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Part of a series on
Christianity and gender
Theology Proverbs 31 1 Timothy 2:12 Biblical womanhood Christian views on marriage Deaconess Jesus's interactions with women List of women in the Bible Ordination of women Paul the Apostle and women Rape in the Hebrew Bible Stay-at-home daughter Women as theological figures Women in the Bible Women in Christianity
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Women in the Bible fill many roles including victors, victims, leaders, and servants. Their varied roles are viewed through sometimes conflicting biblical interpretations such as feminism, which prioritizes female views, egalitarianism, which sees equality in all things, an the complementarian perspective supporting moral equality with differing roles, and its more patriarchal versions of male supremacy.

Views on women in the Hebrew Bible are predominantly but not exclusively patriarchal. The iconic role of Eve has been interpreted to support both patriarchy and egalitarianism. Multiple scholars support the view of the Hebrew Bible as patriarchal, yet some such as feminist scholar Tikva Frymer-Kensky say women such as Deborah, the Shunnemite woman, the prophetess Huldah, and king David's wife Abigail rise above societal limitations and provide examples of the egalitarianism of the Hebrew Bible which does not attempt to justify cultural subordination with an ideology of superiority or "otherness".

Views on women in the New Testament are diverse with particular controversy over women teaching, being in leadership, and having authority over men. Professor Margaret Y. MacDonald says, historically, there is evidence of egalitarianism in early Christianity, while historian Shulamith Shahar says the church was primarily patriarchal in the Middle Ages. Both egalitarianism and patriarchy in the church historically impacted the roles open to women and the sexual mores that affected them.

The number of named and unnamed women in the Bible is uncertain. Professor Karla Bombach says the number ranges from 111 to 173 named individuals, and over 600 unnamed women. "Despite the disparities among these different calculations, ... women or women's names represent between 5.5 and 8 percent of the total , a stunning reflection of the androcentric character of the Bible." A study of women whose spoken words are recorded found 93, of which 49 women are named.

Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)

According to traditional Jewish enumeration, the Hebrew canon is composed of 24 books which came into being over a span of almost a millennium. The Bible's earliest texts reflect a Late Bronze Age Near Eastern civilization, while its last text, usually thought to be Daniel, comes from a second century BCE Hellenistic world. This historical development has to be taken into consideration in any account of women in the Bible. The books of the Hebrew Bible were written by various authors using primarily Hebrew and some Aramaic. The Hebrew Bible (also called Tanakh in Judaism, Old Testament in Christianity and Taurat/Tawrah in Islam) is the basis for both Judaism and Christianity, and a cornerstone of Western culture.

Hebrew Bible views on gender

New Testament Professor Ben Witherington III says the Hebrew Bible is a predominantly patriarchal document from a patriarchal age. It "limited women's roles and functions to the home, and severely restricted: (1) their rights of inheritance, (2) their choice of relationship, (3) their ability to pursue a religious education or fully participate in synagogue, (4) and limited their freedom of movement." Feminist biblical scholar Phyllis Trible says "considerable evidence depicts the Bible as a document of male supremacy." Theologian Eryl Davies writes: "From the opening chapters of the book of Genesis, where woman is created to serve as man's 'helper' (Gen.2:20-24) to the pronouncements of Paul concerning the submission of wives to their husbands and the silencing of women in communal worship (1 Cor. 14:34; Col.3:18), the primary emphasis of the Bible is on women's subordinate status." Davies says the patriarchal ethos is reflected in texts ranging from legal texts to narratives, and from the prophetic sayings to the wisdom literature.

Hebrew Bible scholar Tikva Frymer-Kensky says there are also evidences of "gender blindness" in it. Most theologians agree the Hebrew Bible does not depict the slave, the poor, or women, as different in essence from other ordinary Israelites. Theologians Evelyn Stagg and Frank Stagg say the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20 contain aspects of both male priority and gender balance. In the tenth commandment against coveting, a wife is depicted in the examples not to be coveted: house, wife, male or female slave, ox or donkey, or 'anything that belongs to your neighbour.' On the other hand, the fifth commandment to honor parents does not make any distinction in the honor to be shown between one parent and another.

