How Jesus Treated Women
(4) How Jesus
Treated Women
Jesus’ attitude to women was to
have far-reaching consequences. Whereas many rabbis regarded women as unworthy
of religious instruction, he addressed his teaching and message to men and
women alike. In the crowds who followed him to listen and to receive healing
there were men, women and children (Matthew 11:7, 12:46, 14:21, Luke 11:27).
But gender did not matter: the important criterion for being part of Jesus’
family was doing the will of God.
... a
crowd was sitting about him.... And looking around on those who sat about him,
he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is
my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Mark
3:32-34)
Matthew’s account (12:49) refers to these people as Jesus’
disciples.
...
stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and
my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother,
and sister, and mother.” (Matthew
12:49-50)
The word disciple means “one who learns”. Jesus considered that
women should learn religious truth.
He treated women with the honour and consideration which God had originally
intended. He applied the Golden Rule consistently. Several times in the Gospels
he is recorded as holding conversations with women on religious issues.
Martha and Mary
When Jesus was staying with
Martha and Mary it is recorded that Mary “sat at the Lord’s feet and listened
to his teaching” (Luke 10:39). This expression is characteristic of a disciple
learning from a teacher, as with Paul who was educated “at the feet of
Gamaliel” (Acts 22:3). When Martha complained that Mary was not carrying out
her domestic duties, Jesus did not approve her complaint but commented
significantly:
“...one
thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken
away from her.” (Luke 10:42)
From the traditional point of view, Martha’s complaint was
justified. A woman’s job was to run the home, she was exempt from rabbinic
training, and there was no need for her to study the Law for studying the Law
was seen as a man’s activity. This incident shows how Jesus thought otherwise,
and was not prepared to allow the restrictive, traditional position to be
enforced on Mary. She had chosen to learn
(“the good portion”) and it was not to be taken away from her.
Whereas in Luke 10 Martha had
complained because Mary was taking a religious interest and not helping with
the housework, in John 11 it is Martha with whom Jesus mainly discussed. Martha
made a confession of belief in Jesus which is fuller than the better known
confession of Peter at Caesarea Philippi (Mark 8:27-30).
She said
to him, “Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who
is coming into the world.” (John
11:27)
It is noticeable too that she previously referred to Jesus as
“Lord” but when she went to call Mary, she referred to Jesus as “the Teacher”,
evidently a role which had meant a considerable amount to Mary and probably to
them both.
When she
had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying quietly, “The
Teacher is here and is calling for you.”
(John 11:28)
It is worth comparing Jesus’ attitude with that of Rabbi Eliezer
ben Hyrcanus (c 80-120 AD). When approached by a woman with a Biblical
question, he rebuffed her, refusing to answer her question. Only to males would
he reply.
A woman of
importance (an elderly married woman) asked Rabbi Eliezer: “Why is it that
following Israel’s general sin (of worshipping the golden calf) there were
three different kinds of death: beheading, plague, and destruction of the body
by water?” He avoided answering her question, and replied: “A woman’s proper
job is spinning, as it says (Exodus 35:25) ‘All the hard-working women spun
with their own hands’.” (According to him, it is useless to teach the Law, or
explanation of the Law, to a woman.) His son, Hyrcanus, said to him: “Since you
haven’t replied to this woman with a Biblical explanation, you have made me
lose three hundred a year ... (which she used to give me as her priestly
offering)”. “It is better for the words of the Law to be burned”, replied his
father, “than to hand them over to a woman,” (and it’s even worse to do so for
money). When this woman went out, the disciples said: “Master, now that you
have rebuffed this woman’s question, what answer will you give us on this
subject?”
(Sotah III, Moïse Schwab, Le Talmud
de Jerusalem IV, Paris,
1885, page 261, translated from French)
The Woman at the
Well
In John 4 not only did Jesus break accepted conventions by talking
to a Samaritan but he discussed religious truth with a woman. The disciples were surprised, reflecting the same kind of
restrictive attitude as shown by Rabbi Eliezer.
