Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Jesus the feminist

Okay, I admit it – I used the word ”feminist” to get your attention and to put you in a bit of a battle mood! “Feminist” is really a word of abuse these days, so it is likely to get everyone's hackles up. You have to wonder why.

However, no – Jesus was not a present-day feminist. He was very much a man of his time, and there are so many things about our modern societies that he wouldn't have understood at all. No doubt he would have been absolutely horrified at the practice of abortions, for example, and it is also likely that he would have condemned the use of birth control. After all, Jesus belonged to a society and a people that was all but obsessed with the idea of multiplying and inheriting the land.

(I also firmly believe that Jesus would have strongly disliked the NRA and other expressions of the defence and celebration of violence – remember that he told us to turn the other cheek - and surely he would have been shocked at the sight of the unchecked shopping frenzy that is going on all over the western world these days, ostensibly in memory of Jesus' own birthday.)

But, no. Jesus would not have told you all to vote for Hillary Clinton, or to champion all the causes that have ever been championed by Ms. Magazine. He was not that kind of feminist. He was, instead, the very best kind of feminist – the feminist that defends women.

That's it, huh? Surely that's no big deal? Surely the entire western society defends women? And surely our moral compass, the Bible, does that too?

Well, no. Frankly it's not like that. Back in 1985, I sat down to read the Bible from to cover to cover, and I really did it because I wanted to find out what the Bible says about women. The reason why I wanted to know that was because I had noted that the religious right in the United States seemed to champion many causes that would limit women's rights in society. Not only did they oppose abortions, and in some cases birth control, but they also wanted to cut down on the federal financial support that unmarried mothers would receive. In other words, it would become harder for women to avoid pregnancy and at the same time it would become harder for them to support their children! I was actually a bit shocked. I also learned that the religious right wanted to discourage women from working away from home at all, and they opposed the establishment of day care centers that would make it easier for women to combine parenthood with a job. Religious universities were established, which offered women university degrees in being good wives and mothers (there were no corresponding university degrees for men who needed to learn about being fathers and husbands, of course). A man sued his wife and demanded that she should be jailed for adultery. Finally, the last straw for me was a woman who was interviewed before the 1984 election. She was asked what she thought about Geraldine Ferraro, who was at that time the Vice President candidate for the Democratic party. The woman replied that she thought that Geraldine Ferraro was a blasphemer, who defied the will of God by aspiring for such an elevated political position. God, explained the woman, had ordained that women must be silent and obey, and they had no business trying to run society.

After I had heard this woman explaining that her own sex was unfit for, really, any kind of public office, I decided that I would read the Bible and find out what it says about women. And, well, what it said wasn't good – for the most part.

Let's begin right away with the bad stuff. Genesis. In the story about Adam and Eve, God creates Adam right from the beginning, because God obviously wants Adam to exist. But he creates Eve as an afterthought, because Adam needs her. (God doesn't necessarily need her.) But then Eve causes the fall and the expulsion from the garden of Eden, because she listens to the evil serpent and picks the forbidden fruit of good and evil and gives that fruit to Adam, too. This is what God says to Adam and Eve after the fall:

So Adam must rule over Eve, and he should be very wary about listening to her advice again.

When Eve held out that apple to Adam and asked him to eat it, she actually asked him to choose between herself and God. Well, because Adam was well aware that God had forbidden him to eat of the tree, but now Eve wanted him to eat of it. By accepting the fruit, Adam chose Eve over God, and that is what caused the great Fall. And indeed, in the Bible there are many more examples of men who are tempted by women and who are put in a situation where they have to choose between woman and God. The women want the men to act foolishly, and God wants them to act wisely, and all too often the men choose women and foolishness (and often sex) instead of God and wisdom. The best-known example would be Samson and Delilah. God had forbidden Samson to cut his hair, but he insisted on having sex with a woman who was allied with his enemies, and she nagged him about the secret behind his strength until he told her. Another well-known example is King Herod, John the Baptist and Salome. King Herod had jailed John the Baptist, but he was having second thoughts about it, and he wanted to release the famous prophet. But then Salome danced before King Herod until the king promised to give her anything she wanted. She demanded that the king give her John the Baptist's head on a platter, and Herod acquiesced.

There are many other stories in the Bible about men who are tempted by women to do wrong. A few, like Joseph, are able to turn the evil women down, but many more give in to the women's wishes, and catastrophe usually ensues. It's no wonder, then, that someone like Paul the Apostle admonishes women again and again that they must be silent and obey.

So in the Bible evil often emanates from women. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are also some very harsh Mosaic laws about the punishment of women, and some Old Testament prophets like Ezekiel describe horrible punishments that will befall women because of their evilness:

It should be noted that Ezekiel talks about the kind of punishment that will befall evil and sinful cities. However, the cities are described as women, and there can be little doubt that Ezekiel considered women guilty of much or most of the sin of the sinful cities. Almost certainly he thought that the women of the cities deserved the harshest punishment of all.

