Description: In his epistles, Paul at various points uses maternal imagery to talk about his apostolic labors, sometimes actually referring to himself as a mother. For example, Paul writes that he must behave "like a nurse caring for her own children." Later, he writes, he "is in labor again" and must continue to nurse his fellow Christians with milk. These...
Brief description: Beverly Roberts Gaventa is Helen H. P. Manson Professor of New Testament Literature and Exegesis at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. She has published a number of books including Mary: Glimpses of the Mother of Jesus and Our Mother Saint Paul.