They
marvelled that he was talking with a woman, but none said, “What do you
wish?” (John 4:27 )
The conversation was detailed, contained some of Jesus’ deepest
teaching about true worship, and elicited such a response from the woman that
she went and told many others in her town about Jesus.
Many
Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He
told me all that I ever did.” (John
4:39)
As a consequence Jesus himself was invited to stay two days with
them and he converted many more. They had believed first because of the woman’s
words, but on seeing Jesus himself they were fully convinced.
They said
to the woman, “It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we
have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the
world.” (John 4:42)
Women Followers and Associates
The Mishnah did not approve of a
man being closely involved with a woman, not even his wife.
“Jose b.
Johanan of Jerusalem [c. 150 BC] said: ... talk not much with womankind. They
said this of a man’s own wife: how much more of a fellow’s wife! Hence the
sages have said: He that talks much with womankind brings evil upon himself and
neglects the study of the Law and at the last will inherit Gehenna.”
(Mishnah:
Aboth “The Fathers” 1:5)
The Talmud added:
Our
Rabbis have taught: Six things are a disgrace to a disciple of the wise: He
should not ... converse with a woman in the street.... (Babylonian Talmud: Berakoth
“Benedictions” 43b)
Being alone with a woman was considered improper, even more so if
outside a town.
[The
statement that a woman may be alone with two men] pertains only to a town. But
as to a trip there must be three.
(Babylonian Talmud:
Kiddushin “Betrothals” 81a).
A
wife could be divorced without her marriage-portion for transgressing Jewish
custom by speaking to a man.
... what
conduct transgresses Jewish custom? If she goes out with her hair unbound, or
spins in the street, or speaks with any man.
(Mishnah: Ketuboth “Marriage
Deeds” 7:6)
But Jesus not only conversed on his own with a woman at the well
but could be described as one who “talks much with womankind”. He travelled
with a group of women who provided for him and the twelve “out of their means”:
And the
twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits
and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others,
who provided for them out of their means. (Luke
8:1-3)
“Many others” is feminine. Evidently women formed a large
proportion of those who travelled with Jesus. Like the twelve disciples, these
women found a relevance in Jesus’ message and in his treatment of them. Like
the twelve disciples too (Luke 18:28), these women appear to have given up
their family life (at least temporarily) and put Jesus first. Because they were
women they would not have been given a hearing had they tried to preach as did
the twelve, but they supported the movement financially and practically, and
followed Jesus to Jerusalem. The manner of Jesus’ involvement with these
followers shows a change in the understanding of the part women could play.
Marriage was not their only role, the home not their only place, honourable and
important though these are. The women remained with him until the last.
There were
also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the
mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome, who, when he was in
Galilee, followed him, and ministered to him; and also many other women who
came up with him to Jerusalem. (Mark
15:40-41)
The women
who had come with him from Galilee followed, and saw the tomb, and how his body
was laid. (Luke
23:55)
No other rabbi, as far as we
know, travelled with a group of women followers.
Though the women were not part of
the twelve, they listened closely to Jesus, as Luke’s account of the
Resurrection indicates.
… two men stood by them in dazzling apparel; and as
they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them,
“Why do you seek the living among the dead? Remember how he told you, while he
was still in Galilee, that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of
sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise.” And they remembered
his words, and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to
all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James
and the other women with them who told this to the apostles; but these words
seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. (Luke 24:4-11)
The account records
that the women “remembered
his [Jesus’] words” (verse 8). The words are those contained in verse 7 “that
the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be
crucified, and on the third day rise.” And the angels said: “Remember how he
told you” (verse 6). When did Jesus tell the women this? There are four
occasions in Luke where we are told that this information was presented by
Jesus. In Luke 9:22, 9:44, and 17:25 Jesus warns his disciples of his coming rejection and crucifixion, and
resurrection. So too in Matthew 16:21
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that
he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief
priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. (Matthew 16:21)
On the fourth occasion, in Luke 18:31-33, and in the
parallel accounts in Matthew 20:17-19 and Mark 10:32-34, Jesus says this only
to the twelve, though he may have intended it to be passed on to the others by
them. It is evident from the Resurrection account, however, that the women had
been told this directly by Jesus
himself (“remember how he told you”),
either on an unrecorded occasion, or on the same occasions in Luke 9:22, 9:44,
and 17:25 where the term “the disciples” therefore needs to be understood to
include the women. They are described as “the women who had come with him from
Galilee” (Luke 23:55) and some are named in Luke 24:10, “Mary Magdalene and
Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them”. Two of
these were mentioned as accompanying Jesus and the twelve in Luke 8:2-3. Apart
from providing for Jesus “out of their means”, they were paying close attention
to what he told them, as the Resurrection account indicates. Jesus, unlike
other rabbis of his day, was willing to teach women and include them in his
circle of followers. These details about the women should caution us against
assuming that when we read “the disciples” the text means “men disciples”.
