Perception is reality until author Jan Schenk Grosskopf proves otherwise in this work, which aims to untwist the flawed social construct that suggests the Bible relegates women to lesser roles than men. Written in an easily approachable style designed for conversation, engagement, or deeper learning, A Host of Women: Prophets, Warriors, Queens, Disciples, & Entrepreneurs offers fresh insight into the societal misunderstanding of the Biblical view of women. Published in 2020, the book is FREE for reading below. Please be advised that no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission by the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations for use in reviews. For information contact: Andres & Blanton Publishing, 42 Corey Lane, Niantic, Connecticut, 06357.

Women in the Bible, Volume I

Written in loving memory of my parents,

Edward and Virginia

The Lord gives the word:

a great host of women announce the news:

The kings of the armies –

they flee, they flee!

The women at home

divide the spoil.[1]

Psalm 68:11-13

Introduction

Part I. Cultural Cooptation and Accommodation

Part II: Women in the Bible

PROPHETS

Before the Monarchy

Miriam

Deborah

Samson’s Mother

Hannah

Era of Hebrew Monarchs

Huldah

A Little Hebrew Girl

Unnamed Prophetess

Noadiah

Era of Roman Domination and the Birth of Christ

Anna

WARRIORS

Jael

A Certain Woman

A Shrewd Maidservant

QUEENS

Esther

Jezebel

Herodias

DISCIPLES

Mary - Mother and Disciple

Followers of Jesus During His Ministry

The Early Church

ENTREPRENEURS

Lydia

Priscilla

Volume I: Conclusion

Introduction to Volume II: Wise-Hearted Women

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Introduction

For millennia, the Bible has challenged cultural notions that women are inferior beings. How can this be? If Biblical depictions of women are positive and empowering, why have women so often been treated as second-class citizens in Christian societies and organizations?

Simply stated: since the fall from grace, all human societies have been devised by flawed humans, wrestling with the consequences of living in a sinful world that is out of sync with God. In that struggle, Christians have too often adopted socially-constructed cultural attitudes, which are not based on the Bible.[2] In short, when it comes to the idea that women are less than men, many Christians have wrongly been assured that the Bible tells them so.

Although the idea that all cultures are socially constructed is a secular method of understanding historical development, a social construction analysis of Christian culture has a lot in common with a Biblical critique of what humans have devised; however, there the similarity ends. When Hebrew and Christian principles are divorced from God and politicized, they have no foundation. Set adrift in a world that values practicality, efficiency, and situational ethics, Christian principles are twisted to justify evolving political and social aims. In that context, the definition of values, such as charity and mercy, are in constant flux. Struggling to understand troubling political and social conditions within a framework of continuously mutating ethics, people turn to flawed, inconsistent political systems and self-serving acts of virtue signaling[3] to answer the important question: Am I worthy?

*****

This Bible investigation comprises two volumes. Volume I, Part I, offers a brief historical summary of how Christians have ignored their own texts. Part II focuses on Biblical women.

Part I. Cultural Cooptation and Accommodation

Competitive, self-centered human will is a powerful dynamic force that bends, shapes, and reshapes beliefs and values in both intended and unintended ways. For the past 2,000 years, secular and non-Christian cultural norms and trends have too often influenced the doctrine and practices of the Christian Church, rather than the other way around. Even more troubling, as critics repeatedly point out, Christians have used their Scriptures in attempts to legitimize slavery, wars of conquest, racism, sexism, and class divisions, as well as the abuse of the natural world. All of those ills, however, are founded on persistent non-Biblical cultural norms and habits that Christians have adopted.[4]

Christians adopt non- and even anti-Christian cultural practices for political, social, or economic reasons that seem practical, but merely mask self-serving impulses. Forming a considered Christian challenge to those flawed, powerful motives requires some knowledge of the Bible and of history, combined with an understanding of the economic and social realities that bear down on women - and on all people. Unwilling to consider facts that would challenge cherished beliefs and choices, some Christians ignore early-Christian history and the Bible itself when they prescribe limited roles for females.

Upset by the historical and current treatment of women, other Christians insist that Jesus revealed secret knowledge to Mary Magdalene and gave her leadership of the Church. The proponents of this claim believe that Christ intended women to be head of the church, until men pushed them aside. Their ideas, however, are based on texts written long after the New Testament.[5] In fact, God did not set men and women in competition with each other. That was done by malevolent forces manifested in various forms.[6]

To further muddy the waters, writers, publishers, producers, and directors churn out books, movies, newspapers, and television shows filled with spurious “religious” stories, disguised as factual accounts. Their sensationalized fare capitalizes on the longings of people grappling with the pressures of modern life, such as unrealistic standards of attractiveness, escalating levels of consumption, and definitions of success that have left many feeling inferior and lost. Personal challenges, stirred and folded with fears about a world that seems perched on the edge of chaos, makes some people wonder if life is meaningless.

