Tell It Again
A Feature Review of
A Women’s Place Is in the Story: Seeing Women in the Biblical Narrative
Sandra Glahn
IVP Academic, 2026
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Reviewed by Maggie Wills
One late afternoon, around our outdoor firepit, my brothers and I tried to spook each other with scary stories. Then we asked Mom to join in. Our pre-teen selves couldn’t imagine Mom telling a story that could spook us. After a brief hesitation she said, “Oh, I have a story for y’all,” and began. The story involved a girl leaving home to work in a manor. She heard noises at night and discovered a woman locked in the attic. We were spooked. Years later, when I read Jane Eyre, I recognized Thornfield Hall, the nightly murmurs and laughter, and the strong-minded heroine. I knew Jane before I knew her name because Mom welcomed me into this story years earlier by the firepit.
In her new book, A Woman’s Place Is in the Story: Seeing Women in the Biblical Narrative, Sandra Glahn shows readers the impact of telling a good story. Readers walk with women in several biblical narratives and see the literary tools used to craft their stories. This gives readers a close look into the common, miraculous, and evil worlds of women in the Bible. Glahn tells these stories with attention to close reading, and, in doing so, she helps readers experience the story’s truth.
We tend to put the Bible under a microscope and look at it piece by piece. But the Bible tells a story, and even its small, seemingly insignificant episodes come together to point us to Jesus. When we read the episodes closely with the larger story in mind, we find connection and cohesion in the details. Glahn begins with literary elements, including plot, character, and setting. Then she intertwines the story with exegesis. She looks at narration, language, context, and genre in the stories of women. Readers study these women’s stories by reliving them and noticing details.
The story is always at the forefront. Pastor and author Eugene Peterson said, “Story is the most natural way of enlarging and deepening our sense of reality and then enlisting us as participants in it. Stories open doors to areas or aspects of life that we didn’t know were there, or had quit noticing out of over-familiarity, or were out-of-bounds for us. They then welcome us in. Stories are verbal acts of hospitality” (Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, 13). Glahn retells the overlooked, over-familiar, and out-of-bounds stories and brings them to life.
A Woman’s Place Is in the Story invites us to deepen our lives through story. We experience these Biblical women and their stories with all the insight that close reading brings. Let’s look at two examples: the overlooked Tamar story and the over-familiar story of the Samaritan woman.
A preaching series through Genesis might skip Tamar’s story, or readers might think it an odd interruption of Joseph’s life. But because Glahn highlights the literary element of character in the story, the reader finds a pivot point rather than a diversion. She guides us through Tamar and Judah’s story. Judah and his brothers sell their younger brother, Joseph, into slavery. Judah keeps this secret from his father, moves away from his family, and deals unfairly with his daughter-in-law, Tamar. God’s law charges him to take care of her, but he neglects this responsibility. In response, Tamar goes to her father-in-law veiled. Judah sleeps with her, and she becomes pregnant. She preserves Judah’s family line through this act. When she reveals this to him, he repents of his own unrighteousness and calls her righteous. The next time the reader sees Judah, he offers to give away his own freedom for his brother, Benjamin. Glahn points out that this story focuses on Judah as the son of the promise. The Messiah will come through Judah’s line. Tamar impacts his view of righteousness and helps him refocus on God’s promises. Glahn helps the reader connect the dots to a humbled Judah. The bigger story follows Tamar to Jesus: the Messiah descends from her. Glahn enriches Tamar’s story as an essential one that points to God’s faithfulness to his promises.
The woman of Samaria’s story also deepens when readers notice how John tells it. A focus on setting helps this story come alive. Some view this as a story where Jesus points a sinner to her salvation, but John does not highlight sin in this story. While resting at a well in the middle of the day, Jesus begins a conversation with a woman of Samaria. She finds it odd that he would engage with her, and he soon reveals that he knows her whole story. She then asks him questions about where to worship and says she knows a Messiah is coming. Jesus tells her he is the Messiah she hopes for. She rushes away to tell her neighbors she met someone who might be the awaited Messiah. To help us see the impact setting casts on this story, Glahn zooms out to the previous chapter. Nicodemus, a prominent religious leader, approaches Jesus at night and asks him questions. Jesus tells Nicodemus that he does not expect him to understand what he tries to teach and keeps his identity hidden. The woman of Samaria, someone a Jewish person might avoid, converses with Jesus in midday. Nicodemus, someone we might expect to ask Jesus questions, visits Jesus under the cover of darkness. Glahn writes, “Through the paired encounters with Nicodemus and the woman, readers learn that those exposed to much light sometimes miss it, and those perceived as missing the most sometimes see the truth” (185). The light and darkness in this story set a scene. When the reader contrasts the settings of these paired narratives, the focus becomes clearer. With these stories, John shows the hopeful, questioning woman and the stubborn religious leader. His gospel turns a new corner when Jesus reveals himself to the woman of Samaria. Sin does not play a primary role here; John’s stories center on the revelation of Jesus as the Messiah.
Stories transform us. A friend’s story can move us to greater closeness. A novel like Jane Eyre can teach us virtue. The biblical narratives can pierce our spirit. In A Woman’s Place Is in the Story, Glahn practices the hospitality Peterson describes: she invites readers to listen to these stories of women and take part in imagining them. The building blocks of these narratives give them thematic power and vivid color. Readers will find strange plots, repeated settings, and all kinds of characters. Glahn encourages us to dig in and leave nothing out. Read them, enjoy them, and tell them. Scripture’s story reveals Christ and is worthy of telling and re-telling. The book leaves readers encouraged to tell these stories with all their richness – around a firepit when possible.
Maggie Wills
Maggie Wills grew up in the Alpharetta, Georgia trying to keep track of all six of her brothers. She graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with her Master of Arts in Media Art and Worship, where she studied the connections between art and spirituality. She currently serves as Coordinator for Women’s Ministry at Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas.
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