Old Testament scholar Christine Roy Yoder says that in the Book of Proverbs, the divine attribute of Holy Wisdom is presented as female. She points out that "on the one hand" such a reference elevates women, and "on the other hand" the "strange" woman also in Proverbs "perpetuates the stereotype of woman as either wholly good or wholly evil."

According to Frymer-Kensky, the Hebrew Bible often portrays women as victors, leaders and heroines with qualities Israel should emulate. Hagar, Tamar, Miriam, Rahab, Deborah, Esther, and Yael, are among many female "saviors" of Israel: "victor stories follow the paradigm of Israel's central sacred story: the lowly are raised, the marginal come to the center, the poor boy makes good." She goes on to say these women conquered the enemy "by their wits and daring, were symbolic representations of their people, and pointed to the salvation of Israel." Historian Carol Meyers says the common, ordinary, everyday Hebrew woman is "largely unseen" in the pages of the Bible, and the women we see are the unusual who rose to prominence.

The Hebrew Bible portrays women as victims as well as victors. For example, in Numbers 31, the Israelites slay the people of Midian, except for 32,000 virgin women who are kept as spoils of war. Frymer-Kensky says the Bible author uses vulnerable women symbolically "as images of an Israel that is also small and vulnerable..." Frymer-Kensky says "This is not misogynist story-telling but something far more complex in which the treatment of women becomes the clue to the morality of the social order." Professor of Religion J. David Pleins says these tales are included by the Deuteronomic historian to demonstrate the evils of life without a centralized shrine and single political authority.

Eve

Trible and Frymer-Kensky find the story of Eve in Genesis implies no inferiority of Eve to Adam; the word helpmate (ezer) connotes a mentor in the Bible rather than an assistant and is used frequently for the relation of God to Israel (not Israel to God). Trible points out that, in mythology, the last-created thing is traditionally the culmination of creation, which is implied in Genesis 1 where man is created after everything else–except Eve.

New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg says ancient Jews might have seen the order of creation in terms of the laws of primogeniture (both in their scriptures and in surrounding cultures) and interpreted Adam being created first as a sign of privilege. Susan Lanser says biblical authors could have expected their readers to respond in culturally conditioned ways, relying on patriarchal attitudes to condemn Eve.

Deborah

The Book of Judges describes the work of Deborah, as a prophet, a judge of Israel, and the wife of Lapidoth and says that she was based in the region between Ramah in Benjamin and Bethel in the land of Ephraim.

Judges 5:7 - Deborah was a mother

Judges 4:4 - Deborah was a prophetess

Judges 4:4-5 - Deborah was a Judge

Judges 4:6-22 - Deborah could be described as a warrior, leader of war, and a leader of faith. In these verses we read that Deborah called for Barak and questioned him for not obeying what God had commanded him to do. Barak tells Deborah that he will not go without her, but she says in verse 9 "I will surely go with thee" and also informs him "..the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." This prophecy is fulfilled in verse 21. We read in verse 17 that Sisera "..fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite..." and in verse 21, "Then Jael Heber's wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died" (KJV)

The narrative describes the people of Israel as having been oppressed by Jabin, the king of Canaan, for twenty years. Deborah sends a prophetic message to Barak to raise an army and fight them, but Barak refuses to do so without her. Deborah declares his refusal means the glory of the victory will belong to a woman. A battle is fought (led by Barak), and Sisera, the enemy commander, is defeated. Sisera escapes on foot, comes to the tent of the woman Jael, and lies down to rest. While he is asleep, Jael hammers a tent-pin through his temple.

The Shunammite woman

Biblical scholar Burke Long focuses on the "great woman" of Shunnem who appears in the Book of Kings. He says the Shunammite woman is seen to acknowledge and respect the prophet Elisha's position yet is a "determined mover and shaper of events." The Shunammite was an independent woman. She is able to extend patronage, then becomes a determined petitioner willing to confront prophet and King in pursuit of the well being of her household. According to Frymer-Kensky, this narrative demonstrates how gender intersects with class in the Bible's portrayal of ancient Israel. These stories "take place among the rural poor" against a "backdrop of extreme poverty. The Shunammite is wealthy, giving her more boldness than poor women or sometimes even poor men."