In the search for meaning, people latch onto social and political ideas that appear to offer solutions. Many of these social and political ideas sound promising, because they are attractive Christian principles - sharing, neighborliness, forgiveness, love - that have been severed from their religious roots. Instead of finding a robust call to repentance and a faith that produces a counter-cultural life, seekers are offered flawed political parties and an undemanding deity who only wants them to be happy and nice.

Niceness is hard to argue against. It sounds good, while being vague and mutable enough to resist definition. How does one critique such a sweet marshmallow term? The very impreciseness of the word makes it quite easy to sell the god of nice, and that transaction has grown into a very big business. Motivational speakers and writers draw hundreds of thousands to their personal growth seminars and sell millions of books couched in religious language and imagery that locates Christianity in the self-help genre.[7] Cheerful, pleasant seminar leaders assure women that Christianity will help them lose weight, raise successful children, have happy relationships, and handle work inside and outside of their homes. Suffering is redefined in palpable terms. The god of nice is not so crass as to remind us that Jesus asked us to come die with Him.[8]

Christian cultural accommodation is almost as old as the Church. The first Christians debated whether or not to keep Jewish law and struggled to incorporate scores of Gentiles, who did not have an understanding of Judaism, while simultaneously hammering out a church structure in hostile, dangerous circumstances. Despite on-going deliberations about important matters, the apostles, a group that included a host of women, managed to spread the Gospel throughout much of the Roman Empire.

By the time Rome adopted Christianity as the state religion (c. 350 C.E.), it had grown into a powerful institution that had incorporated a mix of political, legal, religious, military, economic, and social norms and practices inherited from the Levant,[9] classical Greece, and ancient Rome - cultures that promoted sharply limited lives for women. This blend of cultures, combined with the cataclysmic effects of warfare and plagues, technological changes, and scientific and geographic discoveries, produced the medieval European Christian culture that embraced the theory, if not the reality, of limited roles for women.[10]

The medieval spirit of inquiry opened the door to the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment. Disillusionment with the Church during successive bouts of the Black Plague, coupled with new access to books and climbing literacy rates, engendered interest in classical Greek and Roman ideals. Familiarity with these texts revived and reinforced the misogynistic tendencies in European culture that had been somewhat ameliorated by “barbarian” cultural practices and the practical realities of the medieval era.

Thus the deeply-rooted, non-Christian idea that women are inferior, weak beings who should stay home and depend on men has unduly shaped Christian ideas about the “proper” role of women for 2,000 years. Over the centuries, however, the outer limits of women’s lives contracted and expanded time and time again, depending on the need for their labor.

The Industrial Revolution (early eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries) brought deep, fundamental change by splitting work from home, which forced women and men to reorder all aspects of their lives. As new forms of work began to separate males from their homes and families, non-Biblical ideas about the home as women’s place regained its foothold. The notion of separate spheres[11] for men and women fractured during World War I, but rebounded in the Great Depression of the 1930s. Shocked by unemployment, New Deal government programs pushed women out of the workforce, which they had begun to enter in large numbers, and gave their jobs to men. Businesses followed the government’s lead and instituted private policies that restricted the employment of women. During World War II, however, government and business desperately needed female workers to replace men, who were at the front. Women streamed back into the workplace for the duration.

Heady with victory after the war and eager to put returning soldiers back to work in the civilian world, government and industry implemented their concept of the ideal post-war society. It would be women at home taking care of children and cleaning and buying. Men went to work to make the products to earn the money that supported the dependents who were doing the cleaning and buying.

Government educational programs for veterans prepared former service members for the new economy and federal loans provided money to buy new houses in burgeoning suburbs. Industry geared up to provide the materials to build the new houses and to produce all the goods to fill them. The federal highway program laid out and paved roads for the millions of cars and trucks that would roll off the assembly lines, ready to transport men to work, goods to market, and families to Grandma’s house.

The media jumped on board and painted a happy picture of the twentieth-century ideal: cheerful, stylish homemakers in their modern suburban houses, surrounded by labor-saving appliances and their happy, well-fed, healthy children. Moreover, the media, rarely challenged by the Church on this topic, suggested that their representations of women embodied the historical Christian norm. Consumer culture shifted into high gear.

The reality of attempting to live up to the new ideal of happy homemaker frayed nerves, however, and the Women’s Movement pushed back against the most recent embodiment of the rehashed status quo.[12] Opponents of the feminists countered. Decrying what some misinterpreted as the emasculation of men, some Christian leaders imposed on their followers their own misguided, culturally-derived notions regarding proper gender norms. That imposition is still prevalent.[13]

Criticism and misunderstanding of the Biblical view of women begins with the story of Adam and Eve. God created Eve and Adam in His image and gave them free will and eternal life in a garden. He told them to cultivate the garden and eat the food they grew; however, they were not allowed to eat from, or even touch, the beautiful tree of the knowledge of good and evil, growing in the middle of the garden.

At some point, the devil spoke to Eve and called God a liar. He told her that she would not die if she ate from the forbidden tree. He said that instead of dying, Eve would become like God and know good from evil. In her state of grace, Eve could not have comprehended the concepts of good, evil, and death. Instead of trusting God, Eve trusted the devil and ate the fruit. Adam followed Eve’s lead and ate.