Physical Contact
Jesus also broke with convention
in allowing women to touch him in a way which alarmed his more orthodox
critics. He did not cringe or disapprove. Instead, he commended the women for
their actions.
And behold,
a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was at table in
the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing
behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and
wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them
with the ointment. 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 sort of
woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” (Luke 7:37-39)
So too in the case of the woman with a haemorrhage. When touched
by her, though this would have made him ritually unclean, Jesus did not shrink
back as if offended by this act but called her “daughter”, and commended her
faith (Mark 5:24-34). The significance of “daughter” is illustrated further
when he healed a crippled woman.
“Ought not
this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be
loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?”
(Luke
13:16)
Jesus
treated these women with compassion, understanding, and as people who should be
treated as worthy individuals in the family of God (“daughter of Abraham”).
Compare this with how Jesus addressed Zacchaeus using the parallel term “son of
Abraham”: “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of
Abraham” (Luke 19:9).
The Woman Taken in Adultery
When the scribes and Pharisees
brought to Jesus a woman caught in the act of adultery, they no doubt thought
they had set Jesus a clever trap (John 8:6). Jesus not only skilfully avoided
their stratagem to incriminate himself, but he avoided also the male prejudice
which lay behind their action. Why had they brought only the woman, not the man
too? One answer can be seen in the Mishnah where women were considered to be
specially prone to sexual misbehaviour.
Rabbi
Joshua says: A woman has more pleasure in one kab with lechery than in nine
kabs with modesty.
(Mishnah:
Sotah “The Suspected Adulteress” 3:4)
Jesus turned the accusation on to the accusers, without approving
or justifying her behaviour. He talked to her without reserve or embarrassment,
and sent her home to make a new start. In contrast to the uncaring,
discriminatory and condemnatory attitude of the scribes and Pharisees, he
showed deep insight into human nature. He demonstrated both concern and
morality in his treatment of the woman.
Marriage
In his attitude to marriage and
divorce Jesus likewise cut across the teaching of his contemporaries.
There were two schools of interpretation,
each seeking to expound the rules for divorce given in Deuteronomy.
When a man
takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favour in his eyes because
he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a bill of divorce and
puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house.... (Deuteronomy
24:1)
The followers of Rabbi Shammai took “some indecency in her” to
refer to unchastity alone but the majority took the view of Rabbi Hillel that
this phrase could refer to anything a husband disliked about his wife.
He that
desires to be divorced from his wife for any cause whatsoever (and many such
causes happen among men), let him in writing give assurance that he will never
use her as his wife any more....
(Josephus,
Antiquities of the Jews 4.253) Each group spoke only from a male viewpoint. When Jesus was asked
about divorce, instead of siding with one of the two parties (easy divorce or
restricted divorce) he confronted both by referring to God’s will from the
beginning.
Have you
not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female,
and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be
joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer
two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put
asunder. (Matthew 19:3-6)
The discussion had been entirely from the man’s angle; by
objecting to divorce, Jesus protected the wife from being treated as a
disposable object. He also disallowed polygamy which had been permissible in
Judaism, and, in the case of levirate marriage, often inevitable. By saying
that divorce was against God’s original intention, Jesus again reasserted the
worth of women and the worth of the marriage relationship where the two become one.
