the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Woman
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or The position of woman in any section or period of society is a recognized test of the contemporary level of morality and general enlightenment. Apostolic Christianity need not fear this test. In fact, the exaltation of womanhood is justly claimed as one of the best examples of what Christianity has done for the world. Doubtless this feature of its influence has often been exaggerated, either by painting too darkly the vices of paganism or by neglecting the actual Limitations of historical Christianity. We must certainly beware lest we take the sixth Satire of Juvenal as descriptive of the character and conduct of women in general in the 1st cent. of the Roman Empire. ‘At the worst, these vices infected only a comparatively small class, idle, luxurious, enervated by the slave system, depraved by the example of a vicious court.… Both the literature and the inscriptions of that age make us acquainted with a very different kind of woman’ (S. Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius2, p. 87). Nor must we forget that the just rights of married women were much more fully recognized by Roman law than by the ecclesiastical law which replaced it: ‘it is by the tendency of their doctrines to keep alive and consolidate the former [proprietary disabilities of married females], that the expositors of the Canon Law have deeply injured civilisation’ (H. S. Maine, Ancient Law, new ed., 1907, p. 163; cf. EBr 11 xxviii. 783). J. Donaldson (one of the editors of the Ante-Nicene Christian Library) indeed went so far as to say that ‘in the first three centuries I have not been able to see that Christianity had any favourable effect on the position of women, but, on the contrary, that it tended to lower their character and contract the range of their activity’ (CR lvi. [1889] 433). So far as this somewhat questionable judgment is sound, it relates to the asceticism of the Church subsequent to the Apostolic Age. The Pauline ‘asceticism’ springs from a different source, i.e. the expectation of a rapidly approaching end to all earthly things. This is an important fact to remember, for the attitude of apostolic Christianity to woman is largely due to the interaction of two distinct principles-the fundamental Christian assertion of the intrinsic worth of human personality, and the eschatological foreshortening of the time, which could not fail to hinder the social application of the former principle.
1. The religious equality of woman with man before God is clearly asserted by Paul: ‘as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3:27-28). The mutual dependence of man and woman, and their common origin in God, teach that the male has no exclusive place ‘in the Lord’ (1 Corinthians 11:11-12). This result of the evangelical evaluation of human nature (see art. Man) lifts the Christian idea of woman clearly above that of the contemporary Judaism, which in several noticeable ways differentiated woman religiously from man (cf. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums2’, p. 490 f.). The morning service of Judaism still retains the ancient thanksgiving: ‘Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast not made me a woman’ (Authorised Daily Prayer Book, p. 6). We naturally think of the ‘Court of the Women’ in the Temple, beyond which no woman might pass. ‘Her work is to send her children to be taught in the synagogue: to attend to domestic concerns, and leave her husband free to study in the schools: to keep house for him till he returns’ (C. Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers2. Cambridge, 1897, p. 15). If such significant limitations as these are found in contemporary Judaism, notwithstanding the general humanity of its relationships and the intensity of the national religion, it need not surprise us to find no effective assertion of the religious equality of woman emanating from Roman patriotism or Greek philosophy. Plato, it is true, had argued that the differentiae of sex ought not to constitute any barrier to the exercise of a woman’s personal powers: ‘None of the occupations which comprehend the ordering of a state belong to woman as woman, nor yet to man us man; but natural gifts are to be found here and there, in both sexes alike; and, so far as her nature is concerned, the woman is admissible to all pursuits as well as the man; though in all of them the woman is weaker than the man’ (Republic, 455, Eng. tr. 3 by J. Ll. Davies and D. J. Vaughan, London, 1906, p. 161 f.). But this theoretical judgment relates to social, not religious, equality. Probably the nearest parallel to the welcome given to woman in Christian worship could be found in the cults of Isis and Magna Mater, which became so popular in the early Christian centuries (not to be found in Mithraism; cf. F. Cumont, Les Mystères de Mithra3, Brussels, 1913, p. 183). To the welcome which those cults gave to woman they owed no small measure of their success; by its deeper satisfaction of woman’s needs Christianity was helped to win its victory over them. That there is much in the gospel of the Cross to appeal to the peculiar nature and temperament of woman needs no argument. There is some measure of truth in the assertion that ‘the change from the heroic to the saintly ideal, from the ideal of Paganism to the ideal of Christianity, was a change from a type which was essentially male to one which was essentially feminine’ (Lecky, History of European Morals8, vol. ii. p. 362). But the full truth is seen rather in the perfect humanity of Christ; as F. W. Robertson has well said (Sermons, 2nd ser., London, 1875, p. 231): ‘His heart had in it the blended qualities of both sexes. Our humanity is a whole made up of two opposite poles of character-the manly and the feminine.’
