Who has not been exposed to the cultural lie that Christianity disparages women? In order to counteract this false perception, we must take a step back and analyze the historical context into which Christ entered the world. We can then go on to examine the Biblical record more objectively.

The myth of the ideal democratic Athenian state is deeply marred by its view of women. The philosopher Plato came to believe that women should be confined to the home while men tended to the business of state and commerce. Aristotle went even further, viewing women as inferior to men, incapable of abstract thought, and emotionally volatile. Husbands and fathers should rule over their wives and daughters. Aristotle’s thinking indicates to us the basic attitudes toward Athenian women during the classical period.

How does this work its way out in everyday life? A young girl is routinely married off to an older man. Her role is to bear and raise children and run the household, rarely leaving the house. Her education is limited to learning domestic tasks. She is not permitted to vote or hold property. Why would she be? As Euripides the playwright notes, “a woman is handicapped by intellect”. Thucydides helps him along by writing, “The name of a decent woman, like her person, should be shut up in the house”. Her husband is free to take a concubine, and romantic love is not expected within marriage. Hence, the impression that Athens is a place of enlightenment needs to be examined more closely.

Unfortunately, by Jesus’ time Greek ideas about women had gradually crept into Jewish culture, in spite of Old Testament writings to the contrary. According to the creation account in Genesis, God created “Man” as both male and female, giving them co-equal stewardship over the earth. Throughout the Old Testament, women are given equal access to God’s Law and held equally responsible.

The Old Testament record is replete with women of great courage, often surpassing that of the men around them. The stories of Miriam, Rahab, Ruth, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail and Queen Esther are prime examples of women whose insight and fortitude greatly influence history. The contrast between Greek culture and the Old Testament record is blatantly clear.

However, by Jesus’ time, Greek ideas were deeply embedded in the Jewish mindset. Women were discouraged from studying God’s Law and encouraged to stay home to fulfill household duties. They attended synagogue seated separately from the men. As a rule, only men were encouraged to study God’s Law. Philo saw women as having weak judgment and considered them unfit to learn the law. Some rabbis even went so far as to encourage men to limit their conversations with their own wives. What was the point of talking to someone who had little knowledge of the Law?

Into this perversion of God’s original intent for women comes Jesus of Nazareth. What do we know about his relationships with women? Does he hold to the status quo? Let’s look at the record.

 

 THE SAMARITAN WOMAN(John 4:4-30)

Jesus and his disciples are headed back to Galilee from Judea. Instead of taking the long way around Samaria to avoid contact with the Samaritans, who are despised by the Jews as religious deviants, Jesus is compelled to head straight into “half breed” territory. He has an appointment there. It is high noon when they arrive at Jacob’s well, and Jesus sends the disciples into town to buy some food. He sits down and waits. Sure enough, it’s not long until a Samaritan woman arrives there to draw water. She has timed her errand carefully, in spite of the blistering heat. She will do almost anything to avoid the critical eyes of the other women in her town. They know way too many of her secrets. This stranger will be unaware of her past, or so she thinks.

Jesus shocks her by asking her for a drink.

“You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?”

Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans, considering them religiously and ethnically impure, and furthermore she is only a woman. But Jesus persists. What follows is one of the deepest conversations of Jesus’ ministry. He reveals himself to this “half-breed” woman as the Messiah and the giver of the living water for which she longs. Furthermore, she was the very first person in his ministry to hear this truth.

 THE WIDOW (Luke 7:11-17)

Jesus hears the mourners as the funeral procession approaches him. He sees the body of a young man in the coffin. His brokenhearted mother is bent over with sorrow. Jesus knows full well that there will be no Social Security check for her next month.
“Don’t cry,” Jesus says to the widow.
Then he touches the coffin, defying ceremonial taboos. Everyone freezes in place; jaws drop in amazement as the young man sits up and begins to speak. Jesus gives the widow’s son back to her, alive and well.