Separation from Women
The rabbis dealt with the problem
of men’s lustful thoughts by seeking to remove women from their company and
their sight.
One outcome of this approach was
the exclusion of women from taking part in the religious activities of the
synagogue and their physical separation from the men. Jesus, however, taught
that men should control their thoughts.
I say to
you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed
adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it
out and throw it away.... (Matthew
5:28-29)
By this approach Jesus opened the way for men and women to mix
together socially and ecclesially without the need for the artificial barriers
erected by the rabbis. This was a necessary step towards the new male/female
relationships which the early ecclesias were able to enjoy.
Jesus’ Positive Image of Women
In taking examples of faithful
conduct, Jesus several times chose women: the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8),
the widow who threw her “two copper coins” into the treasury (Mark 12:42-43),
the woman who searched until she found her lost coin (Luke 15:8-9).
Though women are nevertheless
mentioned less than men in the parables and in the Gospels, the positive manner
in which their conversations and actions are recorded is significant because of
the background attitudes to women in Jesus’ day and afterward. There is no hint
of the anti-women attitudes shown elsewhere:
From a
woman sin had its beginning,
and
because of her we all die. (Ecclesiasticus
25:24)
Better is
the wickedness of a man than a woman who does good;
and it is
a woman who brings shame and disgrace. (Ecclesiasticus 42:14)
Ecclesiasticus (also called the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach) is 3rd
century BC.
Tertullian (c. 200 AD) wrote to
women:
You are the devil’s gateway; you
are the unsealer of that [forbidden] tree; you
are the first deserter of the divine law; you
are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God’s image,
man. On account of your desert – that
is, death – even the Son of God had to die. (Tertullian,
On Female Dress 1:1)
Jesus is totally and
refreshingly free from this kind of approach to women. There is no suggestion
that women are evil, worse than men, unreliable, liars, the cause of this
world’s ills. In a very male-orientated society he is shown as revolutionary in
his approach to women, as he was in his attitudes on many other matters. No
longer was the only approved role of women to be childbearing, staying at home
and serving husbands (honourable and God-approved though this, of course, is).
Discipleship on a wider scale was now open to women. They could study and learn
Christian teaching; they could promote and teach the Good News, though the conventions
of society would still restrict them. On Jesus’ part there was no barrier.
Baptism for a woman
underlined how much she was now valued as an individual believer. Previously,
under Judaism, her commitment was through the male, for circumcision applied
only to men. But in Jesus she was received into the new movement as an
individual in her own right. Baptism was the same mode of commitment for male
and female believers, underlining the essential unity of the new movement in
Jesus.
In character, women are sinners
like men. Jesus’ teaching about the heart is applicable to all (Matthew 15:18).
Both men and women need to repent, and both find new life and salvation in him.
Both need to become “a new creation” in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17).
In view of the above it might be
expected that Jesus would have appointed at least one woman among the twelve
disciples. Considering, however, the common religious and social attitudes
towards women, it would be surprising if he had done so.
Market
places and council halls, law courts and gatherings, and meetings where a large
number of people are gathered, in short all public life with its discussions
and deeds, in times of peace and of war, are proper for men. It is suitable for
women to stay indoors and to live in retirement, limited by the middle door (to
the men’s apartments) for young girls, and the outer door for married women.
(Philo,
De Spec. Leg. III, 169)
Philo’s
comment is in the context of upper or middle class households in Alexandria,
but the same sort of attitude can be seen in how the disciples responded when
they found Jesus speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well:
Just
then his disciples came. They marvelled that he was talking with a woman, but
none said, “What do you wish?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” (John
4:27).
Little success could have been expected, therefore, if Jesus had
attempted to appoint women followers in general in a preaching mission, for
Jewish attitudes towards woman’s authority would have hindered his message. He
wished people to respond to his message, and many did, as reported in Luke
10:18. There was no guarantee that they would respond (Luke 10:10). People were
not forced to believe, and putting unnecessary barriers to repentance (such as
sending women two by two round the villages), would have been counter
productive.