Huldah

Frymer-Kensky says that an example in 2 Kings 22 shows it was not unusual for women to be prophets in ancient Israel even if they could not be priests. Josiah the King was having the Temple repaired when the High Priest Hilkiah found the Book of the Law which had been lost. He gave it to Shaphan the king's scribe, who read it, then Shaphan took it and gave it to King Josiah. The king tore his robes in distress and said "Go and inquire of the Lord for me ..." So they did, going to the prophet Huldah the wife of Shallum. The text does not comment on the fact this prophet was a woman, but says only that they took her answer back to the king (verse 20) thereby demonstrating there was nothing unusual in a female prophet.

Abigail

Abigail was the wife of Nabal, who refused to assist the future king David after having accepted his help. Abigail, realizing David's anger will be dangerous to the entire household, acts immediately. She intercepts David bearing gifts and, with what Frymer-Kensky describes as Abigail's "brilliant rhetoric", convinces David not to kill anyone. Frymer-Kensky says "Once again an intelligent determined woman is influential far beyond the confines of patriarchy" showing biblical women had what anthropology terms informal power.

Violence against women

Biblical scholar Michael Patrick O'Connor attributed acts of violence against women described in the Book of Judges to a period of crisis in the society of ancient Israel before the institution of kingship. Yet others have alleged such problems are innate to patriarchy.

Hagar

Phyllis Trible says Abraham is an important figure in the Bible, yet "his story pivots on two women." Hagar was Sarah's personal slave and Abraham's concubine. According to Trible, the text says Sarah used, abused then finally rejected Hagar for good. Frymer-Kensky says "This story starkly illuminates the relations between women in a patriarchy." She adds that it demonstrates the problems associated with gender intersecting with the disadvantages of class: Sarah has the power, her actions are legal not compassionate, but her motives are clear: "she is vulnerable, making her incapable of compassion toward her social inferior."

The Levite's concubine

The Levite's concubine in the book of Judges is "vulnerable as she is only a minor wife, a concubine". She is one of the biblical nameless. Frymer-Kensky says this story is also an example of class intersecting with gender and power: when she is unhappy she runs home, only to have her father give her to another, the Levite. The Levite and his concubine travel to a strange town where they are vulnerable because they travel alone without extended family to rescue them; strangers attack. To protect the Levite, his host offers his daughter to the mob and the Levite sends out his concubine. Trible says "The story makes us realize that in those days men had ultimate powers of disposal over their women." Frymer-Kensky says the scene is similar to one in the Sodom and Gomorrah story when Lot sent his daughters to the mob, but in Genesis the angels save them, and in the book of Judges God is no longer intervening. The concubine is raped to death.

The Levite butchers her body and uses it to rouse Israel against the tribe of Benjamin. Civil war follows nearly wiping out an entire tribe. To resuscitate it, hundreds of women are captured and forced into marriage. Fryman-Kensky says, "Horror follows horror." The narrator caps off the story with "in those days there was no king in Israel and every man did as he pleased." The decline of Israel is reflected in the violence against women that takes place when government fails and social upheaval occurs.

According to Old Testament scholar Jerome Creach, some feminist critiques of Judges say the Bible gives tacit approval to violence against women by not speaking out against these acts. Frymer-Kensky says leaving moral conclusions to the reader is a recognized method of writing called gapping used in many Bible stories.

Jephthah's daughter

The story of Jephthah's daughter begins as an archetypal biblical hagiography of a hero. Jephthah is the son of a marginal woman, a prostitute. He is vulnerable. He lives in his father's house, but when his father dies, his half-brothers reject him. According to Frymer-Kensky, "This is not right. In the ancient Near East prostitutes could be hired as surrogate wombs as well as sex objects. Laws and contracts regulated the relationship between the child of such a prostitute and children of the first wife... he could not be disinherited. Jephthah has been wronged, but he has no recourse. He must leave home." Frymer-Kensky says the author assumes the biblical audience is familiar with this, will know Jephthah has been wronged, and will be sympathetic to him.

