Women were considered everything from sub-human to property to not worthy of religious education. Then Jesus came along. He elevated women as equals. He defied prevailing customs. He shocked his world.
Jesus spoke directly to women in public [Luke 7:12-13; 8:45; 13:10-16]. He uniquely affirming theology as a priority for women over daily chores when he encouraged Martha to listen and learn as Mary was doing [Luke 10:38-42]. He chose a lowly Samaritan woman at the well to become his first evangelist [John 4:1-26]. Women were active followers, and they tended to Jesus on the cross [Matthew 27:55-56, John 19:25] and were the first to recognize his resurrection [Jn. 20:11-18; Mt. 28: 8-10]. When a trap was laid for Jesus to condemn a woman to death for adultery, he instead forgave her as he famously stated, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” [John 8:1-11].
Scripture offers many examples of women in practically every imaginable post: prophet, judge, negotiator; even a leader of a famous Exodus. Women are named throughout the Bible as leaders in the early church. Phoebe was a deacon [Romans 16:1-2]; Priscilla evangelized and trained converts [Romans 16:3; Acts 18:26]; Phillip’s four daughters were prophets [Acts 21:9]; Euodia and Syntyche were pioneering evangelists [Phil. 4:2,3]; Junia was a likely apostle [Romans 16:7].
Even Paul’s characterization as a misogynist is refuted as he preached his first message to women in Macedonia [Acts 16:11-15]. He affirmed Priscilla as a friend and teacher [Romans 16:3] and endorsed women in powerful positions of leadership [Romans 16:1-2; Romans16:7]. Women were co-workers with the Paul and appear to have been leaders of house churches—like Lydia [Acts 15:40], Chloe [I Corinthians 16:19], and Nympha [Col. 4:15]. Even his command that women be silent in church, taken in context, instructs how women were to pray and prophesy. [I Corinthians 14:34]
As women continued to be active in the life of the early Church, their standing posed a considerable threat to the old guard system of patriarchy. That system soon reasserted itself and patriarchy took its firm hold in Christianity, which it maintains to this day.
One concern about today’s subordination of women is how it has helped perpetuate physical and psychological abuse among some Christians. There are some fringe Christian sects that believe beating and spanking their wives is a Christian duty. Evangelical Christian men who sporadically attend church (it’s important to emphasize) are the most likely group—more than secular men or men in any other religious group—to abuse their wives. More broadly, researchers who focus on wife abuse are extremely critical of the church for its “biblical principle” that manipulates scripture to compel women to obedience without question; calls for men to dominate women and use guilt and shame as enforcement. Certainly by perpetuating the idea that women are innately evil and inferior to men, women are being set up for harm.
Christian doctrine teaches both men and women that in the natural order of things, the husband is superior and the wife is subordinate and that’s the way God means it to be. The biologically inferior woman’s primary function is propagation. When women forgo their natural role as the submissive helper of a male leader, society falls apart.
Plenty of biblical themes uphold a system of patriarchy, including God created women for man’s pleasure and entertainment and her sexuality is a source of temptation and evil. St. Augustine taught the early church, in a God-ordained Divine Order of Things, women are to be governed by men. Centuries later, St. Thomas Aquinas agreed and identified women as “defective and misbegotten.”
Fast-forward to contemporary theology and patriarchy remains widely asserted. In the early 1990s, for example, a Christian concept called complementarianism was popularized. This theological interpretation says men and women are equal in value, but they have different roles and responsibilities, particularly within the church and family. The result remains an accepted social order called patriarchy.
Christians are told “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” [Galatians 3:28]. Yet half the world’s population is female and all around the world, they remain second class citizens, exploited, trafficked, denied equal access to jobs, pay, and healthcare. Perpetuating patriarchy is a choice, and Christianity has the power to do something about it. We can choose to stop holding back women and girls around the world with biblical justifications.
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