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Early Christian Gender Roles

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This paper will show that women played a vitally important role in the development of the early Christian church. Women were the last disciples at the foot of the cross, and they were the first witnesses at the empty tomb. Due to a predominately patriarchal society, this may be one of the best-kept secrets in Christianity (Kroger).
During the time of Jesus’ ministry, women were considered inferior to men in virtually every way. Society expected them to stay at home and to be good wives and mothers. Women took no part in public discussions or education, and responsible teachers at the time did not teach women. However, Jesus not only taught women, he included them in his group of devoted followers. This was a powerful example of inclusion to …show more content…

This verse describes a group of male disciples meeting in an upper room and devoting themselves to prayer “…together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers” (Coogan). The next mention is in Acts 2 describing the day of Pentecost. Men and women had gathered together and God caused all – men and women, both – to speak in tongues and prophesy (Tkach). The inclusion of women at these historic events underlines God’s vision of the value of men and women in spreading the ministry of Jesus.
The involvement of women continued in the first few decades of the church and noted by both biblical and non-biblical sources. The earliest Christian communities did not have a designated church building and instead met in people’s homes. According to Acts, many of these houses where early Christians met were owned by women. This activity allowed these women to serve as leaders of these house churches …show more content…

We will begin by addressing 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 which states, “women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church” (Coogan). It must be noted that in this very same letter - 1 Corinthians - Paul makes it clear that women did participate in prayer and prophecy in the church. This fact by itself shows that 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 cannot be regarded as a general and absolute prohibition against women speaking in church. The silence then must be a very specific and limited silence for a particular reason. One possible explanation is to understand that this verse is referring to women asking disruptive questions. Throughout this chapter, we see that Paul is concerned in having peace and order in the church meetings. Evidently, the meetings at Corinth had been a bit chaotic with everybody trying to speak at the same time. Basically, Paul was telling them to speak one at a time and stop interrupting (Morrison, “Women”).
Because wives were usually uneducated in the culture of that time, they would have numerous questions during the church meetings. . Paul is concerned with correct behavior and order to allow true learning to occur. Because this can

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