Jephthah makes a name for himself as a mighty warrior—a hero of Israel. The threat of the Ammonites is grave. The brothers acknowledge their wrongdoing to gain his protection. Frymer-Kensky says Jephthah's response reveals negotiation skills and deep piety. Then he attempts to negotiate peace with Ammon but fails. War it is, with all of Israel vulnerable. Before the battle he makes a battle vow: "If you give the Ammonites into my hand...the one who comes out of the doors of my house...I will offer to YHWH." This turns out to be his daughter. Jephthah's reaction expresses his horror and sense of tragedy in three key expressions of mourning, utter defeat, and reproach. He reproaches her and himself, but foresees only his doom in either keeping or breaking his vow. Jephthah's daughter responds to his speech and she becomes a true heroine of this story. They are both good, yet tragedy happens. Frymer-Kensky summarizes: "The vulnerable heroine is sacrificed, the hero's name is gone." She adds, the author of the book of Judges knew people were sacrificing their children and the narrator of Judges is in opposition. "The horror is the very reason this story is in the book of Judges."

Some scholars have interpreted this story to mean that Jephthah's daughter was not actually sacrificed, but kept in seclusion.

Tamar

The story of Tamar is a literary unit consisting of seven parts. According to Frymer-Kensky, the story "has received a great deal of attention as a superb piece of literature, and several have concentrated on explicating the artistry involved." This story focuses on three of King David's children, Amnon the first born, Absalom the beloved son, and his beautiful sister Tamar.

Amnon desires Tamar deeply. Immediately after explaining Amnon's desire the narrator first uses the term sister to reveal Tamar is not only Absalom's sister but is also Amnon's sister by another mother. Phyllis Trible says the storyteller "stresses family ties for such intimacy exacerbates the coming tragedy." Full of lust, the prince is impotent to act; Tamar is a virgin and protected property. Then comes a plan from his cousin Jonadab, "a very crafty man."

Jonadab's scheme to aid Amnon pivots on David the king. Amnon pretends to be sick and David comes to see him. He asks that his sister Tamar make him food and feed him. The king orders it sending a message to Tamar. Amnon sends the servants away. Alone with her brother she is vulnerable, but Tamar claims her voice. Frymer-Kensky says Tamar speaks to Amnon with wisdom, but she speaks to a foolish man. She attempts to dissuade him, then offers the alternative of marriage, and tells him to appeal to the king. He does not listen, and rapes her.

Amnon is immediately full of shame and angrily throws Tamar out. “No!” she said to him. “Sending me away would be a greater wrong than what you have already done to me.” But he refuses to listen. Trible says that Tamar is desolate: ruined and miserable. King David is furious but he does nothing to avenge his daughter or punish his son. Frymer Kensky says "The reader of the story who expects that the state will provide protection for the vulnerable now sees that the state cannot control itself." Absalom is filled with hatred, and kills Amnon two years later. Absalom then rebels against his father and is also killed.

New Testament

The New Testament is the second part of the Christian Bible. It tells about the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity. It consists of four narratives called gospels about the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus. It includes a record of the Apostolic ministries in the early church, called the Acts of the Apostles; twenty-one letters called "epistles" written by various authors to specific groups with specific needs concerning Christian doctrine, counsel, instruction, and conflict resolution; and one Apocalyptic book, the Book of Revelation, which is a book of prophecy, containing some instructions to seven local congregations of Asia Minor, but mostly containing prophetical symbology about the end times.

New Testament views on gender

There is no consensus on the New Testament view of women. Psychologist and professor James R. Beck points out that "Evangelical Christians have not yet settled the exegetical and theological issues."

The New Testament names many women among the followers of Jesus and in positions of leadership in the early church. New Testament scholar Linda Belleville says "virtually every leadership role that names a man also names a woman. In fact there are more women named as leaders in the New Testament than men. Phoebe is a 'deacon' and a 'benefactor' (Romans 16:11-2). Mary, Lydia and Nympha are overseers of house churches (Acts 12:12; 16:15; Colossians 4:15). Euodia and Syntyche are among 'the overseers and deacons' at Philippi (Philippians 1:1; cf, 4:2-3). The only role lacking specific female names is that of 'elder'--but there male names are lacking as well."

