Jesus Christ’s Interactions with the Women of the New Testament

WOMEN IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY Presiding: Maria Dell’Isola & Mario Resta BARBARA CROSTINI (Newman Institute, Uppsala) Women-with-Child on Show: Painting Motherhood from Dura to Luke MARIANNA CERNO (University of Udine) Dreams and Virtues of the «Women of Clement». Matthidia and Procula in the Light of a Newly Recovered Pseudo-Clementine Fragment TOMMASO INTERI (University of Turin) Womanhood as Exegetical Paradigm in Eusebius ALESSANDRO DE BLASI (University of Padua) (Im)pious Sisterhood. Once More on Greg. Naz. carm. II 1, 41, Contra Maximum

tracing Jesus' attitude to women

Priscilla Papers, 2002

Author: Douglas Groothuis Publisher: CBE International World religions have been charged with not only permitting, but also with perpetuating ingrained patterns of sexism, patriarchy, and misogyny. These religions, it seems, must either change or be left behind by all who believe that women and men are equal in their rights, abilities, and potential. Some charge that Christianity demeans and marginalizes women, that it is a male religion in which men are given the preponderance of power, prestige, and influence. But what did the founder of Christianity teach about women?

Hammad Imani 2 A Woman's Touch Jesus himself called women into his group of friends and disciples, and often demonstrated that patriarchal hierarchies did not appeal to him 1 ; after his death, women continued to play prominent roles in the early Christian movement. The earliest church was not an empire under patriarchal rule, but a society of equal brothers and sisters. In fact, it is almost certain that women constituted more than half of the membership of the church. The Letters of Paul, martyr texts, and other historical evidence of household leadership place women on a level of significance and enablement in the Christian community. Although there were many conflicts regarding the established leadership status of women in the new Christian religion due to long-standing Greco-Roman gender roles, early Christian literature and historical studies show that women were religiously, socially, and even politically empowered by Christianity.

2019

Short paper written for Phillips Exeter Academy's Liber Classics Magazine Volume 2: Women. A short introduction to the treatment of and theology surrounding women in the first few centuries of the Common Era. Edited by Thomas Ramsey, Sophia Cho, Janeva Dimen, Michaela Phan, Madelein Huh, Blane Zhu, Pepper Pieroni, and Joe Laufer.

2021

This bibliography includes coverage of the Armenian, Coptic (Egyptian) Georgian, Greek, Latin, and Syriac (Syro-Persian) traditions; I have yet to find pertinent texts for Axum (Ethiopia) or Nubia (Sudan) or Ḥimyar (Yemen). (Remember that Christianity has never been merely an affair of the Roman Empire or, after its fall, of Europe.) As this is intended as an introductory bibliography, it is primarily limited to monographs and edited volumes. A few key chapters and articles, however, have been included. Entries are organized in four sections: — Secondary Sources from New Testament scholarship, — Primary Sources from the patristic period, — Secondary Sources examining the patristic period, — Contemporary Perspectives in dialogue with Scripture lastest revision: 16 February 2023

Priscilla Papers, 2007

Author: J. Lyle Story Publisher: CBE International In recent years, much discussion has centered upon the role of women disciples as they encounter the person of Jesus. The word “disciple” (mathētēs), related to the verb “learn, study, practice” (manthanō), means “the one who directs his mind to something,” often in the sense of a learner, apprentice, or pupil. In the Greek philosophical world, the term designated a devotee of a philosopher, one who would continue the intellectual link with the teacher (adherent). While many argue for exclusively male disciples due to the fact that Jesus’ twelve disciples were all male, we can respond that all disciples were also Jewish. This, then, leads to the important question of implication: Does this mean that all Gentile disciples through the ages, male and female, are to be excluded from participatory discipleship? Certainly not!

Ghana Journal of Religion and Theology

Some reading the canonical Gospels, namely, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are inclined to think that the disciples Jesus called were all men or males because whether it is the names of the apostles or a pronoun used about them, it is either a man’s name or masculine gender. It is a situation that tends to lead some Christian churches to prefer having only male ministers or pastors. The author of this paper argues that the notion or idea is a presentation of the first three Gospels but not the Fourth. The Fourth Gospel presents not only men but also women as disciples of Jesus.