Whether you interpret the story as factual or as a metaphor, the point is that knowledge of evil reshaped human consciousness. God mercifully ejected Adam and Eve from the garden to spare them and their descendants the agony of immortal bodies subject to the ravages of illness and old age and minds hostage to cruelty, greed, violence, and a host of other sins. Outside of the garden, Eve and Adam experienced a corrupted existence that entailed suffering and hard labor. Their offspring inherited their parents’ mortality and a world wracked by sin.

This ostensibly simple story offers many avenues of theological and philosophical analyses, for those inclined to enjoy such pursuits. But for millions of people over the centuries, Eve’s punishment - increased pain giving birth and longing for her husband - has been cited as proof that women are impure and that God intended women to literally stay in their homes under complete subjection to their male relatives.

The story of Adam and Eve is about the human fall from grace and its consequences for everyone. If the interpretation of Eve’s punishment - pain and longing - can be stretched to support claims that God doomed all women to subjection to men, then it logically follows that He intended all men to only plow fields, i.e., to farm. If that is the case, then all employment for men, except farming, is improper.

The Biblical narrative, however, illustrates something much more complex and important. In the beginning, God created humans to live peacefully in a natural, created world in personal communication with Him. Not wanting robots or members of the Borg,[14] He allowed humans free will to choose whether to trust and obey Him. After deciding to trust the father of lies and being banished from the garden, humans had to devise post-garden societies while struggling with the effects of their sinful, flawed natures. In other words, cultures are human social constructions, and as such, they are accurate reflections of humans and not of God.

If God did not devise our cultures, would we have to say that all things made or devised by humans are wide of the mark and that we and our very situation in the material world are defective? The short answer is yes. Everything humans do or produce, no matter how grand, beautiful, or well intended, is flawed to a greater or lesser degree. In that case, all socially-constructed roles and occupations, institutions, and other aspects of societies are marred by sin.

That fact is very much the point. It is not the gender of the person in a secular role that is wrong, it is the secular role that is deficient. Our lives are lived in ad hoc constructions that we struggle to build and reshape - even understand - while being unable to comprehend exactly where we are. We don’t often realize that all we devise, including plans to address our problems, carries the seeds of its own destruction. God, however, allows us free will and meets us in our circumstances to bring good from our mistakes.

Part II: Women in the Bible

PROPHETS

Before the Monarchy

During forty years wandering in the wilderness, and in the early period of conquering and settling what would become Israel, God spoke to the Hebrews through His prophets. Eventually, the Hebrews rejected God’s direct rule and demanded a king, like the nations around them. At that point, the prophets advised the monarch rather than serving as a judge (ruler) of the people.

Miriam

The descendants of Abraham and Sarah moved to Egypt to escape a famine. Eventually, the Egyptians enslaved the Hebrew people and forced them to make bricks for the pharaoh’s building projects. About four hundreds years after the Hebrews arrived, the pharaoh was alarmed by the large numbers of Hebrews living in Egypt and ordered the execution of all male Hebrew babies. Miriam and her mother bravely flouted the law and saved the infant Moses. Miriam hid her baby brother in the river grasses and stayed near him until an Egyptian princess found him. At that point, Miriam courageously stepped forward to speak to the princess and arranged for Moses’ mother to be his wet nurse. As adults, Moses and his brother Aaron and sister Miriam led the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt. The Bible refers to Miriam as a prophet.

Exodus 2:1-10, 15:20-22; Numbers 12:1-15

Apparently, Moses did not observe the Abrahamic covenant with God after he fled Egypt as a young man. It is clear that he did not want to act as God’s prophet. After Moses reluctantly agreed to return to Egypt to convey God’s commands to Pharaoh, God met Moses along the way and seemingly intended to kill him. Moses’ wife, Zipporah, made sense of this confusing turn of events by realizing that Moses had neglected to circumcise their son. Seizing a flint, she circumcised their son and touched Moses’ feet with the boy’s foreskin. God accepted the circumcision as a valid one. Thus, a woman, who was not a Hebrew, had the faith and presence of mind to understand. By performing the circumcision, Zipporah restored Moses’ relationship with God and brought their son into the Hebrew covenant.

Exodus 4:21-26

Deborah

After the death of Joshua, Moses’ successor as leader of the Hebrew people, God raised up judges (prophets) to administer the government of Israel in His name. Israel, however, began to worship Canaanite gods; in effect, they were being “conquered” by Canaanite culture. When Jabin, King of Canaan, and his general, Sisera, threatened Israel, God instructed Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth and a judge of Israel, to send Barak to war. Barak refused to go without Deborah. Confident in God’s promises, Deborah went to the battlefield with Israel’s general. Heartened by her presence and support, Barak defeated Israel’s enemy on the battlefield, but Sisera escaped with his life.

Judges 2:16-19, 4:1-23, 5:1-31

God sometimes spoke to the mothers of Hebrew prophets. Oftentimes, God chose barren women or women past childbirth to be the mothers of prophets. These women raised their children in accordance with God’s instructions.

