Female leads: Richard Stewart investigates the women who knew Jesus

‘That probably surprised the men present.’

I once felt moved in Meeting for Worship to give ministry that included a reading of the first nine verses of John’s Gospel. After an appropriate time for reflection I was surprised when a fellow member stood up and said the problem with the Bible was its masculine domination. Actual masculine pronouns were quoted to support this belief. I didn’t respond, as ministry should never degenerate into a debating session. I didn’t follow it up later during refreshments either, perhaps because I knew the person concerned was a nontheist. I had thought that the passage was probably the one most likely to resonate with nontheists, since it includes the phrase ‘that was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world’; this could have been the origin of ‘the light that is in us all’ from Advices & queries 5.

On my return home I did a quick skimming of the four gospels covering Jesus’ ministry and found at least sixty references to women, with about half being related to a specific person.

Even before the birth of Jesus, Mary’s ‘Magnificat’ (Luke 1:46-55), which she gives after her visitation by an angel, was completely different to any female utterance in the Old Testament. ‘From now on all generations will call me blessed,’ she says, along with those famous lines: ‘He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away’. Later, when Jesus, with some initial reluctance, turned water into wine at the Cana wedding, it was Mary, not Joseph, who commanded the servants ‘whatsoever he saith unto you, do it’ (John 2:5). She must have had some authority as she was a guest, not their employer.

Although all the disciples were male, we are told that female ‘camp followers’ accompanied Jesus and his disciples and ministered to them.

Most of the parables of Jesus have a male central character, but notable exceptions included ‘The Widow’s Mite’, ‘The Widow Who Persisted With Litigation’ and ‘The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins’. In the story of the prodigal son it is the father, not his mother, who rushes to embrace him on his return – though the word ‘Father’ obviously had deeper symbolism given Jesus’s other uses of it.

Jesus did challenge society’s expectations of women, and when Martha complained that Mary should have helped her to prepare food and drink, rather than listen to Jesus, his reply was ‘Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her’ (Luke 10:42). That probably surprised the men present, especially those feeling hungry.

Similarly Jesus supported the woman who anointed him with an expensive ointment of spikenard, despite comments that it had been wasted and should have been sold and the money given to the poor.

Sometimes, even when an intervention by Jesus did not directly challenge Mosaic law, as in the case of the ‘woman taken in adultery’ (John 7:53–8:11), he nevertheless moves in the direction of emancipation. Rather than condemn the woman with the law, which said she should be stoned to death, he announced that the first stone should be cast by ‘he who is without sin’. It saved her life, though Jesus did tell her to go away and sin no more.

The great compassion Jesus had for those in great agony did sometimes lead to a direct challenge to what others expected. In Luke 13:11 he was so moved by the woman who was not able to properly lift up her body that he healed her on the Sabbath, knowing it would prompt a negative reaction from the religious rulers who were there. Even his disciples were amazed when, at Jacob’s well, he not only spoke to a Samaritan woman who he did not know, but also requested that she draw water from the well for him to drink. This racial taboo was of course followed up by the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Perhaps the most significant episode was when Jesus was asked by another woman, who was not Jewish, to heal her daughter, who was possessed by a demon. He initially refused, telling her he had only been sent to the lost sheep of Israel, and that it was not right to take the children’s bread and feed it to the dogs. Her reply was ‘Yes Lord, yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs’ (Mark 7:28). Jesus actually changed his mind after listening to her, and this incident was one of the catalysts that led to the overseas journeys of Paul and the other disciples, to spread the faith to gentiles. Jesus did heal the daughter, who was not present at the time, which led to the belief that he only had to say the word and healing would occur – remember the story of the Roman centurion and his stricken servant.

A similar great faith involved another woman, the one with ‘an issue of blood’, who could not reach Jesus because of the crowds. She believed that by just touching the hem of his garment she would be healed. Jesus responded by telling her that her faith had made her whole again.

The four gospels also tell us that at least four women were at the foot of Jesus’ cross, with just one male disciple. The others were in hiding. It was women who found the empty tomb, and Mary Magdalene who was the first to speak to Jesus after his resurrection.

These incidents, even combined, do not contradict the fact that it was a male-dominated society, of course. To return to two incidents already mentioned, the woman condemned to be stoned was not accompanied by the man involved having the same punishment. Then, when the women who’d seen Jesus told the male disciples about their risen Lord, they were not believed – their words were dismissed as idle tales. The disciples only believed the story when Peter summoned up enough courage to visit the tomb and corroborate their evidence.

Nevertheless, Jesus always treated the woman he met as equals, capable of as much depth of faith as any man. He never treated them as subordinates.

Finally it is worth reflecting that even under Roman occupation women had considerable freedom, including religious beliefs. The Romans allowed a surprising amount of liberty provided there were no insurrections, and that those occupied were prepared to ‘Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s’ (Matthew 22:21). In fact, the women in the time of Jesus had more freedom than their counterparts in many countries today.

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