Despite the over 700,000 words within the Bible, only 14,056 are spoken by women, reflecting the historically largely-patriarchal Middle East where the Bible was first compiled. Among the books of the Bible, only a few can be attributed to women, with some evidence. These books include fragments of the Torah, which refers to the first five books of the Bible and the Epistle to the Hebrews. Although several verses, and maybe even a few poems, in the Bible may be sympathetic to women or talk of "feminine" matters, authorship is consistently challenging to confirm.

According to the documentary hypothesis, the Torah was compiled using four different sources. The sources are the Jahwist, Elohist, Priestly and Deuteronomic sources. The Jahwist source differs from the Elohist sources in age, and that the Jahwist source refers to God using his personal name (YHWH), while the Elohist source refers to God as "Elohim''. The Jawhist source is the oldest of the compiled sources of the Torah, written near 950 BCE or King Soloman's reign. Scholars often point to the female characters of the "J" source outshining male characters and given sympathy for their plights at a time when ancient society was not as sympathetic. The "J" source also talks about subjects that would be considered "feminine", such as infertility, which was a problem associated with women and not men during antiquity. Some say that the author of the Jahwist source could have been a woman because of this.

Scholars also speculate that the Epistle to the Hebrews is of female authorship. While Hebrews, the only anonymous epistle, has been attributed to Paul and his followers, a powerful case can be made for Priscilla, the wife of Aquila and companions of Paul. Although she is not well-known, she likely had a tremendous impact on the early church. She was often introduced before her husband, unlike other women, which meant she was supremely influential, even having her name found in the ruins of ancient churches. She was well-educated and well-versed in Jesus's teachings and even taught an influential preacher named Apollos. 

Also notable is the fact that the Epistle to the Hebrews is very eloquent, lacking the flourishes of Paul's more "awkward" Greek, pointing to one of the other early church leaders being the author. Given both Priscilla and Aquila's importance and Hebrews's anonymity pointing towards a fear of suppression by the author, it was very likely that Priscilla had a hand, if not a leading role in the creation of Hebrews, and as women writers were not taken seriously, there would be no attributed author mentioned. Apollos, another candidate for authorship, would have had no need to remove his name from Hebrews, given that his authorship would have made the epistle more famous, meaning he is unlikely to have written the epistle. 

Themes in the Hebrews include heroic women and the exile of Moses, Abraham, Sarah and the Israelites that also match Priscilla's own experiences as a Roman exile. Later research also points to Priscilla's name being removed from later biblical manuscripts such as Acts. Priscilla's role as a female church leader contradicted later church policy of male clergy, potentially being the reason for suppression of her name. Scholars also know that ancient women had a good reason to remove their names from writings. If neither Priscilla, nor someone else, removed her name or suppressed her identity as a potential author of Hebrews, then the reason for anonymity of this epistle was that ancient readers would have known the identity of the author. We can suspect then, that Priscilla was as much a household name among Christians as maybe Paul was and famous enough not to need to sign her name. Despite Priscilla's early fame and importance, two millennia of suppression and scant mention of her name have hidden many of the roles she may have played in the early church.