Samson’s Mother

God told Samson’s mother that she would bear a son, who would be a Nazirite.[15] The woman told her husband, who prayed for guidance. An angel of God spoke to the woman when she was alone in a field. She ran and got her husband, Manoah, who came out to speak with the angel. The angel told Manoah that the couple should do what the angel had already explained to his wife. Realizing that he had spoken with God, Manoah told his wife that they would die, having seen God, but his wife said that if God meant to kill them, He wouldn’t have accepted their sacrifice, shown them the future of their son, or announced His intentions for Samson.

Judges 13:1-25

God answered the prayers of Hannah, the beloved, but barren, wife of Elkanah. Many times, Hannah wept and prayed in the temple, pleading for a son. God blessed her with a son, who grew up to be the prophet Samuel.

1 Samuel 1

Era of Hebrew Monarchs

Eventually, the Hebrews wanted to be like the people around them and demanded that God give them a king. In effect, Israel rejected God and reconstructed their civilization in the image of their neighbors’ societies. From this period on, male kings ruled the Israelites. Queens, unlike female prophets who had ruled in their own right, derived power through their male relatives. During the monarchical period, God spoke to the monarch through male and female prophets.[16]

1 Samuel 8, 12:1, 25

Huldah

Over the decades of warfare and cultural accommodation with the societies surrounding them, Israel lost the Hebrew Scriptures, which defined them as the people of God. Eventually, workers found the Scriptures during King Josiah’s reconstruction of the temple (c. 620s B.C.E.). After reading the recovered texts, King Josiah sent his ministers to Huldah, the Hebrew prophetess, for guidance. Huldah explained God’s judgment to the King’s ministers. This story is recordedtwice. [17]

2 Kings 22:8-20; 2 Chronicles 34:22-28

A Little Hebrew Girl

During one of the many wars between the Hebrews and their neighbors, Naaman, a commander of a foreign army and a leper, took captive a Hebrew girl. Naaman gave the child to his wife for a servant. Hoping to be cured of leprosy, Naaman heeded the Hebrew girl’s advice to go to God’s prophet Elisha. Naaman’s being cured by Elisha publicly demonstrated the power of the Hebrew God.

2 Kings 5:1-14

Unnamed Prophetess

Isaiah briefly mentioned that he had a son with a prophetess, but he did not record her name.

Isaiah 8:3

Noadiah

In 583 B.C.E., King Cyrus allowed the Hebrew captives to return to Judah. Nehemiah, a Hebrew who had risen to political prominence in Persia, and a group of fellow exiles returned to Jerusalem and began to rebuild the city and the temple. Not everyone in Judah welcomed the exiles home. Nehemiah’s enemies conspired to halt the reconstruction plan and enlisted Noadiah to prophesy against Nehemiah.

Nehemiah 6:13-14

Era of Roman Domination and the Birth of Christ

Israel occupied a busy crossroad between Africa and the mid-east, Asia, and Europe. For centuries, the Hebrew people had been surrounded by a swirl of different peoples, goods, religions, languages, and ideas. By the time of Jesus, Roman armies, fleets, and engineers had established peace in their empire, which brought new peoples, goods, and ideas from Europe to Israel. In a country newly and more deeply connected to Europe, the important and vast differences between Roman and Hebrew cultures ensured ongoing clashes between the Roman rulers and their subjects.

Unable to resist the power of Rome, the Jewish people adapted to foreign domination in numerous ways. Rome allowed the Hebrew ruling class to remain in place. As proxy rulers, they were supposed to keep the population under control. Many of the Jewish people grudgingly accepted Roman rule under these conditions, but only within limits. Maintaining a fragile peace in Israel required a constant negotiation between the various elements of Jewish society. Rome allowed the Hebrew ruling class to manage the factions within Israel, and the Hebrew people, in general, looked to their leaders to act as their representatives to Rome.

During this time of cultural assaults, accelerated technological advancement, uncertainty, and prosperity, the Jewish people longed for the Messiah. Many people wanted and expected a warrior messiah, who, like David before him, would free the Jewish people from foreign domination. The ruling classes also looked for a messiah, but the Bible reveals them to be more cautious in their expectations.

While they waited, the Hebrews had no prophets to guide them. The silence was broken after the birth of Jesus.

Anna

While Rome dominated and Israel waited for the promised Messiah, the prophetess Anna waited at the temple for Him. When Mary and Joseph presented the infant Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem, Anna recognized Him, and pronounced Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. [18]

Luke 2:36-38

WARRIORS

The fear of angry, revengeful women has deep historical roots. Ancient Greek and Roman artists and writers produced graphic images of vengeful, potent women: untamable Amazonian warriors cutting off a breast in order to shoot men with bows; Medaea, killing her children to punish her unfaithful husband; women carrying knives to kill rapists in bed; and “barbarian” women torturing captive Roman soldiers, just to name a few. All of the stories encompassed a titillating mixture of terrifying will steeped in potent sexuality.

