Women In The Early Church | What Scripture And History Actually Show

Part 2: Women in the Early Church – What Scripture and History Actually Show

The women who followed Jesus assumed ministry in the earliest Christian communities alongside men. They were the last disciples to be found at the foot of the cross (Luke 23:55–56) and the first at the empty tomb, witnesses to the truth of the risen Christ (Luke 24:9–11). Women, at this time, were simply not considered credible witnesses, so the fact that the resurrection is announced first to the women who had followed Jesus is more significant than we perhaps realise.

We are given some insight into how the gospel would shift and reorient the relationship between men and women, and particularly the experience of women themselves, through many of the synoptic gospel stories.

One such story is that of Mary and Martha, two sisters who, with their brother Lazarus, had come to know Jesus through his itinerant ministry and had become very dear to him. It’s recorded that Jesus visited Bethany, their hometown, at least eleven times, and it’s one of these visits that’s recorded for us in Luke 10.

According to Luke’s account, it appears that Martha was the homeowner, and it is she who welcomes Jesus and his disciples into her home, busying herself with preparing a meal for them. Her sister Mary, however, isn’t preoccupied with hospitality or meal preparation – she instead takes a seat at Jesus’ feet and listens to his teaching.

At first glance, this detail may seem unremarkable to us today. But without an understanding of the cultural context in which this story unfolds, we can easily miss how countercultural and profound Mary’s actions really are.

Mary’s posture – ‘sitting at Jesus’ feet’- was the traditional position of a disciple learning from a rabbi. It wasn’t passive; it was intentional, a recognised way of showing that one was ready to learn and be taught. Paul the Apostle later uses the same expression in Acts 22:3, describing himself as having been ‘educated at the feet of Gamaliel,’ a highly respected rabbi in Israel.

One of the primary duties of a rabbi, or teacher, was to teach Torah. A rabbi would train disciples to emulate him (and even surpass him in knowledge and the practical application of the Torah). However, this was an exclusively male domain – women were completely excluded from interacting with or studying the Torah.

Yet the gospel of Luke makes it clear that Mary was assuming the posture of a disciple, that she was listening and learning at the feet of an esteemed ‘teacher in Israel’, and further, that Jesus commended Mary’s actions and refused to enforce the religious norms of the day in order to exclude her from this circle of learning. She was encouraged to take her place among the men, learning in quietness as was the acceptable posture of all rabbinic students. These are thoughts that Paul the Apostle will pick up in his letter to Timothy (one of the ‘tricky passages’ I’ll look at in Part 3).

“Jesus’s valuing of women through the gospels is unmistakable. In a culture in which women were devalued and often exploited, it underscores their equal status before God and his desire for personal relationship with them.” — Confronting Christianity, Rebecca McLaughlin

Women actively participated in praying and prophesying within the early church (Luke 2:36, Acts 21:9, 1 Corinthians 11:5) and were equal recipients of the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1–4, Acts 2:17, Acts 10:45). They preached the good news alongside Jesus and later Paul, taught the new believers ‘the way of God’, and provided pastoral care and discipleship in the early church (Romans 16:1–2, Romans 16:3–5, Luke 8:1–3, Acts 18:24–26, 1 Corinthians 16:19, Philippians 4:2–3). The reality of their significant involvement is shown throughout Paul’s letters, the book of Acts, and other early Christian writings.

The last chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans begins with a commendation of ‘Phoebe, a deacon (Greek: diakonon) of the church of Cenchreae’, followed by a mention of the married couple Priscilla and Aquila, as ‘co-workers’ with Paul (and their home as ‘the meeting place of the church’). Paul goes on to list twenty-six people involved in church ministry, ten of whom are women. His letters are among the earliest Christian writings we have and provide strong historical evidence of the important involvement of both men and women in the new Christian movement.

Priscilla and Aquila are mentioned several times in scripture, always together, and were pivotal supporters of the newly planted church at Ephesus. It’s while they’re there that they instruct Apollos, recently arrived from Alexandria, an eloquent speaker and follower of Jesus, more accurately ‘in the way of God‘ (Acts 18:26). Priscilla’s name appears first here (and in three other places), perhaps signaling her higher social status or her superior teaching capabilities. Either way, together they exercised leadership in the early church.

Scripture reveals that throughout God’s story, women have shared significantly in contributing to the kingdom mission of God (Exodus 15:20, Judges 4:4, Isaiah 8:3, 2 Kings 22:14, 2 Chronicles 34:22, Proverbs 31:1, Luke 2:37–38).

What becomes abundantly clear in the New Testament is that despite the cultural norms or preconceived notions of the people to whom the gospel was preached, a seismic shift occurred in how people – men and women, slaves and masters, Jews and Gentiles – related to and viewed one another as followers of Jesus.

The church – the body of Christ – is made up of all of God’s people, who participate together as a ‘kingdom of priests’ and ‘ministers of reconciliation’, entrusted with God’s vital message for humanity (1 Peter 2:9, 2 Corinthians 5:18–19).

The church, then, is not merely a collection of redeemed and sanctified individuals – it is a collective, a community of people who now live a ‘resurrected life’ in the light and glory of the King, Jesus. Together, they form a new kind of humanity, a new creation, who, through the redeeming work of Christ, are invited to participate fully in the mission and purpose God intended for humanity from the very beginning.

The kind of church that Paul had in mind when he wrote is organic – a living, breathing body, in which every member, both men and women, contribute to the function, health, and growth of that body. “What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.” (1 Corinthians 14:26, see also Hebrews 3:12–13, Hebrews 10:33–35)

Every member of the church is a valued part of the body of Christ and the Apostle Paul gives a great deal of loving instruction in his letters as to how each person in the church is to behave towards and care for ‘the other’.

“The term organic church does not refer to a particular model of church. (We believe that no perfect model exists.) Instead, we believe that the New Testament vision of church is organic. An organic church is a living, breathing, dynamic, mutually participatory, every-member-functioning, Christ-centered, communal expression of the body of Christ.” – Frank Viola, Pagan Christianity: Exposing the Roots of Our Church Practices

So how did we end up with such strict limitations around women’s roles in church today? Often, it comes down to just a few verses. In the last part of this series, we’ll take a closer look at the three New Testament passages most commonly used to restrict women’s involvement in the church – and examine whether those interpretations hold up when viewed in light of context, culture, and the gospel story as a whole.