| Jesus' View of Women |
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It is so tragic that so many men who think of themselves as "Christians" don't actually follow the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth at all, but are instead followers of Paul of Tarsus, a patron saint of male chauvinism if there ever was one, whose teaching has proven to be a treasure-trove of materials for males who seem to have such a low esteem for themselves that the only way they know to feel good about themselves is to promote disdain half of the human race. When, on the other hand, people have been nourished on the teaching and example of Jesus of Nazareth, they are likely to have a much more favorable view of women, and of other people as well, whom conservatives "Christians" have constantly fought to "keep in their place". |
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| In a time and place where women were not even "second-class citizens", Jesus showed an extraordinary sympathy and respect for women. What a difference there is between the writings of Paul of Tarsus, , which over the centuries and to this day have given Conservatives so much material with which to put down and oppress women, and the teaching and example of Jesus of Nazareth. these are all of the significant references to "woman" or "women", in the order of their appearance, in the four Gospels : |
[paralleled in Mark 5:25-33 & Luke 8:43-47]
[ paralleled in Mark 7:25-30 ]
After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.' This is my message for you." So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."
[ paralleled in Luke 13:34 ]
[paralleled in Matthew 5:20 . . . 32 & Luke 8:43-47]
Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him ― that she is a sinner." Jesus spoke up and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." "Teacher," he replied, "Speak." "A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon answered, "I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt." And Jesus said to him, "You have judged rightly." Then, turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little." Then he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
{ Luke 10:38 } Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. { Luke 11:27 } While he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!"
{ Luke 15:8 } "What woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?
Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?" Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" . . . Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done." So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."
Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, sir." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again." { John 16:21 } When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. { John 18:16-17 } but Peter was standing outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in. . . The woman said to Peter, "You are not also one of this man's disciples, are you?" He said, "I am not." { John 19:26-27 } When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
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In his outstanding book on problem texts in the bible, The Sins of Scripture, Bishop John Spong has a couple of excellent chapters on sexuality and womankind, including this passage, on page 108:
"It is a shame that by denigrating the woman called Magdalene during Christian history, the church destroyed the healthiest female symbol in ancient Christianity. There is no evidence in the Bible to support the familiar claim that Magdalene was a prostitute. That charge was fabricated beginning in the second century of the Common Era, when Greek dualism portrayed flesh as evil. This flesh-and-blood woman at Jesus' side was perceived by the dualists as a threat to his holiness. So the church set about trashing her reputation. Church leaders began to identify her with the woman taken in adultery in John's gospel (8:1-11), though there is not a shred of evidence to support this identification. Just to be safe, they also identified her with that previously mentioned but still unnamed woman of the city in Luke's gospel (7:36-50), though once again there is not a shred of evidence to support this identification. With her character in tatters, Mary Magdalene was left to play the role of the harlot in Christian history. In her place at Jesus' side, the church installed the sexless, and therefore unthreatening, virgin mother, who was docile, dependent and passive. With the two major female figures in the Christ story relegated to the classical roles in male fantasy of virgin and whore, there was no viable female role model left in the Christian story." |
| Has Paul of Tarsus taught us that Jesus was married?
"Paul had mounted a vigorous defense of celibacy or remaining unmarried. Although he does not require it of his followers, he asserts that he lives the single non-sexual life and he strongly recommends it as the most practical as well as the most spiritually devoted lifestyle. He writes, in this regard, 'I wish that all were as I myself am,' (1 Corinthians 7:7-8). . . One can conclude that if Paul had known Jesus to have been single or unmarried, living a celibate life, he would have mentioned it prominently. In fact it would have been one of his main points. It would have been irresistible. He mounts every possible defense of celibacy, but in the end is only able to appeal to his own example. Imagine how much more rigorously he could have argued had he been able to say, "follow me here, as I follow Christ." In this particular case I think his silence is "deafening." As with Cephas (Peter), the other apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, he knows that having a wife as a companion is the norm and pattern in the group. Paul must have known that Jesus was married," [ http://jesusdynasty.com/blog/2007/05/01/was-jesus-married/ ] |
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"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, Republican state senator Kay O'Connor, 63, who served in the Kansas legislature from 1993 through 2006 received national attention for her negative view of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, , which gave women the right to vote back in 1920. "I think the 19th Amendment, while it's not an evil in and of itself, is a symptom of something I don't approve of. . . The 19th Amendment is around because men weren't doing their jobs, and I think that's sad. I believe the man should be the head of the family (and the only one with the right to vote). The woman should be the heart of the family." |
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Bishops told to take hard line on issue of gender
The Guardian ,July 31, 2004,
The actual DOCUMENT is http://www.zenit.org/english/ When Pope John Paul II arrived at the pearly gates, he got this unexpected greeting from St. Peter, "Frankly, you're lucky to be here, John Paul." "Why?" the pope responded, "What did I do that was so bad?" "God was very angry", St. Peter answered, "with your preventing the ordination of women ." "God's upset about that?", John Paul querried. St. Peter explained, "Not just upset; She's furious." Anyone who thinks the Roman Catholic hierarchy's treatment of women is a laughing matter, however, is sadly mistaken, as the following example illustrates all too well:
"When the nun and physician Maura O'Donohue of the Roman Catholic Aid Agency, CAFOD, prepared a report on the rape of nuns by priests (all over the world), she must have expected the shocking information contained in the report to trigger immediate papal action. In her report the author cites cases in which priests and missionaries forced nuns to have sex with them and in several instances not only raped but also obliged the nuns to have abortions. In one case a mother superior, who repeatedly complained to her local bishop that priests in his diocese had made twenty-nine of her nuns pregnant, was removed from her position by the bishop. (Notice that no offending "MAN of God" is punished, but this virtuous WOMAN IS!) The report, which was written and shown to the Vatican in 1994, covers cases in twenty-three countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. Dr. Ada María Isasi-Díaz is a Theology Professor at Drew University who has written a book of Christian Theology from the perspective of the Latina woman: See the English version at http://users.drew.edu/aisasidi/cd/TOC.html or the Spanish version at http://users.drew.edu/aisasidi/SpanishBooklet.htm Here is a great article by the Catholic sociologist priest, Andrew Greeley, Church Not Speaking Up for Women http://www.suntimes.com/cgi-bin/print.cgi Beethoven's "Mother's Overture" and the disgusting way in which FOX news prostitutes its women anchors And here is an official pronouncement by the then future Pope Benedict XVI, under the name of Pope John Paul II, on what these male celibates think of "feminism": The Roman Catholic Church vs. modern "Feminism". Here are indications that women were more integrated into the ministry in the earliest years than is normally believed: "There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher." (Luke 2:36) "The next day we left and came to Caesarea; and we went into the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the seven, and stayed with him. He had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophecy."(Acts 21: 8-9 ) "I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae, so that you may welcome her in the Lord as is fitting for the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor of many and of myself as well." {Romans 16: 1-2) "Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives who were in prison with me; they are prominent among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was." (Romans 16:7 ) Check out the There are still many parts of the world where women are stripped of their basic human rights. For example, in Nepal, women are considered "unclean" during childbirth and consigned to the cowshed - often cutting their own umbilical cords with a sickle still dirty from farm work. The result is one of the highest rates of maternal mortality on earth. Sadly, as a general rule, women are more vulnerable than men when it comes to poverty:
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