In the late nineteenth century, American images of women portrayed them as domestic creatures or as harlots: public art of gentle nurturers presiding over their homes or hidden pictures of naked women in wanton postures.

The twentieth-century comic book offered a new mix in a form that has enjoyed massive distribution. Females in comic books ran the gamut from passive victims requiring rescue to superheroes. In lurid images, half-naked female warriors engaged in hand-to-hand combat with their enemies. Relying on pictures more than words, the graphics of superhero women were descendants of the ancient images of terrifying, dangerous women. Once again, a powerful mixture of strength, revenge, and sex was offered to the consumer. Video games and movies have continued the trend, introducing especially cold, calculating, pitiless women wielding physical and sexual strength, along with an odd mixture of female characters as purely sluts, passive victims, or domestic goddesses.

Although the exaggerated quasi-pornographic images of women warriors are inaccurate, to say the least, it is true that throughout history, societies have not had the luxury of protecting women from war. Biblical women fought to protect their homes and families, but their stories are not cloaked in suggestive sexuality. They just got the job done.

Jael

After Sisera escaped death at the hands of Barak’s and Deborah’s army, Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, found and killed him. Jael used stealth, a time-honored battle tactic of men and women, to kill Sisera.

Judges 4:17-22; 5:24-27

A Certain Woman

Abimelech, son of Gideon, murdered seventy of his brothers and set himself up as King of Israel. Unsurprisingly, his enemies rebelled. Abimelech took to the field and began killing his enemies. He conducted a victorious siege of the tower of Shechem. After burning that tower and killing hundreds of people, Abimelech turned his attention to the tower of Thebaz, an enemy stronghold. During the battle, a woman of Thebaz dropped a small millstone[19] from the tower. The millstone hit Abimelech and cracked open his skull. Their leader dead, Abimelech’s army scattered. With the millstone and good aim, the woman saved her town and ended the rebellion.

Judges 9:50-55

A Shrewd Maidservant

During the war between King David and his son, Absalom, David’s friends, Jonathan and Ahimaaz, were almost captured. A woman warned them that their position had been betrayed to Absalom’s men. The woman hid Jonathan and Ahimaaz in a well and covered the top. When Absalom’s men came to her house and asked the whereabouts of David’s friends, she sent them on a wild-goose chase. After they left, Jonathan and Ahimaaz climbed out of the well and went to warn David.

2 Samuel 17:16-20

QUEENS

After the Hebrews demanded a king, upper-class and royal women in ancient Israel derived power through their relationships with men. (Huldah appears to be an exception.) Royal women could exercise temporary authority when acting as regents for minor sons and husbands or relatives who could not rule. They led palace factions, often while their countries were under foreign dominance, scheming to put their male candidates on the throne.

Like the men around them, some Hebrew queens were wise and just, and others were evil. God did not condemn Biblical queens for their sex; instead, He judged them for their faith.

Esther

Locked in the harem of King Ahasuerus, Esther won the favor of officials in charge of the women. When her turn came to be with the king, the officials made sure that Esther was beautifully groomed and dressed. The king found her so pleasing that he made her queen. Having brains, as well as beauty, Esther won King Ahasuerus’ trust when her uncle uncovered an assassination plot against the king and warned him through Esther. When her uncle’s rival determined to revenge himself by ordering the execution of all Jews, Esther risked her life by approaching the king. She wisely arranged a method of revealing the plot to murder all of the Jews in the enormous kingdom. Having learned to trust Esther’s word, the angry king ordered the execution of her enemy and allowed the Jews to defend themselves, thus preserving the Jewish people. The celebration of Purim commemorates Esther’s and her uncle’s bravery and wisdom.

The Book of Esther

Jezebel

King Ahab broke God’s law by marrying Jezebel, a worshipper and priestess of Baal and Asherah. As queen, Jezebel arranged the murder of many of God’s prophets and replaced them at court with the prophets of her gods. Angered when the Hebrew prophet Elijah’s challenge to her proved God‘s sovereignty, Jezebel attempted to have him murdered. Later, she successfully arranged the murder of a man whose property her husband wanted. Eventually, Jezebel’s servants threw her out of a tower during an uprising against her son.

1 Kings 16:31-33, 18:4,13, 19:1-2, 21:5-15; 2 Kings 9:22, 30-37

Herodias

Herodias, member of the royal family, married her uncle and had a child. She divorced her first husband and married her husband’s brother, Herod Antipas, king during the ministry of Jesus. When John the Baptist denounced the marriage, Herodias had him beheaded.

Matthew 14:1-12; Mark 6:14-29; Luke 3:19-20

DISCIPLES

Mary - Mother and Disciple

The account of Jesus’ birth and relationship with His mother is so well known that we take it for granted; but God did not have to send His son to us through a woman. He is, after all, God, and could have chosen another way. The fact that God chose a woman to give birth to and raise the Messiah clearly illustrates the high value that He places on women.