New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg and other complementarians agree there are three primary texts that challenge egalitarianism that are also critical to the traditional view of women: "1 Corinthians 14:34-35, where women are commanded to be silent in the church; 1 Timothy 2:11-15 where women (according to the TNIV) are not permitted to teach or have authority over a man; and 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 where the male and female relationship is defined in terms of kephalē commonly translated head."

Jesus' interactions with women

The New Testament refers to a number of women in Jesus’ inner circle. There are several Gospel accounts of Jesus imparting important teachings to and about women: his meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well, his anointing by Mary of Bethany, his public admiration for a poor widow who donated two copper coins to the Temple in Jerusalem, his stepping to the aid of the woman accused of adultery, his friendship with Mary of Bethany and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, and the presence of Mary Magdalene, his mother, and the other women as he was crucified. New Testament scholar Ben Witherington III says "Jesus broke with both biblical and rabbinic traditions that restricted women's roles in religious practices, and He rejected attempts to devalue the worth of a woman, or her word of witness."

Egalitarianism in the early church

Sociologist Linda L. Lindsey says "Belief in the spiritual equality of the genders (Galatians) and Jesus' inclusion of women in prominent roles, led the early New Testament church to recognize women's contributions to charity, evangelism and teaching." Pliny the Younger explains in his letters to Emperor Trajan that Christianity had people from every age and rank, and both sexes, with women in leadership roles. Professor of religion Margaret Y. MacDonald uses a "social scientific concept of power" which distinguishes between power and authority to show early Christian women did in fact play a significant role in Christianity's beginnings. According to MacDonald, much of the vociferous pagan criticism of the early church was linked to this "female initiative".

Christianity was considered a threat to Roman society. Rome had a social caste system where female initiative was seen like sorcery. Such accusations were used to oppose Christianity and influence public opinion.

MacDonald says "The focus on women is to draw attention to the essence of a group where power is exercised in dangerous, illegitimate ways, where the norms of household order are subverted, where traditional male control of house and school is compromised, where the public practices of religion are ignored in favor of a god who is worshipped in private, and where the only wisdom comes from magic lore."

Some New Testament texts (1 Peter 2:12;3:15-16; 1 Timothy 3:6-7;5:14) explicitly discuss early Christian communities being burdened by slanderous rumors because of this perceived threat. Such negative public opinion played a part in the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. MacDonald says some New Testament texts concerning the behavior of women were written in response to these dangerous circumstances.

Paul the Apostle and women

Paul the Apostle was the first writer to give ecclesiastical directives about the role of women in the church. Some of these are now heavily disputed. There are also arguments that some of the writings attributed to Paul are pseudepigraphal post-Pauline interpolations. Scholars agree certain texts attributed to Paul and the Pauline epistles have provided much support for the view of the role of women as subservient.

1 Corinthians 14:34-35

Traditional complementarians explain that Paul distinguishes between "public and private, authoritative and non-authoritative, formal and informal" types of instruction. Linda Belleville says those distinctions are not reflected in the Greek. She also asserts the traditional English translations of these verses is colored by hierarchical bias. She uses 1 Corinthians 11:2-5 to demonstrate this by showing Paul approved women "praying and prophesying," which requires speaking in the church, adding that the context of 1 Corinthians 14 is about the order of worship and is corrective not directive.

1 Timothy 2:11-15

According to Belleville, there is no other New Testament letter in which women figure as prominently as they do in 1 Timothy. "All told, 20% of the letter focuses on women." Theologian Leland Wilshire says English translations of 1 Timothy 2:12b (which contains the clause authentein andros) have traditionally been translated "to have authority." Wilshire conducted a computer study and concluded "a whole theology excluding women has been built on this clause" which the computer indicates is a mis-translation in the English. Wilshire says there is a "strange and unusual verbal infinitive, (authentein), in the original language," which is used only this once in the New Testament. He adds "no other usages of this particular word in its infinitive form can be discovered in the whole of extant Greek literature outside of later repetitions" of this verse. This word "is not one of the common words used throughout the New Testament for "exercising or having authority" nor is it the same word used to describe the activity of "ruling" by any church office within the pastoral epistles." Wilshire says there has been little to no attempt within the traditional church to solve these linguistic difficulties using philological and historical methods.