 

 THE ADULTERESS  – (John Chapter 8)

Once again, we see our Lord confronting the cultural double standard between men and women that was so prevalent in the Greco-Roman “enlightened” world j

The Pharisees drag a woman into the temple. She has been caught in adultery, and they intend to humiliate her publically, setting a trap for Jesus at the same time. They are quick to point out to Jesus that under the Law, she must be stoned. But instead of answering, he stoops and begins to write on the ground with his finger.

No one knows what he writes, but after a time he says, “Whoever is without sin can throw the first stone at her.”

Gradually they all slink away into the shadows. When Jesus straightens up, the woman stands alone. “Where did all your accusers? Isn’t anyone left to condemn you?”

“No one, sir,” she replies.

“I don’t condemn you, either,” Jesus tells her. “Go and leave your life of sin.”
It takes two to commit adultery. No double standard here.

 

 THE “UNCLEAN” WOMAN (Luke 8:43-48)

This woman is ceremonially unclean due to a hemorrhage of many years, and people avoid her. She’s used to it. Unnoticed, she weaves her way through the crowd, knowing that one touch from Jesus will do what the doctors have been unable to do. She slips up behind him and grabs the edge of his cloak.
Jesus stops. “Who touched me?”
Master, you’ve got to be kidding,” responds Peter. “Who hasn’t touched you in this crowd?”
“No, this is different. Someone just touched me. I felt the power of God go out from me.”
The woman comes trembling. For the first time in twelve years, the hemorrhage has ceased. She can feel the healing virtue flowing through every fiber of her being.
“Daughter,” Jesus speaks tenderly. “Your faith has healed you. Shalom.”

 

THE INFIRM WOMAN (Luke 13:10-16)

Jesus is teaching on the Sabbath when he sees a crippled woman, completely bent over.
When he puts his hands on her, she stands up straight, after eighteen years of suffering.
Her hands raised toward Heaven, she bursts into praise. She is free.
The religious rulers are indignant at this healing on the Sabbath. No one is supposed to do any work on the Sabbath.
“Pick any other day, Jesus,” they say. They take no joy in the fact that the woman is restored. Jesus has broken their rules. How dare he?
“Hypocrites!” Jesus does not mince words. “You give your donkeys and oxen water on the Sabbath. Why shouldn’t this woman be set free on the Sabbath?

 

 MARY’S ANOINTING (John 12:1-8)

Just six days before his crucifixion, Jesus is reclining at the dinner table in the home of his friends, Lazarus, Mary and Martha. As Martha serves the meal, Mary approaches from behind, her hair loose and flowing. She is carrying a box of exquisitely scented perfume, worth a year’s wages. Before anyone realizes what is happening, she is pouring it on Jesus’ feet. Then she begins to wipe his feet with her hair. The sweet fragrance of the nard fills the room.

This is scandalous behavior. She should not be here with the men. She should not be loosening her hair in public. She should certainly not be touching Jesus. The act is unspeakably shocking and off the charts in terms of the culture of the day. It’s intimate, inappropriate and, as Judas asserts, extravagantly wasteful.

Jesus silences them all. “Leave her alone – what she did was just perfect. She’s right on time – she’s anointing me for burial. This story will be told wherever the Gospel is preached.”

 

MARY AT THE TOMB (John 20:11-18)

As Mary Magdalene weeps at the empty tomb on Resurrection morning, Jesus appears to her, but she doesn’t recognize him at first. When he speaks her name, she knows Him. Although women were considered to be unreliable to testify in court, Mary is the first witness to the Resurrection. Jesus specifically tasks her with telling the other disciples that He is indeed alive.

So what did Jesus really think of women? Did he touch them? Did he talk to them? Did he teach them? Did he put them on equal moral ground with men? Did he value them?

The record speaks for itself. Yes, first century women in Palestine were second class citizens, but this view was 180 degrees out from Jesus’ view. Through the years, the institutional church may have relegated women to a lesser place, but this was never God’s intention. As the Apostle Paul affirms in Galatians 3:26 -28:

“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”