What Does the Bible Say About Women Pt. 5 - Jesus, Women, and the Early Church
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Intro
Today, we’re finally getting to the New Testament and taking a look at how it views women. Now we are not going straight to the controversial texts first. Instead, we are going to take a look at the gospels and the texts discussing the early church first, then in the coming weeks, we will be able to dig deeper into what the rest of the New Testament has to say about women.
Remember, the big question we are trying to answer is “Does the Bible describe women as full participants in society and within the people of God?” So let’s get started.
Study Cases
Read Luke 2:36-38
How does this passage describe Anna? What “role” or “position” or “function” is Anna serving in?
Describe for me what a prophet is. Who are they, and what do prophets do?
Prophets are people who speak God’s word, speak truth to power, and guide the people of God toward right living.
So, what does a woman serving as a prophet indicate about their status within the people of God?
This passage takes place at the beginning of Jesus’ life and is well before Jesus began his ministry. It is very likely that Anna is the very first Evangelist! What vv. 25ff says about what Simeon does vs what Anna does.
Simeon praised God – Great! But Anna “spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.” Interesting!
Read Matthew 12:46-50
Based on this passage, what does this say about who were Jesus’ disciples? Did it include only men, only women, or both? How can you tell?
What does this say about where women stood in comparison to men as being Jesus disciples?
It wasn’t just the men, but both men and women.
Read Matthew 27:50-56
What does this passage say about how these women served Jesus during his ministry?
Play a little game here, out of all of Jesus financial supporters, how many were men?
Joseph of Arimathea is most likely the only man that you can think of. But notice how he just swoops in at the end and just takes care of Jesus burial, which is still a good thing. But see the difference in who were more involved in actively supporting his ministry?
Women were major Patrons of Jesus and Paul! (which we will talk about in a bit)
Read Luke 10:38-42
This seems to be the ONLY explicit New Testament passage that seems to describe a woman’s role. But notice it is not what you think it is.
What is Martha doing in this passage?
How does Martha view Mary? Why is Martha upset?
What role do you think Martha believes she should be fulfilling based on this passage?
Preparing food, in the kitchen, doing all the behind-the-scenes stuff while the men should be doing disciple stuff at the feet of Jesus.
Martha believes she was doing what she was supposed to be doing. That she was fulfilling her role while the men do all the disciple stuff. She even believed that Jesus would agree with her, which is why she asked Jesus to tell Mary to help.
But what does Jesus do? How does Jesus correct Martha’s thinking?
Jesus equates both male and female disciples as equals. not only that, but also expects these male and female disciples to go and become disciple makers. He would rather them do this, than have the men learning while the women serve in the background. Jesus had a very high view of women. He saw them as genuine disciples who were to be just as involved in his gospel message than the men. Service, learning, absorbing his teachings, and so on. Let’s look to see how the early church viewed women.
Early Church
Read Acts 2:14-21
What does this say about who will or will not prophecy when Jesus starts this new thing called “the Kingdom of God?”
There is no distinction in Gender, age, or social status for those who will prophesy. The Old Testament anticipated a time of social leveling as seen in God’s Kingdom and looked forward to this redeemer of the Human condition.
What is prophecy? What is a prophet
Again, it is someone who brings God’s word, studies it, and proclaims it to the people of God. In fact, it is not dissimilar to what preachers do when they preach. They study, they listen, and they proclaim it to the church.
Read Acts 16:11-15
What does this passage say about how Lydia served in the Kingdom of God?
She was Paul’s patron. She did this so that Paul could be free to preach and teach. Had Lydia, or anyone else, not supported Paul, the chances of a successful church plant in Philippi would have been severely hurt. The whole of Asia minor and Christianity there would have greatly suffered, and it all hinged on a single woman’s support.
Read Acts 18:24-26
Who teaches Apollos in this passage?
Who are Priscilla and Aquila on a basic level? A woman and a man - a wife and a husband!
What does this fact indicate about the “role” or “function” or service that this woman does for one of the greatest teachers and evangelists of the early church?
Well some would counter and say, “ahh but her husband was there with her helping teach Apollos, so this is a precedent that women must be accompanied by a man in order to teach another man.” To which I say, “prove it!” Find me where in this passage that it says that Priscilla wasn’t qualified to teach because she was a woman, while Aquila was qualified because he was a man. If this was the case, why doesn’t the Bible actually say that? If the Bible wanted to say that, it would have explicitly said “Lo, Priscilla taught alongside Aquila because she was unqualified, or a woman, or needed a man in the room at all times to teach another man.”
What the text does indicate is that they were a power couple who did great and amazing work together to teach newer Christians correct teaching about the Gospel and God’s Kingdom. It says nothing more, and nothing less. That the thought that a woman needs to be accompanied by a man in order to teach another man is completely foreign to the biblical text. The kinds of conversations we have today about this issue is nowhere mentioned in the Bible. Yes, we will talk about some difficult texts in a few weeks, but I will make the case that those texts have nothing to do with what I am talking about right now.
Read Romans 16:1ff
V. 1 – What role/function does Phoebe serve within the Church ?
A Deacon – διάκονον – word for servant that is used all throughout the Bible to describe a Christian designated to serve with the overseers/elders of the church in a variety of ways; similarly see Phil 1:1 (δοῦλοι for Paul and Timothy and διακόνοις for “overseers and deacons”) and 1 Tim. 3:8,12 (v. 8 Διακόνους and Διάκονοι in v. 12)
v. 3 Who is mentioned again?
Priscilla and Aquilla
Also ever notice whose name comes first? Priscilla’s! I won’t read too much into it, but it is still interesting to note that the woman’s name is put first after the man’s within the context of the Greco-Roman world where that was completely unheard of.
v. 7- Who is mentioned and what did they do?
Why is it significant that a woman was jailed alongside Paul?
In the context of early church persecution, were just regular, insignificant, small players in the church imprisoned, or were the big players, the movers and shakers imprisoned? The Big players of course!
What does this say about the role that Andronicus and Junia played in the early church?
What does this say about Junia specifically?
“they were ‘of note/notable/esteemed’ the apostles”
ἐπίσημος – “Bearing a mark, Notable, outstanding
ἐν – “in, on, at, by, with, among”
It can be easily translated as any number of things, so to try and dismiss it, hide it, or try to explain away why they were not apostles, could be a distortion of the text.
Why imprison a woman because of her religious actions unless she was a mover and shaker in this new Christian movement?
Take away
How has this shaped your understanding of how Jesus and the early church treated and viewed women?
How has this shaped your views of women in the church?