1 Timothy 5:3-16 and 3:1-7

Writings such as 1 Timothy 5:3-16 and 3:1-7 concerning the behavior of widows "reflect a heightened concern for the honor of the community" and offer a clear indication of what those who wanted to slander the community were saying. Widows in Greco-Roman society could not inherit their husband's estate and could find themselves in desperate circumstances, but almost from the beginning the church offered widows support. Roman law required a widow to remarry; Paul says a woman is better off if she remains unmarried. MacDonald explains that, "Through their deeds, the widows may have confirmed the suspicion of critics that early Christianity largely involved female initiative."

She concludes that concerns about the public visibility of women are evident in the return to Roman concepts of traditional household roles in 1 Timothy 2:11-15 and in 1 Corinthians 14:34-5. There is ongoing dispute over their correct translation.

1 Corinthians 11:2-16

Wilshire says the issue in 1 Corinthians 11:3-16 is whether the term kephalē translated head implies domination or subjection. "To say that the woman is the glory of man may have the concept of ennobling rather than a subservient or demeaning meaning."

Apostle Peter on women

In 1 Peter 3 wives are exhorted to submit to their husbands "so they may be won over." Theologian Scot McKnight says: "This is entirely consistent with Peter's agenda at 2:11-12, that Christians live such holy lives that nothing can be lodged against the gospel because of their behavior;" this reference may be a reflection of cultural circumstances of negative pagan opinion.

Professor James B. Hurley presents the complementarian view saying Peter's statements are not just a strategy for converting pagan husbands but are a reflection of Peter's belief that marriage is modeled after Christ and the church, Jesus' suffering and self-sacrifice, the lives of holy women, doing right, with both husbands and wives as "fellow heirs". Hurley says Peter presents the woman's role as "of great worth" to both God and the woman herself.

Junia

Paul wrote in Romans 16:7 "Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was." Bible translator Hayk Hovhannisyan says Junia was a woman and there is consensus supporting this view. "Some scholars argue that Junia was really a man by the name of Junias... Whether this name is masculine or feminine depends on how the word was accented in Greek. ...scribes wrote Junia as feminine. Examination of ancient Greek and Latin literature confirms this idea. The masculine name Junias is nowhere attested, whereas the female name Junia...is found more than 250 times..."

Belleville says some traditionalists translate as "esteemed by the apostles." "The justification for this change is the contention that all biblical and extra-biblical parallels to Romans 16:7 are exclusive (esteemed by apostles, well known to apostles) rather than inclusive (honored as one of the apostles, "among" the apostles)... proof is wholly lacking. ...The preposition en plus the dative plural with rare exception is inclusive "in/among" and not the exclusive "to". ...the parallels... plus the dative plural bear the inclusive meaning "a notable member of the larger group." Professor of New Testament Craig S. Keener says the early church understood Andronicus and Junia to be a husband and wife apostolic team. "Paul nowhere limits the apostolic company to twelve plus himself as some have assumed." Keener says "it is unnatural to read the text as merely claiming that they had a high reputation with the apostles."

Minister and Professor Leland E. Wilshire says New Testament critic Eldon Jay Epp's work comparing the Junia passage to Lucian's second century Dialogues of the Dead "has resolved the Junia controversy" by convincingly proving the phrase should be rendered with Junia as a female and as one of the apostles.

Priscilla

In Romans 16:3-5 Paul refers to the married couple Priscilla and Aquilla as his "fellow workers" saying they risked their lives for him. Paul worked and seemingly lived with them for a considerable time, and they followed him to Ephesus before he left on his next missionary journey. In Acts 18:25,26 Luke says Apollos, a "learned man," came to Ephesus and began speaking in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquilla heard him, they took him with them and "explained the way of God more accurately." Hayk Hovhannisyan says "either Priscilla was unaware of , which is virtually impossible; or she knew about it and decided to rebel--or the doctrine did not exist."

Mary of Bethany

Theologian and ethicist Stanley Grenz with Professor Denise Muir Kjesbo say it was the norm in first century Palestine for the education of women to end sometime around puberty, and that most Rabbis believed it was inappropriate to instruct women in the study of the Torah. In the story of Mary of Bethany, Jesus demonstrates His willingness to turn accepted cultural expectations upside down. In Luke 10:39, the author says Mary sat "at Jesus feet." The author "chooses terminology associated with rabbinic study (compare Acts 22:3), suggesting that Mary became Jesus' student."

