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Who gets called an outsider—and who gets to decide where the boundaries of belonging are drawn?
People the Bible Called Outsiders is a progressive, inclusive Bible study that returns to the stories of people who lived at the edges of religious, social, political, economic, and cultural power.
Meet Ruth, Hagar, Rahab, the Ethiopian eunuch, Mephibosheth, Naaman, the Samaritan woman, the Syrophoenician woman, Zacchaeus, Onesimus, the enslaved girl at Philippi, and many others whose stories invite us to reconsider what we have been taught about insiders, outsiders, holiness, identity, and belonging.
Rather than simply retelling familiar Bible stories, this resource asks deeper questions.
Who had power? Who controlled the boundaries? What did words like unclean, sinner, foreigner, and eunuch mean in their historical worlds? What does the biblical text actually say—and what did later religious culture add to the story?
Special attention is given to the Ethiopian eunuch and other biblical eunuchs as part of trans and queer history, recognizing the long history of people whose embodied, legal, social, and gendered lives existed beyond a strict male/female binary.
Throughout the study, you'll explore historical and cultural context, important Hebrew and Greek words, disability and biblical interpretation, migration and foreignness, enslavement and economic power, purity and religious boundaries, gender diversity, and the complicated ways Scripture itself wrestles with who belongs.
Each study includes Their Story, Where Are We?, A Word Worth Knowing, Look Closer, Who Called Them an Outsider?, Who Got to Tell the Story?, Reading from the Margins, Why Their Story Matters, A Note from Pastor Kelley, Wonder → Reflect → Act, and Read It Yourself.
This isn't a Bible study about pretending every biblical boundary disappears.
It's about reading closely enough to notice that the Bible itself preserves arguments, tensions, challenges, and expanding visions of belonging.
One of the most powerful threads runs from biblical restrictions concerning eunuchs, through Isaiah's vision of eunuchs receiving an everlasting name in God's house, to the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts standing beside water and asking:
“What is to prevent me from being baptized?”
That question sits at the heart of this study.
People the Bible Called Outsiders is designed for individual study, progressive Christian small groups, adult Sunday school, clergy, church leaders, LGBTQ+ affirming communities, people experiencing deconstruction or reconstruction, and anyone curious about reading Scripture from the margins.
Digital Product • Printable PDF • Instant Download
Faith & Wonder — Explore faith with curiosity.
Who gets called an outsider—and who gets to decide where the boundaries of belonging are drawn?
People the Bible Called Outsiders is a progressive, inclusive Bible study that returns to the stories of people who lived at the edges of religious, social, political, economic, and cultural power.
Meet Ruth, Hagar, Rahab, the Ethiopian eunuch, Mephibosheth, Naaman, the Samaritan woman, the Syrophoenician woman, Zacchaeus, Onesimus, the enslaved girl at Philippi, and many others whose stories invite us to reconsider what we have been taught about insiders, outsiders, holiness, identity, and belonging.
Rather than simply retelling familiar Bible stories, this resource asks deeper questions.
Who had power? Who controlled the boundaries? What did words like unclean, sinner, foreigner, and eunuch mean in their historical worlds? What does the biblical text actually say—and what did later religious culture add to the story?
Special attention is given to the Ethiopian eunuch and other biblical eunuchs as part of trans and queer history, recognizing the long history of people whose embodied, legal, social, and gendered lives existed beyond a strict male/female binary.
Throughout the study, you'll explore historical and cultural context, important Hebrew and Greek words, disability and biblical interpretation, migration and foreignness, enslavement and economic power, purity and religious boundaries, gender diversity, and the complicated ways Scripture itself wrestles with who belongs.
Each study includes Their Story, Where Are We?, A Word Worth Knowing, Look Closer, Who Called Them an Outsider?, Who Got to Tell the Story?, Reading from the Margins, Why Their Story Matters, A Note from Pastor Kelley, Wonder → Reflect → Act, and Read It Yourself.
This isn't a Bible study about pretending every biblical boundary disappears.
It's about reading closely enough to notice that the Bible itself preserves arguments, tensions, challenges, and expanding visions of belonging.
One of the most powerful threads runs from biblical restrictions concerning eunuchs, through Isaiah's vision of eunuchs receiving an everlasting name in God's house, to the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts standing beside water and asking:
“What is to prevent me from being baptized?”
That question sits at the heart of this study.
People the Bible Called Outsiders is designed for individual study, progressive Christian small groups, adult Sunday school, clergy, church leaders, LGBTQ+ affirming communities, people experiencing deconstruction or reconstruction, and anyone curious about reading Scripture from the margins.
Digital Product • Printable PDF • Instant Download
Faith & Wonder — Explore faith with curiosity.