Some of the women of the Bible need no introduction and have long been held up as models for us to emulate or fear. They range from Eve, the embodiment of the dangerous female whose appetites bring about the fall of man, to the Virgin Mary, an unattainable symbol of purity and motherhood.
In the first of this series we look at the hidden women of the Bible. We begin with Abigail - a heroine of the Old Testament. Kathleen Griffin spoke to Tina Beattie, a lecturer in Christian studies at the University of Surrey, Roehampton - and Dr Lavinia Byrne of the Cambridge theological foundation.