So aren't there any good things in the Old Testament for those who believe in equality between the sexes? Well yes, actually, there are. There is Deborah, her people's judge and leader, who led the Israelites to victory against their enemies. (So it would seem that God doesn't necessarily mind women holding office.) There is the ode to a capable wife in Proverbs, a woman who makes her husband's life very prosperous and comfortable for him. There are my own two favourite books from the Old Testament: Song of Solomon and Ruth. Ruth is a fearless woman, enormously fond of and loyal to her widowed mother-in-law. And since Ruth is widowed herself and needs a new husband to provide for her and her mother-in-law, Ruth resolutely picks out a man that she likes and sneaks into his tent and his bed at night! Now that's what I call initiative!

As for Song of Solomon, it is just amazingly beautiful, erotic and – I was going to say feminist, but that is not the correct word. But Song of Solomon is an erotic love poem, praising the sweetness and beauty of what is quite possibly unmarried lovemaking, told primarily from a woman's point of view. It's amazing that this love poem is to be found in the Bible at all. It is a lot less surprising that preachers, ministers and priests hardly ever refer to it. This, of course, makes it less important, because it is for all intents and purposes a hushed-down part of the Bible. And it has to be admitted that the entire Song of Solomon could simply be removed from the Bible without the overall Biblical narrative and message losing anything at all. Deborah and Ruth matter more than the Song of Solomon, but the overall Biblical message isn't dependent on the story of these two women, either.

But Jesus? Isn't he what Christianity is all about? Shouldn't his words matter more than anybody else's? How can people who claim to be Christian possibly dismiss what Jesus said about men and women, and how can they disregard the way Jesus treated men and women?

Consider Jesus, the defender of women! Jesus is famous for his parables. Well, not in a single one of his many parables does he ever describe women as evil. Not once does he suggest that women have to be reined in and kept on a short leash, because otherwise they will influence other people badly. Jesus never says that!

Consider the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25. This is the only parable of Jesus' where women are punished and are seen to be in the wrong. However, the five unwise virgins are compared with five wise virgins, so it's not as if ten unwise women were compared with ten wise men. In other words, it is not their gender that makes the five virgins unwise, but their individual shortcomings.

And consider the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). This is how it begins:

11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.' And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.


And this is how it ends:

Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!' 31 And he said to him, "Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'”

So here we are told how the young man squandered his father's property: he devoured it with prostitutes. But does Jesus, in his parable, blame the prostitutes for the young man's misfortune? No! The way Jesus tells the story, it is the young man himself who makes his own decisions. The mental image I get of this is of a young man who seeks out the prostitutes himself, not the other way round. Compare that with a story from the Old Testament (Proverbs 7:10-27):

10 And behold, the woman meets him,
dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. [3]
11 She is loud and wayward;
her feet do not stay at home;
12 now in the street, now in the market,
and at every corner she lies in wait.
13 She seizes him and kisses him,
and with bold face she says to him,
14 “I had to offer sacrifices, [4]
and today I have paid my vows;
15 so now I have come out to meet you,
to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.
16 I have spread my couch with coverings,
colored linens from Egyptian linen;
17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,
aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let us take our fill of love till morning;
let us delight ourselves with love.
19 For my husband is not at home;
he has gone on a long journey;
20 he took a bag of money with him;
at full moon he will come home.”

21 With much seductive speech she persuades him;
with her smooth talk she compels him.
22 All at once he follows her,
as an ox goes to the slaughter,
or as a stag is caught fast [5]
23 till an arrow pierces its liver;
as a bird rushes into a snare;
he does not know that it will cost him his life.

24 And now, O sons, listen to me,
and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
25 Let not your heart turn aside to her ways;
do not stray into her paths,
26 for many a victim has she laid low,
and all her slain are a mighty throng.
27 Her house is the way to Sheol,
going down to the chambers of death.

The young man in this passage was previously described as a young man lacking sense, but that was his only sin. It was the woman, the prostitute, who caused his downfall and his death. Well, that is not what Jesus thought about men and prostitutes! Actually, Jesus never blamed the prostitutes. In Matthew 21: 31 Jesus said this to the high priests and the elders:

Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.

And in Luke 7:36-50 Jesus is invited into a Pharisee's house, and a woman who is a sinner comes there also. The Pharisee is displeased, but Jesus tells him that it is the woman, not the Pharisee, who has showed Jesus great love. The woman is forgiven; the Pharisee apparently is not.

