ABSTRACT: The hemorrhaging woman of Luke 8 (and Mark 5) is almost universally presumed to be of Jewish origin, but there are clues in the Gospel accounts and other primary sources to suggest that she may be a Gentile. On this understanding, her healing signals the fulfillment of Jesus’s words in Nazareth (Luke 4:16–30), as exten- sion of God’s mission to the Gentiles. Moreover, her faith acts as a model for both Jairus and the early church, consequently subverting expected cultural and social norms. This investigation weighs these options by considering Luke’s immediate and surrounding narrative framework alongside some linguistic parallels. By doing so, I aim to establish that seeing the woman as a Gentile is a reasonable understand- ing of the text, alongside its sociological/cultural implications for the early church.

KEYWORDS: Luke 8:40–56, hemorrhaging woman, Jairus, Gentile, identity, narrative, discipleship, Gospels, faith

BIB: Shaw, David M. ‘Restoring a Hemorrhaged Identity: The Identity and Impact of the Bleeding Woman in Luke 8:40–56’. Bulletin for Biblical Research 30, no. 1 (2020): 64–85.