Luke 8:1 Soon afterwards, he went about through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of God’s Kingdom. With him were the twelve, 2 and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out; 3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuzas, Herod’s steward; Susanna; and many others; who served them from their possessions.
First, notice how the Kingdom of God unites people from various classes and walks of life. No matter how great their sin or how vile their infirmity they were brought together and welcomed as brothers and sisters in Christ. Traveling with Jesus and his chosen apostles was Mary, a woman of no social standing, Joanna, the wife of the King’s Steward, Susanna and many others.
Second, throughout the history of the world, before Christ, women were held in low esteem. Even the in Jewish Talmud the rabbis taught, “Better burn the Torah than teach it to a woman… Everyone who talketh much with a woman causes evil to himself.” However, in contrast to both the unbelieving world, and the false religious teachers, in keeping with God’s Word, as revealed in the Old Testament, Genesis 1:27, Jesus respected and honored women as valued members of his kingdom. Here, many women are traveling with Jesus and his twelve apostles in support of the ministry.
Jesus attitude toward women was revolutionary. Christian women did enjoy far greater equality with men than did their pagan and Jewish counterparts… Women were especially drawn to Christianity because it offered them a life that was so greatly superior to the life they otherwise would have led.
(Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity, Harper Collins, 2011)
Christianity saw women as the spiritual and moral equal of men. Women and men shared the same created dignity, the same problem (sin), and the same solution, Jesus. As result, women in the Christian community had a higher status and more freedom than women in the broader Roman world. The Christian rejection of divorce and sexual double standards, and its insistence on strict monogamy reflected this. Further, women were given more choice about whom and whether to marry and tended to marry later than their Roman counterparts. The Church also rejected abortion and infanticide as murder, meaning that women were not subjected to dangerous surgical procedures, and girls were not “discarded.” Thus, there were proportionately more women in the Christian community than in Roman society as a whole. Because of Christian attitudes and behavior toward women, more women converted to Christianity than men, and many men who converted did so under the influence of their wives. Eventually, Christianity transformed the status of women in the Roman world…Christianity did more to improve the status of women than any other historical force. Even today, as the Gospel spreads around the Global South, the status and freedoms enjoyed by women are being raised.
(Dr. Glenn Sunshine, Colson Center for Christian Worldview, 8/9/2022)
For example, as outlined in both the letters to Titus and Timothy, older women were given the role of discipling younger women in the faith, Titus 2:3-5 so that they could build the foundation of strong Christian families, nurturing and training up the next generations in the truth of the kingdom of Christ. Additionally, the younger women were taught to care for widows, older women without any family to support them. 1 Timothy 5:1-16
The Christian clergy took a step that separated them from the rabbis of Palestine. They welcomed women as patrons and even offered women roles in which they could act as collaborators.
(Peter Brown, The Body and Society, Columbia University Press, 1988)
It is a matter of historical record that where ever Christianity has gone throughout the world women have been esteemed and recognized as equals, the rights of children have been established, ending abortion, pederasty, and child sacrifice, slavery has been abolished, the poor have been cared for, literacy has been valued, and much, much more: love expressed in action.