What Can We Learn from Luke About Jesus’ Attitudes to Women? Essay

Throughout history men have been leading the battles, conquering worlds, discovering new lands, but behind every good man is a good woman! So, as I read this week, I learned an enormous amount of information about the diversity of the different roles women play according to where they might live or what era they grew up in. I will address the rights that women had, how they are viewed in society, the comparison between these women and the ones from the New Testament, the evidence to support my claim.

To begin with, she pointed out examples of how women are treated unfairly in society. She began to point out several double standards. The wife states, “about accused Lamech’s bigamy? Abraham was a holy man I know, And as I understand it Jacob also; And each of them had wives now, more than one, as many other holy men have done.” (61-65) Here, she shows that there is truly a double standard for women who behave in an exact manner as men.

Since the Christian religion was a large and prominent force in the everyday life in the average person in the 17th and 18th century, the Bible was a large influence in how the woman was seen in society as it says, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church…” (Ephesians 5:22-23, 33). The Bible is that the woman was ruled by her husband, that she didn’t even have her own head, and cannot think for herself because it was expected by the very faith that she must submit to her husband. The Holy Book also says that the woman was created from the rib of the man, which it is known now as completely preposterous, so it implies that the woman is inferior to man because she was created from man, because heaven forbid that any evidence point towards that it is man that came from a woman.

The stories told about women in the bible illustrate the importance of their role and contribution to society. Although the Bible does not explain God’s relationship with women as with Moses and other prophets, it illustrates love and devotion women had for Him. The stories of the bible describe brave, nurturing, and God fearing women whose decisions impacted the existence of the Israelites.

When discussing the Bible’s New Testament, there are several individuals aside from Jesus that gander a lot of attention. It is not uncommon to hear pastors and priest preaching about the disciples that walked with the messiah during his time of great works during a Sunday service. There are many lessons to be learned from the experiences of and trails faced by the men that knew best. However, even though the Bible is considerable a masculine text, there are many notable women sprinkled throughout it. Most notable, of course, would be the mother of Jesus, Mary. She made several appearances throughout the Gospel from the moment the angel came to her and said “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28) to let her know that she was going to be the mother of the “Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32) to the moment she stood witness to the crucifixion of that Son. Today, after Jesus, Mary – sometimes also called The Virgin Mary – is among those most revered in the Bible. However, she is not the only Mary to have close ties to the Biblical savior. There are actually at least three other Marys to walk along side with Jesus at some point, but none more conversational than Mary Magdalene.

Mark 5:21-43 is a story within a story, which begins and ends with a man named Jairus and his dying daughter while the middle illustrates a story of a hemorrhaging woman. Jesus entered a town and was approached by Jairus, a leader of the synagogue who begged Jesus to heal his dying daughter to which Jesus agreed and followed. The passage is then interrupted by the story of the hemorrhaging woman. Jesus was pursued by a large crowd including a woman who suffered from hemorrhages for twelve years. The woman said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” (Mark 5:28 NRSV) After this statement and her contact with Jesus’ clothes, she was healed. Jesus noticed the power leave his body and asked

by each one of them. Men are allowed to do as they please in the church as far

Many people today have misconceptions about how women were viewed during the Medieval Catholic time period (15th century) and the Protestant Reformation (16th century). To be honest, women have always made significant contributions to their culture and life several times in the past and even still today. All throughout history there is evidence that women have been regarded highly of. In “Woman In Catholic Tradition” by Edgar Schmiedeler, St. Jerome quoted

In Luke 24:13-35, the story of the risen Jesus was explained, as was the aftermath of the event. Simply put, after Jesus died and was put in the tomb, a woman went looking to witness what had happened. When the woman saw an empty tomb she went on to explain to the town what she saw. Two men were taking on the walk to Emmaus, these men were claimed to be outside of the normal community, and were described as being a queer couple. The men encountered a stranger, who was the actual risen Christ. The two vent to the stranger about the death of their beloved God, not knowing that the stranger in which they are speaking to is him. The men invite the stranger to sleep and to enjoy a dinner with them. During the dinner the two men recognized rituals which were practiced in Jesus’ sermons. They soon realized that this stranger that they encounter on the streets was the one and only Jesus Christ. In this story of Luke, I believe that it is based on two queer men who are confused and having pain caused within their community; forcing them to become outsiders. Jesus recognizes the pain and grief that many experience on

The four gospels are the closest things we have to a primary source for the life of Jesus. Each one recounts the same story, but with different details and focuses. During my research of the gospels, I noticed that Jesus seemed to be a large advocate of women’s rights for his time period. He changed the laws of divorce to be more equal between the sexes, and treated everyone he met equally, regardless of their gender or ethnic background. Additionally, there are prominent female figures that played a key role in the story of Jesus, such as Mary Magdalene, Susanna, and Joanna, who followed him throughout his ministry. While women were present in the story of Jesus, I noticed that the gospels all seem to have different representations and interpretations of the women in the various stories. When Jesus fed the crowd of five thousand people in the gospel of Mark, “Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men” (New Oxford Annotated Bible, Mark. 6.44), meaning that the crowd was comprised entirely of men. However, in the gospel of Matthew, the story is slightly different: “And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children” (Matt. 14.21). However, despite the various differences in representation of women in the gospels, what I found most interesting was that none of the gospels mention women being present at the last supper, despite the fact that Jesus had numerous close female followers. These observations lead me to ask the following

First, a woman’s position in the church as a teacher has many standards set by God. The Lord sets some standards of who a woman is to teach in the church. Gilbert Bilezikian in his book Beyond Sex Roles, states, “According to the Epistle, women were

The only thing a woman could do to escape this harsh judgment was to either enter a nunnery or marry and serve a man. By doing this, she was serving two lords: God and her husband. To not serve a husband through consummation and not serve God by entering a nunnery, would be viewed as a complete rejection of God. Thus, women were not only restrained by the political standards enforced men, but also the consciousness of the Church that

Gender roles, and the mere existence of a gender binary, has been a recent topic of conversation for many churches, theologians, and individual believers. As the cultural pressure to remove gender-specific limitations builds, many of those aforementioned have turned to scripture for answers. Seldom are women’s roles in the Old Testament characterized by decision making or personal merits. Rather, a woman’s capacity to produce an heir for their husband complements his dominance and responsible faithfulness and allows God’s plan to be fulfilled through their combined efforts. In the New Testament, through the transformative power of Christ, prominent women became less of an anomaly, but were still held to a different set of standards and expectations than men and were usually still praised according to their actions and their faith. The Pauline epistles, written in the context in which the Church still exists today: the age to come, provide a basis for today’s understanding of women’s roles in marriage and in church leadership. Although there are many instances of women fulfilling God’s plans and proving their worth among the community of Christians, the biblically normative role of women is to avoid authoritative church leadership positions and remain submissive in situations of teaching and interpreting the Word.

In today’s society women are given ample opportunity just as much as men. In some countries, such as middle-eastern nations that is not the case. Muslim women are often perceived to be submissive to Muslim men and unequal. Mohammed never taught for women to be treated as lower class citizens. Nonetheless, the blame is pointed towards the religion of Islam. The Islamic religion began as all monotheist religions representing a belief in one God and moral standards. In the following essay I will discuss and elaborate what Mohammed taught, how women lived in early Islamic society, and what it has become.

The Bible is controversial on the matter of gender equality. There are numerous contradictions about the status of women in Christian society. Historically, the most prominent interpretation has been rather negative toward women. The Christian Church, with principally male authority, emphasizes the idea that women are inferior to man. They focus on Eve’s sin leading to a punishment that “her husband will have authority over her.” (Drury, 34)