After giving birth to Jesus, Mary never deserted Him. She fled through the desert to Egypt with Joseph and Jesus to escape the soldiers Herod sent to murder her son. After Jesus began preaching, Mark records that Jesus’ family thought that He had lost his mind and attempted to seize Him. Mary is not listed in Mark’s passage. The omission suggests that she did not believe that Jesus had lost his mind. We do know that she sought to speak with Him. Eventually, she followed Him to the cross.

Unlike most of His disciples and followers, Mary stayed with Jesus during the crucifixion. She stood within speaking distance to comfort her son while He died a painful, ghastly death, subjecting herself to the horror of seeing His suffering. Being close to Jesus exposed Mary to the possibility of abuse and arrest by the Roman soldiers and Hebrew leaders.

Although in terrible agony on the cross, Jesus demonstrated His love and appreciation for His mother. He put Mary in John’s care, because He knew that John would be especially respectful of His widowed mother and give her a place of honor.

After the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, Mary stayed in the upper room with the apostles. This select group of men and women formed the core of the early church.

Matthew 1:18-25, 27:55-56; Mark 3:21; Luke 1:26-56, 8:19-20; John 19:25-27; Acts 1:12-14

Followers of Jesus During His Ministry

Being a disciple of Jesus demanded life-changing faith and, for many, physical and mental strength. The women who decided to go with Jesus as He went about preaching and healing endured the rigors and dangers of traveling in the ancient world. Although the pax Romana[20] ensured fairly safe journeys, especially for large groups, robbers and capricious Roman soldiers could be a threat to people on the road, especially at night. To be with Jesus, women walked long miles on hot, dusty roads and over rough, ankle wrenching ground. They climbed hills and waded through streams and rivers. At the end of a long, wearying day on the road, the women gathered wood and cooked over campfires, unless someone opened her or his house to the large group of followers.

Matthew and Luke note that Mary Magdalene; another Mary; Joanna, wife of Chuza, manager of Herod’s household; Susanna, and many other women traveled with Jesus. Matthew and Luke also record that this crowd of women used their money and resources to support Jesus and the apostles.

Matthew 27:55-56; Luke 8:1-3

Despite the hardships and danger, at no point in the Bible are we told that Jesus told the women not to accompany Him. He never deemed them too frail or inferior to follow Him, nor did He ever preach that women belonged in their homes.

Some women followers of Jesus chose not to travel with Him; instead, they offered Jesus hospitality in their homes. Although the disciples may have sometimes paid for food, sheltering Jesus and His disciples could be expensive and was, by necessity, labor intensive. Meals were cooked from scratch. Meat had to be bought or livestock killed and dressed. Women ground grain, kneaded dough, and baked bread. They soaked beans and peeled and chopped vegetables to prepare them for cooking over fires. Beds needed clean linen washed by hand, and the house had to be cleaned with brooms and rags. Women hauled water hand-over-hand from deep wells and carried it in heavy jars.

Women chose to do demanding labor with the knowledge that friends and neighbors might look askance at the men crowding into their houses. Despite the general disapproval of women opening their homes to unrelated men,[21] there is no record of Jesus ever chiding women for inviting crowds into their homes or suggesting that they hide themselves from the gaze of men. Jesus went so far as to approve of women putting aside housework to learn at His feet.

Luke 10:38-42; John 12:1-3

Like in the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, we often miss the important implications of the details in the Easter story. It is worth noting that in the last hours of Jesus’ life, Judas betrayed Him. Nine of the twelve apostles and many other disciples fled the Garden of Gethsemane when the authorities came to arrest Jesus in the night. At first, Peter defended Jesus with a sword, and then he, John, and a crowd of women followed Jesus to the High Priest’s house. While waiting in the courtyard, Peter denied knowing Jesus and then hurried away. John and the women apparently stayed while the authorities judged and scourged Jesus. We know that John and the women followed Jesus as He carried His cross to Golgotha, and they all stood with Mary, the mother of Jesus, at the foot of the cross while Jesus suffered and died.

After His death, the Romans no longer worried that followers of Jesus would revolt. Pilate gave Jesus’ body to Joseph of Arimathea, and allowed him to bury it wherever Joseph wished. Several women accompanied Joseph when he took Jesus’ body and put it in the tomb. At that point, Pilate had so little fear of Jesus’ followers he did not station a guard at the gravesite until the Hebrew authorities asked him to do so.

Matthew 27:55-56; Mark 15:40-41, 47; Luke 23:26-7, 48-49; John 19:25-27

In first century Israel, it was probably less dangerous for the women to follow Jesus to the cross and to stay with Him in sight of the Roman soldiers. Nor was it unusual for them to participate in burial rites. The Roman authorities would probably have viewed the women as annoying, rather than threatening.

Although ancient ideas about gender roles may explain the women’s presence at the execution and burial, ideas about gender do not explain the events of Easter morning. According to two sources, the women brought funeral spices to anoint Jesus’ body. Two other sources merely say that women went to the tomb. In any case, all of the gospel writers note that the women were the first to witness the resurrection. Thus they were the first to see Jesus in His glorified body, which signaled the fulfillment of Jewish law and the advent of a new high priest who had made the final atonement for the people. [22]

Matthew 28:1-10; Mark 16:1-9; Luke 24:1-12; John 20:11-18

The Early Church

Mary and the other women who had known Jesus and traveled with Him comprised a core group of female disciples. These women are numbered among the 120 or so followers of Christ who remained faithful immediately after Jesus’ death and resurrection. They, along with the apostles, were in the upper room and helped to establish the early church.

