Yeah, this all the stuff that gives me hope about how Jesus and the first followers lived counter-culturally.

Maybe 'inner circle' was a loose term, for which I apologise - I was trying to say '12 disciples' without saying it. It does seem clear that Jesus had a particular 'inner' group who are named as men in the Gospel accounts, but, as you've illustrated, it is also clear that there were a substantial number of women with whom he had a revolutionary (for the time) inner-esque relationship, if you know what I mean. That would suggest, as you say, that any literal reading of the texts masks what was probably a more complex, more integrated actuality.