Still Throwing Stones?

Woman was made to be man’s helper, according to the Book of Genesis. But instead of helping, she gave him forbidden fruit to eat, prompting God to kick them both out of Paradise.

For women, it was all downhill from there, according to the Hebrew Bible.

As many of you know, I’m reading a book called, “Jesus, An Historical Approximation,” in which author Jose Pagola – a Spanish theologian and biblical scholar – uses modern scientific research to understand the world in which Jesus lived. He has a whole chapter on the status of women at the time of Jesus. For the most part, the book’s observations are generalizations, but offer an interesting background to the gospels.

First, women in Jesus’ time most often “belonged” to someone, first to their fathers, then, if they married, to their husbands. If they became widows, they belonged to their sons or were returned to their fathers. They couldn’t leave the house without a man, and most often needed to hide their faces with a veil. They weren’t allowed to speak with men in public.

Ritually Impure

Second, for Jews of Jesus’ time, women were ritually impure during menstruation and for some time after childbirth. They contaminated whatever, and whomever, they touched. Women were a source of impurity, writes Pagola, and “Jesus was surely warned about this as a child.”

To sum up, women were simply considered inferior in every way.

So, what was Jesus’ own view of women? Radically different. In fact, the more you read about how counter-cultural Jesus was, the more you wonder why it took so long for the religious and civil authorities to act against him.

Jesus, writes Pagola, “never exhorts (women) to be submissive to their husbands or to the patriarchal system. Jesus shows no animosity or carefulness toward them. Only respect, compassion, and unexpected sympathy.”

A Mixed Bag

The record of religion, on the other hand, has been a mixed bag at best. First, the lack of respect for women in the society in which Jesus lived was affirmed by the Jewish religion. If men were displeased with their wives, for instance, Jewish law allowed them to hand their wives a certificate of divorce and they were forced out of their homes and families. No such certificate was available to women.

Jesus, according to the gospels, said this law existed because of the patriarchal society’s “hardness of heart.” He clearly takes the side of women, who were the victims of such a law, and defends them every chance he gets.

In John’s gospel, for instance, Jesus confronts a group of scribes and Pharisees who were about to stone to death a woman “caught in adultery.” The men say that Jewish law requires such an execution. Jesus shames them by saying, “Let him without sin throw the first stone.” They went away, “one by one, beginning with the eldest.” Clearly, Jesus repudiates the ruinous double standard implied in the story.

So, what about Christianity, the religion that bears one of Jesus’ titles?

Leadership Roles

I believe the jury is still out. Women were integral and important among ancient Christians, according to the Acts of the Apostles and Paul’s writings. They obviously had leadership roles, though the extent of their leadership appears to be a matter of debate among historians and theologians.

Still, early Christians appear to have been cursed with the biases and prejudices of the ancient world’s patriarchal mindset, despite their progress. In Christianity’s subsequent history, there were ups and downs in that regard, but despite significant recent gains for women, that curse is alive and well.

That’s especially true of my own Catholic faith. I can see no good reason – other than societal bias – why women should not be ordained priests or bishops, and I think it will eventually happen. Unfortunately, making such changes in a church that’s 2,000 years old is like turning a cruise ship in a narrow river. Waiting takes patience.   

In his Letter to the Christians of Galatia, the apostle Paul lists the “fruits of the Spirit” – sort of tests to identify a person in whom the Spirit of God lives. Among the first of the nine listed is patience, which among other things means calm in the face of disappointment and resistance to frustration.