIII, the gospel says Jesus travelled “through every city and village” preaching about God, adding: “The twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others.
"These women were helping to support them out of their own means.”
Professor Bond said: “They are actually bankrolling [the travels], providing money and resources, so these are wealthy, high-status women lending their support and money to the Jesus movement.”
In addition, Salome was the wife of Zebedee and mother of the disciples James and John, who was present at the Crucifixion, and may also have been underestimated, Professor Bond said, as Horvat Qasra, a chapel in a cave in Israel believed to date from the first century, is inscribed with the words “Saint Salome” in Greek.
Professor Helen Bond is a director of the Centre for the Study of Christian origins, which aims to promote research into the earliest period of Christianity.
She is also a Professor of Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh - the first woman to hold any such post in Scotland.
She grew up a Protestant despite going to primary school at a Catholic convent in the 1970s, and decided to study theology at university despite plans to try for maths.
Professor Joan Taylor was born and educated in in New Zealand, before moving to the UK to undertake a PHD in Christian history at the University of Edinburgh.
She has served as a visiting lecturer at Harvard Divinity School, and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Departments of History and Jewish Studies at University College London.
She has taught at King's College London since 2009.
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