In John 4, Jesus talks to a Samarian woman. He notes that she has had a chequered past, and she is now “living in sin”, but he does not criticize her:

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, "I have no husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

No sin was worse in old Israel than a woman's adultery. (Well, with the exception of idolatry.) Consider the following horrible law from Deuteronomy 22:

20 But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, 21 then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father's house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

All men in the city are obliged to help stone the young woman to death for her lack of virginity, even though it may very well be one of them who actually took her virginity. Compare this to what Jesus said about the stoning of an adulterous woman:

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

Jesus never issued any general rule ordering women to behave themselves or to obey their husbands or to be silent. He did, however, tell men they had no right to divorce their wives (Mark 10:2-9):

2 And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3 He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” 5 And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. 6 But from the beginning of creation, "God made them male and female.' 7 "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, [1] 8 and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Luke puts it like this (Luke 16:18):
18 “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

It's no wonder, then, that Jesus didn't consider the healing and raising of women beneath him. (It apparently was beneath the even the mightiest prophets and holy men of the Old Testament, because they could never be bothered with restoring the health or the life of women.) In Luke 8, Jesus first cured a woman who suffered from constant menstrual bleeding (and who was therefore considered unclean), and then he raised a young girl who had died. In Luke 13, he healed a woman on a Sabbath:

10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” 13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. 14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” 15 Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” 17 As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

Jesus also told a parable about a woman to make people understand the concept of the Kingdom of Heaven (Luke 13: 20):

20 And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

He also told a parable about another woman to make people understand a fundamental aspect of God (Luke 15:8-10):

8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, [1] if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, "Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

It is fitting that the women stayed with Jesus when he was crucified, while his disciples and other male followers generally fled. And it is typical, and fitting, that it was a woman (or two women) who brought the message to the world that Jesus had risen from the dead (Matt. 28:1-10):

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he [1] lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” 8 So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

How could Jesus be so remarkably “feminist” in view of the fact that he belonged to such a sexist society and such a sexist religious tradition? This is my personal guess. Jesus was born to a woman who was not married when she gave birth to him. Christian people regard Jesus' conception as a miracle, which happened because the Holy Ghost impregnated the Virgin Mary without destroying her virginity. But regardless what your own personal beliefs are in this matter, I hope you can agree with me that the Jewish society that Jesus grew up in was not likely to regard the conception of Jesus as the least bit miraculous. You'd think, perhaps, that the choir of angels outside the stable would be enough to convince the unbelievers, or the appearance of a brilliant new star in the heavens and the coming of the Magi. But you have to remember that according to the Bible Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but he grew up in Nazareth. Those who might have seen the miracles of Jesus' birth would not have accompanied him to Nazareth, and those who saw Jesus grow up in Nazareth would not have been present at his birth. The people in Nazareth would not have regarded Jesus as a prophet or as a holy man at all, but instead they would have thought that he was an illegitimate child, a bastard. This is what Mark 6 says about how Jesus was “welcomed” by his hometown when he returned there to preach and teach:

6:1 He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he marveled because of their unbelief.

Please note that Jesus is described as “the son of Mary”. His father is not named. The fact that Jesus' father was unknown would have been a great shame and a dishonour in a society as obsessed with paternity as the Jewish society. Please note that the people of Jesus' hometown most certainly did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God.

So I'll argue that Jesus grew up being treated as a bastard child. I believe that he constantly met contempt and mockery because his father was unknown. I'll also argue that Jesus chose to take his mother's side in this. Instead of blaming his mother, thinking of her as a harlot and a whore, Jesus chose to think that the people who jeered and mocked her committed a greater sin than anything his mother might have been guilty of. (I should add that there is nothing in the Bible that suggests that Jesus himself regarded his mother as a holy Virgin, blessed and chosen by God.) In defending his mother, Jesus also defended all other women in his mother's situation. The prostitutes, for example. In Matthew 1:18-19, Joseph was thinking of divorcing Mary:

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ [5] took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed [6] to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

But what would have happened to Mary if Joseph had abandoned her? Hopefully she could have returned to her parents. But if they had been unwilling or unable to support her and her son, Mary might have been forced to sustain herself and Jesus by becoming a prostitute. I like to think that Jesus often watched the prostitutes and their children and thought to himself: There, but for the grace of God, go my mother and I. And that would have explained why he so fiercely defended the prostitutes and all other “sinful” and “fallen” women all the time. And it would also explain why he, unlike all other prophets, demanded that men must never divorce their wives.

All in all, then, Jesus was a wonderful feminist, defending the prostitutes and other “fallen women”, healing and raising sick and dead women, forbidding men to divorce their wives, and using images of women to help people understand the Kingdom of Heaven and God himself. So whenever I hear of or read about Christian people who want to fight for purity and morality by reining in women, by trying to control women, by lecturing women about humility and obedience and by putting the blame for societal ills mostly on women, then I think that these people are very strange Christians, indeed. They regard Jesus as their personal saviour, but they are not interested in sharing Jesus' actual beliefs or finding out what he actually said before he was crucified. Go figure.

Ann