2. A larger life of social fellowship and service was thrown open to women by apostolic Christianity. The story of the primitive Church significantly begins with the inclusion of women in the apostolic meetings for prayer (Acts 1:14). Their presence and activity are clearly illustrated by the references to Tabitha (9:36), Mary the mother of John Mark (12:12), Lydia (16:14), Damaris (17:34), Priscilla (18:2). The story of Sapphira (5:7f.) implies the comparatively independent membership and responsibility of women within the Christian community. Priscilla illustrates their active evangelism (18:26). Attention is expressly called to the ‘multitudes’ of women converts added to the Church (5:14). The story of Thekla (Acts of Paul and Thekla, in F. C. Conybeare’s Monuments of Early Christianity2, London, 1896, pp. 61-88) doubtless rests on some historic basis. ‘Thekla became the type of the female Christian teacher, preacher, and baptiser, and her story was quoted as early as the second century as a justification of the right of women to teach and to baptise’ (W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire, London, 1893, p. 375). Clement of Rome, at the end of the century, refers to the sufferings endured by women under the Neronian persecution (Ep. ad Cor. i. 6). The spread of Christianity amongst women of high rank is probably exemplified in Pomponia Graecina (Tacitus, Annals, xiii. 32), the wife of Plautius, the conqueror of Britain. Another probable example is supplied by Domitilla (banished in a.d. 96), the niece of the Emperor Domitian (Dio Cassius, lxvii. 14).
The details of Church life which we gather from the Pauline Epistles, particularly as to the Church at Corinth, amply confirm what has been said (e.g. Philippians 4:2-3, 1 Corinthians 1:11; the numerous salutations to women in Romans 16). Paul speaks of Phœbe as a ‘deaconess’ of the Church at Cenchreae (Romans 16:1), in terms that suggest her ability and will to give generous help to poorer Christians. The deaconesses of whom Pliny speaks, early in the 2nd cent. (Ep. x. 96), were slave girls. It is clear that women equally with men could be regarded as the organs of the prophetic spirit in the Corinthian Church (cf. Priscilla and Maximilla among the Montanists), since Paul desires that every woman praying or prophesying shall have her head veiled (1 Corinthians 11:5). This is a corollary from the admission of women into the Church, since Christian fellowship is essentially constituted by the gift of the Spirit (Romans 8:14). To this proof of woman’s religious equality with man there seems to be no necessary contradiction in the fact that Paul a little later (1 Corinthians 14:34) forbids women to speak (λαλεῖν) in the churches (see, however, the Commentaries on this disputed passage); the contrast simply shows that the Spirit could over-ride ordinary social conventions (cf. the prophesying of the four daughters of Philip the evangelist, Acts 21:9; the virginity of these, as of the daughters named in 1 Corinthians 7:36, does not yet constitute an ‘order’). In the Pastoral Epistles we find a regular roll of ‘widows’ (see art. Widows), who have provision made for them by the Church (1 Timothy 5:3 f.; cf. Acts 6:1; Acts 9:39; Acts 9:41). Thus Christianity met the physical needs of a class specially likely to suffer (cf. E. Renan, Les Apôtres, Paris, 1866, p. 122), as it met the spiritual needs of women in general.
3. The place of women in marriage gained a higher interpretation. The Greek world is characterized by the practical absence of family life in the best sense; the Greek wife lived in seclusion and ignorance. ‘The courtesan was the one free woman of Athens’ (Lecky, op. cit., ii. 293). The Roman matron had indeed held a high place in the ancient Roman home, though she passed into the absolute legal power of her husband by the older type of religions marriage. Under the early Roman Empire, the position of married women was often one of social and legal independence (Friedländer, Roman Life and Manners, Eng. tr. , i. 236), but this was the outcome of the newer type of marriage as a civil contract; its laxity of divorce and the break-up of the older family life show its peculiar perils. Roman morality, in fact, broke down, here as elsewhere, because it had not found its reinforcement and transfiguration in religion (cf. W. Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People, London, 1911, p. 466). It was in the identification of morality and religion that the strength of Judaism lay. The Jewish wife, it is true, held a legal position decidedly inferior to that of the husband. But the relationship was redeemed by the quality of the humanity which was so typical a product of the OT religion. Consequently, the family life of the Hebrew-Jewish people, in some measure, prepared for the applications of the principle of woman’s religions equality made by apostolic Christianity (cf. the fine portrait of the ‘virtuous woman’ in Proverbs 31:10 f.). What these were may be seen from Paul’s statement of the mutual relationship of husband and wife (Ephesians 5:22-33). Not only is the spirit of that relationship to be the new law of love, but the relationship itself is made sacramental by its comparison with that existing between Christ and the Church. We can hardly exaggerate the gulf that separates this idea of marriage from that in which the relationship is primarily physical. Indeed, the