Hidden women

Several years ago I approached a pastor and asked, “Are there any verses in the Bible that speak about women as being leaders in the faith or in any way provide evidence that we are not just second-class citizens in the family of God?” He answered, “If you’re looking for something prescriptive, you won’t find it. However, it’s in the descriptions of women throughout the Bible that we find evidence of women’s courage, faith, and ferocity. It is in the example of Miriam who approached Pharaoh’s daughter to save her brother Moses and the way she danced with a tambourine and sang her people’s victory song after the Red Sea crashed down on Pharaoh’s army. It is in Ruth’s love and loyalty to her Mother-in-law and her willingness to break social mores by seducing Boaz into providing a life for her and Naomi. It is Esther who stood before Kings, Deborah who led armies, and Hagar who named God.” Since then I’ve read the Bible differently. It’s like re-reading a novel as an adult that we first read when we were too young to understand. It is filled with surprises and overlooked characters and glossed over stories tucked into the more popular narratives.  

It is with these fresh eyes that I am rediscovering the women in the New Testament. Growing up, I remember the female followers of Jesus were often portrayed as an adoring gaggle of groupies and nowhere near equal to their male counterparts in their importance to Jesus’ mission. For example, did you know that Jesus’ female followers were responsible for bankrolling his entire ministry? Yep, that purse that Judas kept was filled with money that the women earned. You may not have known this because it is mentioned just briefly in the Gospel of Luke:

​“Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with Him, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities—Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for Him from their substance.”
(Luke 8:1b-3 NKJV, emphasis added)

I like this translation of the passage because it adheres the closest to the original Greek and leaves out a troubling addition present in some English translations like the NIV, which states “These women were helping to support them out of their own means,” inferring that they were not, in fact, the sole financial supporters of Jesus’ ministry as is stated in the original Greek. 

In addition, I recently stumbled across a provocative wondering by Joan Taylor, a theologian out of King College. Taylor hypothesized that when Jesus sent his twelve Apostles out to preach, cast out demons, and anoint with healing oil, as described in Mark 6, that twelve women may have been sent out on this mission as well. Her reasoning comes from the verse that states Jesus “began to send them out two by two.” This phrase, “two by two,” is the same phrase used in the book of Genesis to describe how the animals entered the ark “two by two…male and female of all flesh” (Genesis 7:15-16). Perhaps this turn of phrase was meant to imply a male-female pairing, which would mean that perhaps Jesus didn’t send out 6 pairs of men but rather 12 pairs of men and women. She asserts that not only does this make hermeneutical (the study of Biblical translation) sense, it also makes practical sense. During Jesus’ time there was still a very strict separation of men and women for propriety and modesty. These barriers may have made it difficult for the twelve male apostles to minister to women on their journeys. However, if each man was paired with a woman and they were sent out together, they would have had a much larger reach. While the men were publicly proclaiming the gospel and ministering to the sick, women could have entered into all-female, domestic spaces where men would not have been allowed. These female followers of Jesus could then have preached the Gospel in these private spaces and ministered and performed Baptisms for women, which would have been too intimate for a man. 

Regardless of whether or not this was the case, there are countless stories of women in the New Testament that exhibit profound faith and courage that mark them as equally significant in the spread of Christianity. Mary, the mother of Jesus, provoked Jesus’ first public miracle (John 2:1-12); Joanna used her position of wealth and power as the wife of Herod’s steward to finance and support Jesus’ ministry (Luke 8:1-3); Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, convinced Jesus through her sorrow to raise Lazarus from the dead (John 11:32-44); the woman at the well was the first Samaritan to receive God’s inclusive grace; the female followers of Jesus were first to witness and proclaim Jesus’ resurrection (Mark 16:9-10, Luke 24: 1-10, John 20:11-18); Priscilla was a missionary (Romans 16:3); Junia earned the title Apostle (Romans 16:7); and Lydia opened her home to be one of the first Christian churches in Europe (Acts 16:11-40). 

I write this because we still seem to believe that there is some hierarchy in the eyes of God—that men were created to rule over women, that wealth and power are a sign of God’s favor, that we are measured by our own personal attributes and not by God’s abundant love and grace—and these beliefs continue to do incredible damage. However, the Bible is very clear that once we clothe ourselves with Christ, all of these personal attributes go away, and we all become equal heirs of God’s promise: 

“for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. and if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” 
(Galatians 3:26-29, NRSVUE)