Role and status of women in the New Testament

• Jesus clearly regarded women highly
• Jesus taught women in the same way as he taught his (male) disciples, for example, when he ate with Martha and Mary and when he spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well
• Jesus defended the woman to anointed him during a meal at Bethany for her action and rebuked those who criticised her
• • Throughout Jesus' ministry, he has been accompanied by women as well as by his disciples and they assisted at his burial
  • But feminists would object to their role as they had cared for his needs; they were not carrying out preaching and ministry as the twelve disciples were, and after his resurrection, Jesus did not commission them as future leaders
• Pauls letter to the Galatian Christians:

  Galatians: 'There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus'
• One of the most important statements about human status in the New Testament is found in Paul's letter to the Galatian Christians. In it, he states explicitly that because all are now 'in Christ', racial, social and gender distinctions do not apply; they have no meaning
• When Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, he told them to show respect to Phoebe who was a woman deacon, and he commanded a number of other women who were fellow workers with Paul and were 'working hard in the Lord'
• A negative attitude to women is shown in Paul's first letter to the Christians in Corinth. Taken as it stands, it displays a view that would now be regarded as sexist.
• 1 Corinthians 14:34: 'Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, they must be in submission, as the law says'
• In Ephesians 5, women are portrayed as subordinate to their husbands and are told to be submissive to their authority