Although Jesus’ mission was soon
to spread to the whole world, it started among the Jews, and was therefore
restricted to what was possible within the Jewish environment. No Gentiles or slaves
were included among his twelve disciples either. It was only after the
resurrection, when the message began to spread world-wide, that women, Gentiles
and slaves were able to take a fuller part.
The First Witnesses to the Resurrection
The women were the first to go to the tomb and the first to hear
of the resurrection. It seems in line with the attitude of Jesus that it was to
the women also that the message of the resurrection was first entrusted. They
were the first witnesses, which from a conventional point of view might have
been considered of doubtful validity. But the angel at the tomb and then Jesus
himself, entrusted them with witnessing the message of the resurrection to the
disciples. There is no suggestion here that women are not to be trusted or that
it is wrong to listen to a woman’s voice.
“Come, see
the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has
risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee: there you
will see him.” (Matthew
28:6-7)
Then Jesus
said to them [Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, verse 1], “Do not be afraid;
go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” (Matthew 28:10)
The disciples did as the women
had said:
Now
the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had
directed them. And when they saw him they worshipped him; but some doubted. And
Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always to the
close of the age.” (Matthew
28:16-20)
According to the text, this Great Commission to evangelise the
world was given to the eleven disciples. Does this mean that only males are to
preach and teach? If we consider Jesus’ words, this cannot be a correct
conclusion. The command itself is to “make disciples” and teach them to observe
“all that I have commanded YOU”; once disciples have learned all Jesus’
commands, then this commandment applies to them. They in turn are under the
command to teach others. It is therefore a command which is self replicating;
all disciples should seek to make disciples and to teach them to observe all of
Jesus’ teaching.
The similar passage in Luke mentions that Cleopas and his
companion returned from Emmaus and “found the eleven gathered together and
those who were with them”. While reporting that they had seen the risen Lord
(Luke 24:36), “Jesus himself stood among them”.
Then he opened their minds to understand
the scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should
suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness
of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from
Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of
my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from
on high.”
(Luke 24:45-49)
As we see from verse 33 this is not just to the eleven disciples
but also to “those who were with them”; and Luke reports at Pentecost that
“they were all together in one place” (Acts 2:1-4) when they were “clothed with
power from on high”.
Here then indeed are commands that involve both men and women
learning and then teaching: “… repentance and forgiveness of sins should
be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are
witnesses of these things.”
And who is to say that women disciples are not to teach if Jesus says they
should?
Throughout history many famous
men have been distrustful towards women and have made disparaging or
condescending comments about them. No such attitude can be seen in Jesus. He
was positive towards them in his speech and his actions, attracted a large
number of female followers, and thus set the scene for the fuller involvement
of women in the early ecclesias.
Jesus’ Choice of 12 Male
Disciples
It
is often suggested that Jesus’ choice of 12 male disciples indicates that
rulership in the church should be male.
This
is a deduction, for Jesus does not state maleness as the reason, and good
reasons for choosing males are readily apparent from the text.
Here
is the description of Jesus’ appointing the Twelve.
…And he appointed twelve, to be
with him, and to be sent out to preach and to have authority to cast out
demons… (Mark
3:14-15)
In
Matthew we are given Jesus’ instruction to his twelve disciples.
These twelve Jesus sent out,
charging them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the
Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Matthew
10:5)
On
another occasion (Luke 10:1) he chose seventy (or seventy-two) “and sent them
on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was
about to come.” These seventy are not named but are presumably male too.
Would
it have been appropriate for Jesus to choose women to go on these preaching and
healing missions?
We
can observe, especially as they were going two by two, that if two female
disciples had been sent on their own from village to village, or one male
disciple and one female, this would have been completely unacceptable. Two
women would have been ultra-vulnerable travelling on their own. A male and a
female disciple, if not married, would be considered immoral, as we quoted
earlier in this chapter from the Talmud:
Our
Rabbis have taught: Six things are a disgrace to a disciple of the wise: He
should not ... converse with a woman in the street....
(Babylonian
Talmud: Berakoth “Benedictions” 43b)
[The
statement that a woman may be alone with two men] pertains only to a town. But
as to a trip there must be three.
