This is a list of the books I am breaking my brain with in case anybody is interested:
1. Hagar, Sarah, and their Children by Phyllis Trible and Letty M. Russel.
2. Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation by Justo. Gonzalez.
3. From Paradise to the Promise Land by T. Desmond Alexander.
4. The Untold Story of the New Testament Church by Frank Viola.
A word of caution on the first book. It is written unashamedly from a liberal feminist perspective. So read it with a grain of salt. Trible and Russel are very much liberal feminist theologians.