Women in the Bible-The New Testament (Making Sense of Christianity #2)

This post is the second half of our discussion on Women in the Bible.  We started our discussion with Women in the Old Testament, and we will continue now with stories of women from the New Testament.

Jesus’ Mother Mary—Gospels

Just as Eve is the first lady of the Old Testament, in many ways, Mary the mother of Jesus is the “first lady” of the New Testament.  Mary’s story has been retold so many times that we often lose the sense of wonder and awe that this young woman inspires.

A young virgin girl named Mary is visited by an angel and told that she will give birth to a son who will be called the Son of the Most High.  God will give him the throne of David and he will reign over Jacob’s house. 

Women in the Bible–The Old Testament (Making Sense of Christianity #1)

If we were going to read a collection of books that were written thousands of years ago, how would we expect it to treat women?  What would be some of the characteristics that we would expect?  We would not expect women to be given very much freedom—after all, women couldn’t even vote in America until the early 1900s.  We would expect women to be viewed more as property than people.  We would expect women to be taking on stereotypical feminine gender roles—cooking, cleaning, taking care of the kids, etc.  We would expect to see men given a higher status than women on a very regular basis.

In light of these expectations it is no less than shocking to read how the Bible treats women.