One of the things I find frustrating about the New Testament is the lack of rich stories about important women. Clearly, there are important women who do important things in the narrative, but they don’t get their own stories and are very rarely named.
For the most part, they are described based on their husbands, their fathers, or their situations- Peter’s Mother in Law, Herodias’ daughter, The Syrophenician woman, the woman with the blood disorder, and the woman persecuted by Paul. Even if they are named- Mary, Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of James, Lydia, Anna, Elizabeth- their stories are short and only presented as an aside to a greater narrative. We only know about Mary because she birthed Jesus. We only know about Mary Magdalene because of her work with Jesus.
To be clear, this is not to say that these women’s stories don’t matter. In fact they matter a great deal. But the biblical narrative has marginalized their stories to the point of removing their names. If there is a woman in a New Testament story with a name? The woman is important and we should pay attention.
Tabitha is a disciple. In the original Greek of this text, Luke uses the feminie form of the greek word for disciple μαθήτρια (mathetria). This is the ONLY TIME in the entirety of the New Testament that this Greek word is used. Tabitha is the woman in the New Testament to be called a disciple in this way. She’s the only one. This is not a coincidence or a mistake on the part of Luke. This is recognition.
Tabitha is named and she is designated a disciple. This means that Luke felt that she was important enough to have both of these designations in the Luke-Acts saga. She is named twice- both as Tabitha and by her greek name Dorcas. Luke wants to be very clear that we know exactly who this woman is. This is most likely because of her important work- she was a vital member of the community in Joppa. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. Again this is high praise- Luke doesn’t just name her, but is sure to tell how important she is to her community.
In fact, Tabitha is so important to her community that when she dies, they cannot bear the thought of life without her. Hearing that Peter had recently healed the paralyzed Aeneas, the community sends a message to Peter to see if he will do the same for Tabitha. Now this is a pretty big ask. They have no evidence that Peter can raise someone from the dead, but they seem to assume that if he can fix paralysis, death won’t be a problem either. So Peter shows up.
Tabitha had been laid out in a room upstairs and all of the widows she had helped were there crying. They showed Peter the clothes she had made for them; they showed the tangible products of Tabitha’s ministry. Now, Peter isn’t entirely comfortable with all of the crying and sadness, but he is convinced that he should heal Tabitha. So he sends everyone out of the room.
Luke isn’t clear as to why Peter had everyone leave the room- was it so he could concentrate on the task at hand? Was he afraid he wouldn’t be able to raise her? Did he need privacy in order to work? We don’t know. But, he prayed about it, and then, Peter looked at Tabitha and said, “Tabitha, get up.” Her eyes opened, she sat up, and Peter helped her to stand.
Jesus healed women- it was something he did often. Those women then became followers of Jesus and joined the disciples in traveling with him. Mary Magdalene, Joana, and Suzanna- had all been healed by Jesus and are all named by Luke. There’s the woman who had bled for twelve years and who touched Jesus' cloak. The Samaritan woman at the well who Jesus provided with Living water. Peter’s mother-in-law had suffered from a fever, and Jesus rebuked the fever and healed her. He healed the bent-over woman and spared the woman accused of adultery. Again and again, he healed and protected women.
Peter had witnessed these healings. He had seen his own mother-in-law healed. He understood that women mattered to Jesus and that women mattered to God. And, after hearing the cries of the widows of Joppa, he understood how much Tabitha meant to her community.
So I don’t think it’s a stretch for Peter to want to heal this woman- even with his lack of experience. He’s moved by her story and moved by her community’s love. And he restored her to life.
And the story pretty much ends there. We get a couple of sentences letting us know that people confessed their belief, but that’s all we’re told. I can’t believe one day of conversions was all that happened as a result of this miracle. I have to believe that Tabitha had more impact than that.
I think that’s the danger of the biblical narrative. We have stories collected by, written by, and curated by men. So of course the stories are focused on the men- what we learn in this account is focused on Peter- Peter can heal like Jesus did. Peter can raise people from the dead. Peter can perform miracles, so Peter is important and worthy of believing and following.
But what did happen? My hypothesis is that Tabitha did what women do- she went right back to work. She likely went back to serving the widows that had depended on her. She probably began sewing more clothes to share and preparing more food to give away. She probably didn’t rest, she probably didn’t take any downtime to recover. She picked up where she left off.
But Tabitha also leaves a bigger legacy. As the first woman to have the title of disciple and the first person to be raised from the dead by an apostle, she’s earned a place of honor within Christian history. She was clearly a leader in the early church and can be seen as an exemplar of women in leadership.
Oh- there it is- she was a woman in leadership and can be seen as an exemplar. No wonder her story gets left out or diminished. The story is quick to celebrate Tabitha’s service to others, but we don’t get to see her in true leadership or experience her story beyond this moment.
In the musical Hamilton, Eliza asks, “Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” When it comes to the women in the biblical narrative, this question carries a lot of weight. Who tells their stories? The gospel writers certainly didn’t give us the stories. In many cases, we don’t even get names! It’s our responsibility to tell the untold stories, to name the unnamed (when we can), and to be sure that the next generation of believers honors the contribution of women.
Tabitha deserves our remembrance. She deserves to be remembered for more than her good deeds and service to others. She was a disciple, and we need to remember to name her when we remember those who built the church after Jesus’ resurrection.