Priscilla Papers, 2020

Author: Joshua Little Publisher: CBE International This article considers how the coming of the kingdom of God provides “an alternative ordering of society” regarding women in community and leadership. It studies Jesus’s ministry and teachings throughout the Gospels. But because Jesus was a Jew and the Torah was influential in his ministry and life, it begins by analyzing how the OT speaks to a woman’s place in society.

This essay will look at the place accorded to women in the life and witness of the early church, by comparing the gospel writings as well as archaeological evidence and other noncanonical writings, especially those that show attitudes to women. 1 Although it can be documented that women were active in many roles in the early church, particular reference will be made to the leadership roles of apostle, prophet and bishop, recognising that most of the surviving written history has been done by men, many of whom diminished the "significance of women's leadership roles." 2 Some of the historical evidence I will present, suggests that the liberating effects of Jesus' words, resurrection and Pentecost, and the effects of meeting in private houses, considered the sphere of women, opened the door for gender equality in the life and witness of the early church. 3 However with the change in meeting place from house church to public buildings, a loss of liberty, especially for women, whose proper sphere of activity was often considered to be in the home, can be documented. 4 Some parts of the early church accepted the prevailing cultural, social norms and attitudes and limited or prohibited women's leadership roles and others didn't. 5 The standardisation of worship, canonization of scripture and creeds, anti-feminist rules made in various councils, and control being given to the bishops, meant that the bishop and tradition became the leader in many churches, rather than apostles, prophets, and possibly even the Holy Spirit. 6 The fear of heresy and a fight for 1 The early church "consisted of distinctive, competing groups" and the groups also associated themselves with "different foundational figures and various theologies"(Andern Graham Brock, Mary Magdalene, the First Apostle: The Struggle for Authority, ed. Francis Schussler Fiorenza FranciosBovo, Peter B. Machinist (Cambridge: Harvard Theological Studies, 2003), 15.). When referring to the early church, I will mean the time period from when women like Mary Magdalene became Jesus' disciples until around 500 AD. 2 Women were active in roles other than the three I will cover in this essay. They were especially active in helping the poor, sick and other women, some as "consecrated widows, deaconesses and 'respectable women", but this is beyond the scope of this essay (Philip Francis Esler, ed.

New Testament History, Culture, and Society: A Background to the Texts of the New Testament, 2019

T he New Testament is a rich resource for learning about the women who walked beside Jesus during his ministry, who served as patrons and key actors within the early church, and who spread the good news of salvation after Christ's death and resurrection. Thinking critically about women's roles in the Roman world of the New Testament is a task taken up by multiple academic disciplines and within the complexities of Christianity. 1 Thoughtful, faithful, analytical readers look to female exemplars in scripture and material culture to help both women and men utilize the narratives of women in their own devotional practices. New Testament women are presented in distinct scriptural accounts that underscore profoundly symbolic and archetypal meanings. Our understanding of these meanings is enhanced through the practice of careful reading, scriptural exegesis, and hermeneutics. These rigorous practices expand the way we see and understand women in ever-growing and capacious ways. Women in scripture are presented to us by their writers through a variety of lenses. We read their stories and narratives and often wish that our limited view of them was more informed or that we could see further than the distance offered by the text. Paying attention to the language and imagery of archetypes is important in studying scripture precisely because they speak directly to our understanding in both individual and communal ways. 2 This chapter focuses on a few specific archetypes of New Testament women that signify their position and power, while also considering the realia of lived religious experience for women. It is also important to examine the models for women who were not in traditional positions of power 29 Women and the World of the New Testament

HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies, 2011

The article, from a gender-sensitive perspective, is critical of patriarchal values that are harmful to women and other non-dominant groups. When the focus on women and women’s roles is usurped by male control, the androcentric self-interest of interpreters and authors becomes apparent. This is still the case in present-day theological studies, but is especially prevalent in premodern biblical writings, of which the Gospel of Matthew is an example. Recent mainstream Jesus studies demonstrate that women were welcomed in an ‘egalitarian’ way in the community of the first followers of Jesus. Women’s contribution to the first Christian faith community is highlighted. This stands in stark contrast to the silencing and invisibility of women in the surrounding patriarchal world of the ancient Middle East. Although Matthew does view women and other formerly excluded people as part of the faith community and equal recipients of God’s love, they are never treated as equal participants. The ar...