To begin with, I will list all the passages in which women are explicitly mentioned. These are:
1:14 which mentions that women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, were part of the Jerusalem church from the beginning;
2:17-18 a quotation from Joel 2:28-32, in which women appear as actors;
5:1-11 the story of Sapphira in the literary and ecclesiological context of the first Jewish Christian community at Jerusalem;
5:14 women are explicitly mentioned in the context of the church’s growth;
6: 1 the report that Hellenist widows are being neglected in the daily diakonia;
8:3 the statement that men and women were persecuted by Saul
8:12 the statement that men and women were converted;
8:27 the Candace, queen of Ethiopia, is mentioned;
9:2 the report of Paul’s plan to imprison Christian men and women in Damascus;
9:36-43 the story of the disciple Tabitha;
12:12-19 the story of the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, in Jerusalem;
13:50 mentioning noble, godfearing women in Antioch who are stirred up against Paul and Silas by the Jewish authorities;
16:1 the allusion to a believing Jewish woman, the mother of Timothy;
16:13-15, 40 the story of Lydia;
16:16-18 the story of the slave with the Pythian spirit;
17:4 mentioning important women in Thessalonica who were converted to Christ;
17:12 mentioning noble, godfearing women in Beroea who were converted to Christ;
17:34 the report of the philosopher Damaris in Athens, who was converted to Christ;
18:1-3, 18-19, 24-28 the story of Priscilla;
19: .Leomar Pydd,”Ananias,” 3, rightly emphasises that we resemble Sapphira and Ananias rather than Barnabas in dealing with material possessions.
21: 5-6 the report that women and children also took leave of Paul in Tyre;
21:9 the story of the women prophets in Caesarea;
22:4 Paul recalls that he persecuted Christian men and women;
23:16 the report that Paul had a sister;
24:24 the mention of Drusilla, the wife of Felix, the governor25:13, 23; 26:30 mentioning Bernice, the wife of King Agrippa.
In making such a list we are struck by the fact that the majority of passages concerning women report that they were converted to Christ. It is equally striking that the women mentioned toward the end were not converted. In the report of Paul’s last journey, when he comes in contact with the kings and queens of the earth, there are no more conversions (unlike what we would expect from Acts 9:15). Only in 5:1-11; 9:36-43; 16:13-15, 40; and 18:1-3, 18-19, 24-28 do we receive detailed information about women who converted to Christianity. These texts will be investigated first in detail, each in a separate chapter.