Acts 1:12-14

As Jesus’ followers boldly preached and taught throughout much of the Roman Empire, women of all statuses flocked to the message and began to exercise their gifts and talents in the church. In their letters to the churches and to individual believers, Paul and Peter noted and commended women by name. Luke noted that God opened Lydia’s heart, so that she paid attention to Paul’s message. Peter even referred to one woman as being “chosen,” and John addressed his second letter to an “elect lady and her children” and referred to another elect woman.

Acts 16:11-15; Romans 16:1-16; Philippians 4:2; Colossians 4:15; 2 Timothy 4:19; 2 John

Mary, the mother of John Mark, opened her house as a place for Christian worship and place of safety. During the perilous days of the early church, after Herod had the Apostle James killed, Peter sought refuge at her house after he escaped jail.

Acts 12:11-17

One well-known disciple, Priscilla, and her husband, Aquila, followed Paul from Corinth to Ephesus and taught the gospel to fellow believers. They eventually moved to Rome and established a church in their house.

Acts 18:18, 24-26; Romans 16:3; 1 Corinthians 16:19; 2 Timothy 4:19

ENTREPRENEURS

For thousands of years, the household functioned as the basic unit of production, but arrangements within households depended on historical time and place. The ancient Hebrew texts describe an ideal Biblical household as an economic and social enterprise directed by women for the benefit of the family. The woman in Proverbs is pictured as an astute businesswoman, who provides for the entire household by buying and selling goods in the marketplace, making goods, and purchasing and managing property. As mothers, women give their husbands the children who bring credit to him.

Proverbs 31:10-31

The Christian testament is focused on the Gospel, faith, and discipleship instead of economics; however, we get a glimpse of women in economic roles.

Lydia

The Christian texts provide a glimpse of a household that reflects the Hebrew ideal. While preaching in the Greek city of Philippi, Paul met Lydia of Thyatira, who sold purple cloth, a luxury item that attested to her wealth and status. It did not shock or outrage Paul to meet an independent businesswoman who traveled and offered hospitality to Christians.

Acts 16:14-15

Priscilla

Paul had, as all Jewish boys, been taught a trade. Aquila and Priscilla gave Paul a home and job, because, the Bible records that, they, like he, made tents.

Acts 18:1-4

Volume I: Conclusion

Refreshing as it is to learn that God did not intend women to live constricted lives, is there something more to the story that should inform and shape our understanding? Something working in concert with faith that will help women negotiate and transcend constructed societies and cultures? There is.

Introduction to Volume II:

Wise-Hearted Women

Without enduring principles to guide us in our quest for human happiness and flourishing, we are constantly attempting to locate ourselves in a shifting landscape of goals and desires. Our socially constructed economic systems, forms of government and social institutions and norms offer no permanent help. They cannot because all systems contain the seeds of their own destruction. The Biblical remedy for women, for all humans, is principled faith informed by wisdom. As for women, we need to be wise-hearted.

Coming soon!

Review by Sam Brown

“Jan Schenk Grosskopf’s A Host of Women: Vol.1 ventures work of vital importance – helping Christian women today resist the false-narratives in the world (which have also crept into parts of the church) that view women as ‘less than’ men. . . . by looking to the Scriptures, she aims to help women embrace the truth of God’s love for and value of women. In this first volume, Grosskopf lays a historical foundation for her thesis, reminding Christians of the faithful women who have run the race God laid out for them while enjoying his favor. She posits the vital question women need answered: ‘Am I worthy?,’ which she answers with a resounding, ‘Yes!’ as she affirms the dignity and glory of women as people made in the image of God, loved by him, and used to accomplish his good purposes. I look forward to the applications to come in Vol. 2, which is sure to further this necessary conversation about the value of women in the Kingdom of God.”

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to friends who read and critiqued: Rachel Buckley, Michele Dittner, Tiffany Silva, Laurel VanDerWiele, and Chris Wood. Special thanks to Karen Gerboth, and many thanks to Susie Scheyder for being an untiring cheerleader, editor, critic, business partner, and friend.

About the Author

Jan Schenk Grosskopf received her B.A. in History at Connecticut College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in History at the University of Connecticut. She is the author of the novel “for Mischief done,” which explores how the gruesome discovery and the arrest of a child ignite a crisis of confidence in post-revolutionary New London, Connecticut. As the summer of 1786 unfolds, an investigation exposes the contradictions in the young nation’s hard-won liberty, forcing the town to consider the fate of people of color. Click here to buy “for Mischief done.”

Footnotes

[1] Translations of this psalm are a perfect example of my thesis. Some translators have chosen the term host with no sex specified. Others note that the host is feminine. Both record that women divide the spoil. Apparently, those who use only host are willing to tell readers that the women are at home.