Mary Magdalene

New Testament scholar Mary Ann Getty-Sullivan says Mary Magdalene, or Mary from the town of Magdala, is sometimes "erroneously identified as the sinner who anointed Jesus according to Luke's description in Luke 7:36-50. She is at times also confused with Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus (John 12:1-8)", and is sometimes assumed to be the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53-8:11), though there is nothing in the text to indicate that. Luke qualifies her as "one who was healed" but otherwise little is known about her. Mary Magdalene is named first in all lists of women except the one in John 19:25 which likely indicates a position of leadership among the women. The leadership of women prompted negative pagan response. There is nothing to directly indicate Mary Magdalene was a former prostitute, and some scholars believe she was a woman of means who helped support Jesus and his ministry.

In John 20:1–13, Mary Magdalene sees the risen Jesus alone and he tells her "Don't touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my father."

New Testament scholar Ben Witherington III says John is the only evangelist with a "keen interest" in portraying women in Jesus' story, yet, the "only Easter event narrated by all four evangelists concerns the visit of the women to the tomb of Jesus." Mary Magdalene and the other women go to anoint Jesus' body at the tomb, but find the body gone. Mary Magdalene is inconsolable, but she turns and Jesus' speaks to her. He calls her by name and she recognizes him. Witherington adds, "There are certain parallels between the story of the appearance to Mary and John 20:24-31 (when Jesus appears to Thomas) Mary is given an apostolic task (to go tell the men) and Thomas is not... There is little doubt the Fourth evangelist wishes to portray Mary Magdalene as important, perhaps equally important for Jesus' fledgling community as Mother Mary herself."

The Roman writer Celsus left one of the primary antique anti-Christian works still in existence. Margaret MacDonald says his study of Christian scripture led him to focus on Mary Magdalene as the witness to the resurrection, as someone deluded by the "sorcery" by which Jesus did miracles, and as someone who then becomes one of Jesus' primary "instigators" and "perpetrators". MacDonald explains that, "In Celsus' work, Mary Magdalene's role in the resurrection story denigrates its credibility... From beginning to end, the story of Jesus' life has been shaped by the 'fanciful imaginings' of women."

MacDonald sees this negative view of Mary as reflecting a challenge taking place within the church of the second century to Mary's role as a woman disciple and to leadership roles for women in general. "The challenge to Mary's position has been evaluated as an indication of tensions between the existing fact of women's leadership in Christian communities and traditional Greco-Roman views about gender roles." MacDonald adds that "Several apocryphal and gnostic texts provide evidence of such a controversy."

Evolution of views on female sexuality in the early church

Historically, differing interpretations of women in the Bible have also impacted views on sexuality, marriage, and family life. Rodney Stark says these teachings have affected the status of women by promoting monogamy, condemning marital infidelity by both genders, limiting divorce, forbidding incest, polygamy, infanticide (female infants were more likely to be 'exposed' and killed), and abortion and have been both influential and controversial.

Classics professor Kyle Harper explains that views on sexuality in the early church were diverse and fiercely debated within its various communities; these debates took place within the boundaries of the ideas in Paul's letters (especially the first three chapters of his first letter to the Corinthians) and in the context of an often persecuted minority seeking to define its difference from the world around it. In his letters, Paul often attempted to find a middle way among these disputes, which included people who saw the gospel as liberating them from all moral boundaries, and those who took very strict moral stances.

Christianity began within the social environment of the Roman empire which had inherited some of its sexual views and mores from the Greek world. Both the ancient Greeks and the Romans cared and wrote about sexual morality within categories of good and bad, pure and defiled, and ideal and transgression. But the sexual-ethical structures of Roman society were built on status, and sexual modesty meant something different for men than it did for women, and for the well-born than it did for the poor, and for the free citizen than it did for the slave. Roman society did not believe slaves had an inner ethical life since they had no status, therefore concepts of sexual morality were not applicable to slaves.