religious disabilities of women seem to rest, at least in part, on primitive sexual tabus (cf. W., Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites2, London, 1894, pp. 299 n. , 379 n.; A. E, Crawley, The Mystic Rose, London, 1902, p. 52). Christianity, in principle, if not always in practice, has lifted woman above the sexual level, at which her chief raison d’être is the gratification of man’s passions, and has joined her personality to his, as contributory to a common social life. Marriage is to be held in honour among all (Hebrews 13:4; cf. 1 Timothy 4:3). Paul, indeed, prefers celibacy because of the peculiar conditions of the time (i.e. on eschatological grounds). But he recognizes both the innocence of the sexual tie and the equal claims of the man and the woman in regard to it (1 Corinthians 7:3 f.)-surely a disproof of any ‘asceticism’ in the ordinary sense of the word. The emphasis on chastity (6:13f., Ephesians 5:3), so characteristic of early Christian ethics, is based on the principle that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19); the condemnation of extramarital sexual relationships is the natural complement of the attitude to marriage itself (1 Thessalonians 4:4). The moral tie that unites the Christian even to an unbelieving partner is fully recognized (1 Corinthians 7:12 f.); the unbelieving husband may be won by the conduct of the Christian wife (1 Peter 3:1), which is a better adornment than that of outward apparel (v. 3f.; cf. 1 Timothy 2:9). The ideals of Christianity in the 1st cent. in regard to womanly conduct are well summarized in the exhortation of Clement of Rome: ‘Let us guide our women toward that which is good: let them show forth their lovely disposition of purity; let them prove their sincere affection of gentleness; let them make manifest the moderation of their tongue through their silence; let them show their love, not in factious preferences but without partiality towards all them that fear God, in holiness’ (ad Cor. xxi. 7, The Apostolic Fathers, tr. J. B. Lightfoot, London, 1891; cf. Titus 2:3 f.).
4. The limitations of apostolic Christianity in regard to women were such as were inevitable from its historical origin and eschatological outlook. The Jewish training of Paul, for example, accounts for much in his attitude, such as the argument that women should be veiled ‘because of the angels’ (1 Corinthians 11:10). The expectation of a speedy end largely explains his preference of celibacy to marriage (1 Corinthians 7:7; cf. Revelation 14:4), which is certainly not due to his Judaism (cf. Bousset, op. cit., p. 493). The asceticism of Paul must be ascribed to a cause different from and more innocent than the dualistic (Greek) asceticism of the later Church. Naturally, some of the premisses in the NT arguments for woman’s subjection to man no longer appeal to us, even if the conclusion does (e.g. 1 Timothy 2:12 f.). Westermarck’s criticism of this ultimately Jewish emphasis on woman’s subjection to man, as being ‘agreeable to the selfishness of men’ (Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, i. 654), ignores the atmosphere which redeems it, i.e. its moral and religious interpretation in the Christianity of the NT. We should rather recognize, as Dobschütz does (Christian Life in the Primitive Church, p. 377) in regard to Paul’s asceticism, that ‘Christ triumphs in him over the spirit of the age.’
Literature-L. Friedländer, Sittengeschichte Roms8, Leipzig, 1910, Roman Life and Manners, Eng. tr. of 7th ed., 3 vols., London, 1908-09, vol. i. ch. v.; W. E. H. Lecky, History of European Morals8, 2 vols., do., 1888, ii. 275-372; C. L. Brace, Gesta Christi, do., 1882, bk. i. chs. iii., iv.; R. S. Storrs, The Divine Origin of Christianity, do., 1885, pp. 146 f., 466f.; C. von Weizsäcker, Das apostolische Zeitalter der christlichen kirche, Freiburg i. B., 1886. Eng. tr. , The Apostolic Age, 2 vols., London, 1895, bk. v. ch. iii. § 7; J. Donaldson. ‘The Position of Women among the Early Christians,’ CR lvi. [1889] 433; J. Gottschick, ‘Ehe, christliche’, in PRE 3 v. 182f.; W. F. Adeney, art. ‘Woman,’ In HDB lv. 933-936; E. von Dobschütz. Die urchristliehe Gemeinde, Leipzig, 1902, Eng. tr. , Christian Life in the Primitive Church, London, 1904; A. Harnack, Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums2, Leipzig, 1906, Eng. tr. , The Mission and Expansion of Christianity2, 2 vols., London, 1908, vol. ii. ch. ii. § 4 (best survey of the data); S. Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius2, do., 1905; J. McCabe, The Religion of Woman, do., 1905 (attacks the Christian claims); W. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums im neutest. Zeitalter2, Berlin, 1906; E. Westermarck, The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, i. [London, 1906] ch. xxvi., ii. [do., 1908] ch. xl.; T. G. Tucker, Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul, do., 1910, ch. xvi.; A. Robertson and A Plummer, ICC , ‘1 Corinthians,’ Edinburgh, 1911, pp. 130-162, 230-236, 324-328; C. Clemen, Primitive Christianity and its Non-Jewish Sources, Edinburgh. 1912, Index, s.v. ‘Woman’; W. M. Ramsay, The Teaching of Paul in Terms of the Present Day, London, 1913, sect. xlv., ‘The Family in the Teaching of Paul.’
H. Wheeler Robinson.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Woman'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/w/woman.html. 1906-1918.