(Babylonian
Talmud: Kiddushin “Betrothals” 81a).
Attitudes
to women’s uncleanness would also hamper any attempts to heal or have physical
contact. Jesus showed no reservation in this regard but other people obviously
did. Such restrictions would also apply in the wider Jewish world even after
the resurrection. Paul could enter synagogues, address the congregation and
debate with the Jews, but obviously women could not do this in the way that men
could.
Was
Jesus constrained, then, by cultural considerations? We might like to answer,
“No”, but the answer needs to be, “Yes, to some extent”. He used the women at
the tomb as witnesses to the disciples
of his resurrection but could not use them as witnesses outside his own group
because women’s witness was not accepted. When a replacement was chosen for
Judas, the criterion for an apostle was “a witness to his resurrection” (Acts
1:22). The witnessing was to be “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and
to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8) – witnessing the important message of the
resurrection in a male-orientated world which refused to accept women as
witnesses, even though they were
witnesses. Inevitably, therefore, a male was chosen; nevertheless from
Pentecost onwards God’s intention in Jesus was made clear that both men and
women would speak forth the word of God and this we see happening in the early
ecclesias as reported in 1 Corinthians 11 and 14.
As
regards the idea that he chose male leaders, teachers and preachers because
only males are acceptable in these roles, we need to balance the other
evidence. He used the Samaritan woman at the well to preach to the Samaritans,
and the women to announce the news of the resurrection to the disciples. And –
as we go on to observe in Chapter 5 – the women workers described in Romans 16,
and people like Euodia and Syntyche were carrying out his work when, as Paul
says, “these women ... have laboured side by side with me in the gospel
together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the
book of life” (Philippians 4:3). Is there any reason to suppose that when Paul
describes and names both men and women workers as labouring “side by side” with
him “in the gospel” that these were not preaching, teaching and being leaders –
at least in so far as they could be in the society of the time?
Since
Jesus makes no comment that male leaders, not female, were his desire, it goes
beyond the evidence to assert that male leadership for all time in the future
was indicated by his choice of the twelve or the seventy. It was appropriate in
a strongly male-dominated world that male apostles (the twelve, with Matthias
substituted for Judas, and Paul as a thirteenth apostle) handled the initial
work. But no apostolic succession is taught in the Bible, and no instructions
were given about appointing male successors when the apostles died.
What Jesus “began to do and
teach”
Luke comments about his gospel:
In the
first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and
teach. (Acts
1:1)
There are numerous issues which only became clear as God guided
the development and spread of the early ecclesias. In the inspired teaching of
the apostle Paul, and the other New Testament writers, we see how in the new
creation in Christ Jesus, the work which Jesus began during his earthly
ministry was extended and developed. Often there is little directly said in the
gospels, and the disciples frequently failed to understand Jesus’ teaching and
attitude. Jesus’ comments to the woman at the well indicate the change which
would take place under the New Covenant:
“God is
spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)
With hindsight we can understand how later New Testament teaching
is a direct outcome of what Jesus started. This is evident in several areas:
the attitude to Old Testament food laws (Romans 14:20), keeping festivals and
the Sabbath (Colossians 2:16), circumcision (Galatians 5:6), the involvement of
Gentiles and women (Galatians 3:28, Ephesians 2:11-22), and the Temple and
sacrifices (1 Peter 2:4-5). It took a long time before these changes were
understood. For example, although Mark says, “Thus he declared all foods clean”
(Mark 7:19), it was not until Peter was given a direct revelation that he
understood the change in attitude he was to have both to food and to Gentiles
(Acts 10:9-16). Even then he backtracked and he was therefore rebuked by the
apostle Paul (Galatians 2:11-14). Many early Christians did not properly see
the implications, such as those who sought to continue keeping the Jewish law
in full (Acts 15:1). In his attitudes and relationships with women, Jesus was
distinctly different from his contemporaries, and he accorded them the respect
and value which God intended “at the beginning”. This attitude to women was
likewise developed and extended in the early ecclesias.