Scholars of early Christianity such as MacDonald and Harper, along with classics Professor John Younger, say shame was a profoundly social concept that was, in ancient Rome, always mediated by gender and status. Classics Professor Rebecca Langlands adds "It was not enough that a wife merely regulate her sexual behavior in the accepted ways; it was required that her virtue in this area be conspicuous." Younger says men, on the other hand, were allowed live-in mistresses called pallake. Langlands points out this permitted Roman society to find both a husband's control of a wife's sexual behavior a matter of intense importance, and at the same time, see the husband's sex with young boys as of little concern. Harper explains: "The model of normative sexual behavior that developed principally out of Paul's reactions to the erotic culture surrounding him...was a distinct alternative to the social order of the Roman empire." For Paul, according to Harper, "the body was a consecrated space, a point of mediation between the individual and the divine." The obligation for sexual self-control was placed equally on all people in the Christian communities, men or women, slave or free. Harper says this was a transformation in the deep logic of sexual morality.

In Paul's letters, porneia, a single name for an array of sexual behaviors outside marital intercourse, became a central defining concept of sexual morality, and shunning it, a key sign of choosing to follow Jesus. That choice could be shown by forgoing sex altogether and practicing chastity, remaining virgin, or having sex only within a marriage. Margaret MacDonald discusses female celibacy and negative pagan response producing a "shift in perspective concerning unmarried women from Paul's day to the time of the Pastoral epistles." Many widows and single women were choosing not to marry and were staying celibate and proselytizing; pagan response to this female activity was negative and sometimes violent toward Christianity as a whole. These were catalysts for the shift in perspective on women found in the epistles "which manifests itself in a return to traditional patterns ."

Over the first three centuries of the early Church, the church's position on sexuality was elaborated, an entire debate about free will was generated within the communities and in debate with people outside of those communities, and by around 300 BCE, the orthodox position had generally crystallized into seeing celibacy as best—the Symposium of Methodius is an example of a Christian "philosophy distinctly apart from the machinery of society."

Women from the Bible in art and culture

There are hundreds of examples of women from the Bible as characters in art and opera. The story of Adam and Eve, according to Near Eastern scholar Carol Meyers, "Perhaps more than any other part of the Bible, has influenced western notions of gender and identity." Sociologist Linda L. Lindsey says "women have born a greater burden for 'original sin'... Eve's creation from Adam's rib, second in order, with God's "curse" at the expulsion is a stubbornly persistent frame used to justify male supremacy."

Historically, paintings tend to reflect the changing views of women in society more than the biblical account that mentions them. Eve is a perennial favorite subject, with the courageous and victorious women, such as Jael, Judith and Esther, popular "moral" figures in the Middle Ages. The Renaissance, which preferred the sensuous female nude through the eighteenth century, and the "femme fatale", such as Delilah, from the nineteenth century onward all demonstrate how the Bible and art both shape and reflect views of women.

Art historian Mati Meyer says society's views of women are observable in the differing renderings of Eve in art over the centuries. Meyer explains: "Genesis 2–3 recounts the creation of man and the origins of evil and death; Eve, the temptress who disobeys God’s commandment, is probably the most widely discussed and portrayed figure." According to Mati Meyer, Eve is historically portrayed in art in a favorable light up through the Early Middle Ages (AD 800's), but by the Late Middle Ages (1400's) artistic interpretation of Eve becomes heavily misogynistic. Meyer sees this change as influenced by the writings of Augustine "who sees Eve’s sexuality as destructive to male rationality". By the seventeenth century, the Fall as a male-female struggle emerges, and in the eighteenth century, the perception of Eve is influenced by "Paradise Lost" where Adam's free will is emphasized along with Eve's beauty. Thereafter a secular view of Eve emerges "through her transformation into a femme fatale—a compound of beauty, seductiveness and independence set to destroy the man."

Salome by Richard Strauss was highly controversial when first composed due to its combination of biblical theme, eroticism and murder. Samson and Delilah by Camille Saint-Saëns is one of the pieces that defines French opera.

See also

• Christian feminism
• Feminist theology
• Gender and Judaism
• Jewish feminism
• List of women in the Bible
• Role of Christianity in civilization
• Women as theological figures
• Women in Judaism

References

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