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Women in the Bible: Part II

Sarah Trethewey concludes her study of women in the Bible by taking a look at the New Testament’s (often controversial) portrayal of the female of the species.

It is probably cowardly to evade a discussion of Paul’s approach to women by concentrating on the Gospels. Many of the passages which feminists find most difficult to accept are contained within the epistles, not in the Gospels, and so I might be criticized for choosing the latter above the former. However, it is for the very reason that the Gospels provide such an affirmative perspective on women that it is important to highlight their message. If I am honest, I have not reached a satisfactory conclusion about the meaning of such passages as 1 Corinthians 11:2–16 (“for this reason, and because of the angels, the woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head”) or 1 Timothy 2: 9–15 (“women shall be saved through childbearing”). I have tried to engage with recent scholarship on these texts, which suggests that they are later insertions to legitimise chauvinistic practices in the Early Church, and other interpretations which suggest that they are culturally anachronistic, but I have not managed to silence the inward bleats of evangelical tenacity which make me uncomfortable about these propositions. I remain open to the counsel of better minds on these issues. However, I am satisfied that I comprehend Christ’s attitude towards women, made quite clear within the Gospel texts, and it is Christ’s position which should constitute the starting point for our understanding of the biblical place for women. We should interpret the difficult in light of the easy.

Whatever their denominational positions on her living relationship to man and Christ, both Catholics and Protestants can agree that the Virgin Mary was one of the most prominent figures of the Gospels. She was blessed with the awesome charge of carrying the incarnate God within her womb, nurturing him at her bosom and protecting him at her side throughout his infancy. In the incarnation narrative, her husband Joseph plays a secondary role — a role of submission and support as his pregnant wife dominates the human story with her humility and joy and courage. Mary is not the passive recipient of God’s favour, she is an active and willing participant in the enactment of his purposes — choosing to entrust herself to the mysteries of heaven rather than having submission forced upon her (Luke 1:38, 45). A humble, articulate and spiritually luminous woman, Mary demonstrates God’s confidence in his female creation to bear a vast responsibility.

However, this most well-known female protagonist is not an isolated figure of importance among the women of the Gospels. As her child became a man he developed a radically inclusive ministry which attracted and embraced female followers — and not only respectable, middle-class matrons who would now be pillars of the WI. As a single man, his conversation with a Samaritan woman of rather dubious repute, recorded in John 4 (John includes many narratives which feature women, incidentally), would have represented a scandal in Rabbinic circles. The fact that his disciples “were surprised to find him talking with a woman” (v27) indicates something of the cultural anomaly. However, Jesus did more than just talk to the Samaritan woman — he confided in her his greatest secret: that he was the promised Messiah (v26). This was the only occasion before his trial on which Jesus explicitly disclosed that he was the Christ, and it is surely significant that he did this before a woman, whose testimony even when supported by that of a hundred other females was counted as less valid than that of one man.

Bearing this in mind, it is astounding that Jesus chose to reveal the truth of his resurrection first of all to women (Matthew 28:1–7, Mark 16:1–7, Luke 24:10, John 20:10–18). The implications of this action is beautifully clear: Jesus wanted to demonstrate confidence in a woman’s witness, he wanted to show that her word was as legitimate as that of a man. Of course the male disciples did not believe the women at first, whom they presumably believed to be hysterical and hallucinating, but the authenticity of their message was soon verified by Christ’s appearances. The faithful women who had expressed their devotion at the grave of their teacher stood vindicated and dignified by the privilege of receiving revelation. In John’s even more radical resurrection account, Jesus appears first to Mary Magdelene, a woman once demonically possessed and who has been traditionally associated with the `sinful woman’ of various other Gospel narratives (see below).

Jesus seems to have gone out of his way to associate himself with those who were society’s outcasts — the despised, rejected and distrusted. In many cases he didn’t need to; they sought him out because they heard rumours and felt resonances of his mercy and compassion. Most of the Gospel writers record the incident at the house of a Pharisee during which a ‘sinful woman’ (probably a prostitute) washed Jesus’ feet with perfume and with tears (esp. Luke 7:36–50). This was the passionate outpouring of a woman’s heart which had known no acceptance or forgiveness outside of the gentle man, the gentle God, who welcomed her so warmly and without condemnation. For some of us it is possible to imagine her desperate and unfathomable gratefulness. In John 8, Jesus has an encounter with a similarly ostracized woman, who had been caught in adultery. The reliability of this account has been questioned, but I cannot help but regard it as a perfect expression of Christ’s character. Jesus challenges the woman’s accusers to execute their death sentence — if they can satisfy themselves that they have never committed a sin, never made an error, never shown a weakness. This is astonishing. In 1st century Palestine where a woman’s infidelity is deemed a far graver transgression than that of a man, Jesus is equating even the petty misdemeanours of the male crowd with the woman’s offence — no sin is more unforgivable than another. There is no condemnation. It is wonderful, it is liberating, it is mercy and justice kissing one another.

At the end of this brief overview, I have come to realise that actually, the gender issue should not dominate and inform the way we approach the Gospels. Jesus did (and indeed does) affirm the equality and the significance of women in a culture which oppressed, undervalued and despised them. In the same way, he dignified lepers and slaves and Gentiles and tax-collectors. In order to apply the message of the Gospels, as I believe I suggested we ought to do in my previous article, we must strike the chords of mercy and justice in our dealings with all who are unjustly treated: male or female, Greek or Jew, slave or free.

Sarah Trethewey

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Last modified: 25th November 2005