Let Her Keep It: Jesus' Ordination of Mary of Bethany [Paperback]

Thomas Butler (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 334 pages
• Publisher: Thomas W Butler (March 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0962716111
• ISBN-13: 978-0962716119
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,870,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Let Her Keep It", Jesus chose women too., April 28, 2002

By 

M. E. Bessette (WA, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Let Her Keep It: Jesus' Ordination of Mary of Bethany (Paperback)

"Let Her Keep It" by Thomas W. Butler is a well crafted exploration of Mosaic oracles known as `semeia' in ritual symbolic gestures found in first century Judaism. Butler applies intuitive detective work, spiritual insight and scriptural scholarship to the Gospel of John, gaining a fresh perspective, exposing a deeper layer of significance and uncovers cohesive connections between elements that have been viewed previously as separate events. His inclusion of directly translated material from the Greek text is a real plus for those struggling with the language barrier and for those who have been taught a prejudice against certain translation editions.

Butler's exploration of John's Gospel is especially ingenious. By removing the artificial constraints of chapter and verse, (which were a later addition to the text),as he presents what are seemingly separate events he unfolds three interrelated acts of a play. With the thoroughness of Robert Eisenman, and having taken cues from such scholars as Allen Culpepper and Raymond Brown, Butler has gone beyond the boundaries of his predecessors with a plausible new slant on the material. If his conclusions are correct, Butler has opened a door of easy access and facilitated a quantum leap for general readers as well as scholars.

His conclusions support a far broader role for women as recipients of the heritage of Christ's promise to make of us a priestly people.

M. E. Bessette

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Universal Ministry, May 16, 2002

By 

S.J.Mikolaski (Oceanside, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Let Her Keep It: Jesus' Ordination of Mary of Bethany (Paperback)

In this book, Butler, for many years a senior Methodist minister in the Central Valley of California proposes a "two story line" reading of the Gospel of John, in which chapters 11-13 are taken to be keys to Jesus' inauguration of a new form of universal ministry. Mary and Martha are, the author concludes, included in this new form and intent of ordination for all of Jesus' disciples. This unfolds by means of a complicated system of hidden signs which, the author argues, parallel the intentions of the Fourth Gospel with transformation of the priestly caste system of the Pentateuch. The capstone is Mary's intended anointing of Jesus which, by Jesus' words "Let Her Keep It," turns the anointing upon Mary (her odination to ministry), as the sign and seal of the anointing of all of Jesus' disciples.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Biblical Foundation for the Ordination of Women, February 28, 2005

By 

Thomas W. Butler "Pastor Tom" (Sparks, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Let Her Keep It: Jesus' Ordination of Mary of Bethany (Paperback)

When I wrote Let Her Keep It, I was simply trying to understand why Mary of Bethany wiped Jesus' feet with expensive perfumed oil, then dried his feet with her hair. I found that the Gospel According to John uses symbols borrowed from the five books of Moses. These symbols (I call them Mosaic oracles) are called signs in the Gospel. They point to a hidden gospel, written in symbolic language taken from the Torah. That Gospel tells how Jesus systematically replaced every element of the Mosaic system of worship: the temple, the festivals of sacrifice and the priesthood. Let Her Keep It shows how Jesus replaced the temple priests with his own disciples, including Mary and Martha of Bethany. Jesus says (Jn. 12: 8) "Leave her alone..." (Set her apart)"...that she may keep it for the day of my burial" (that she might keep the tradition of my death.) Jesus sets Mary apart (ordains her) to function as a first century bishop would function- to maintain the Christian tradition.