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Women in Early Christianity

Women have been silenced and are still being silenced from the Bible and in society. There are many stories about women in the Bible, but these are usually short and do not get the attention that the Biblical stories with male characters get. Some of the stories do not even contain the names of the women. These stories are not to be discounted from the impact of the ministry of Jesus. While the women did not hold a place in society as men did, they are still to be accounted for. An instance of the silencing of women in the Bible is that women and children were not counted with the men in the story of the loaves and fish or anytime Jesus taught to a large crowd. Because these women were not counted as people in the Bible, this mentality has bled into our current thinking of women. I think that there are instances that we try to rationalize such as not covering the story about the woman because her name was not mentioned, or she did not occur in many places in the Bible. It is in those instances that you can think about how we have knowledge about the history of women and how they fit in the ancient society. By using the existing knowledge of ancient societies and the role of women we can conjecture what would have occurred in these stories. We know enough about human nature and ancient societies, why can’t we think outside of the box and bring the experiences of women to light in the Bible? Or if it is a struggle to focus on one story of the women, compare the stories, and look on a deeper level to how they might have felt based on your own experiences.