[2] Social construction theory reveals the interplay of human agency, social hierarchies, institutions, natural events, geography, and warfare that shapes cultures and societies. An Internet search of college syllabi will reveal many books on social construction.

[3] Virtue signaling is prevalent on social media. Women make goodhearted attempts to alert each other by posting information about all sorts of dangers. Breastfeeding, types of car seats, giving young children honey, use of electronics, etc. have been hot topics. Anyone questioning the purported wisdom or who cannot conform is subject to scathing posts of public shaming. Since the 2016 election, belonging to a political party or voting for a particular candidate are popular virtue-signaling methods. This is particularly insidious, because it requires almost nothing of people. Virtue signaling on other topics, annoying as it is to the receivers, at least demands some input and presence from the signalers.

[4] Claims have been made that the Apostle Paul approved of the institution of slavery. This is not so. He dealt with the topic of slavery as cultural reality and gave messages of hope to slaves. He also noted that humans (as Bob Dylan pointed out two millennia later) always serve someone or something. The Apostle Paul proudly called himself the slave of Christ and urged Christians to serve God. In the early modern period, the Bible message that all humans belong to God and, therefore, should not be made into merchandise directly challenged institutionalized chattel slavery. That being the case, it is not surprising that American abolitionists correctly relied on the New Testament to justify their counter-cultural work against slavery. A century later, Christians were deeply involved in the Civil Rights movement. Many modern Christians support the new anti-slavery projects and work for social justice for all people.

[5] Arguments that Jesus gave female disciples secret knowledge are partially based on The Gospel of Mary, which is influenced by ancient pagan traditions and written after the first century. There is a great deal of scholarship regarding the dating of the Christian canon. Lee Strobel’s work provides a good general introduction. Those interested in academic works could consult his sources. Those interested in the idea that Mary Magdalene was supposed to be the leader of the church can find those sources with an Internet search. Be careful to choose work by scholars with solid academic credentials, and avoid sensationalized material. Also, be sure to read several academic sources from each side of the debate and compare their evidence. Reading a book or books from only one perspective in any discipline will be very misleading.

[6] Believing in the existence of evil personified in a being is considered laughable by many people. In The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis, an older devil tells a young devil in training that “[w]e are really faced with a cruel dilemma. When humans disbelieve in us (devils) we lose all the pleasing results of direct terrorism and we make no magicians. On the other hand, when they believe in us, we cannot make them materialists and skeptics . . . The fact that ‘devils’ are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in … [your victim’s] mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that (it is a textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you.” Lewis, C.S., The Screwtape Letters, (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1946) 39-40.

[7] Despite the popularity of selling religion as therapy, Christianity isn‘t about developing self esteem, losing weight, being successful, or any other temporal goal. Being a Christian is about believing that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and living faithful lives. A character reformed by the Gospel could overcome some personal problems, but that is a byproduct, not a goal of faith.

[8] I once heard a Christian televangelist talking about God bringing good out of suffering. He said that one night a policeman stopped him. Opening the glove compartment to get his registration, he found his wife’s missing diamond ring. He said that finding the huge diamond was an example of the good fruits of Christian suffering. I have often imagined kidnapped women huddled around a secret radio, tuning in to this talk. Seeking hope in despairing circumstances, they would be treated to a story of obtuse materialism as an example of the redeeming power of suffering.

[9] The near East: present-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, parts of coastal Turkey, and Egypt.

[10] It is difficult to actually implement practices to conform to the ideal that women belong in the home. As women’s studies have demonstrated, prescriptive literature on this topic hardly reflects reality; in fact, it suggests the opposite. After all, fields need to be planted and harvested, airplanes need to be built to supply war demands, and money earned. Historical evidence demonstrates that the majority of families have been unable to give up the labor of women, as their work has been vital to pursuing personal and national goals.

[11] Nancy Cott’s seminal study on separate spheres, and critiques by Gerda Lerner and Linda Kerber, are important to the analysis of the theory. Subsequent works have expanded the scope of inquiry and illuminated the social fault lines, so to speak, in which women exercised personal and institutional agency.

[12] Whether women should work at home or outside the home became a hotly debated question in the early years of the Women’s Movement and remains so today. The question itself is not useful, because it takes the focus off of the economic problems inherent in all industrialized nations and pits women against each other. For an interesting, accessible discussion, see Hayes, Shannon, Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture, Left to Write Press (2010).

[13] Critics - and too many Christians over the centuries - often claim that the Jewish texts justify war, slavery, abuse of the natural world, and other injustices. A discussion of those topics is far beyond the scope of this study, but suffice it to say that the Hebrew wars of conquest (c. 1,200 B.C.E.) and Jewish law speak to a specific people, at a specific time, regarding a designated geographic location. Christ fulfilled the law and opened the way to God for all people in all times and places. It is not useful to cherry pick the Hebrew texts for laws or instances that appear to support a point of view about what constitutes “proper” Christian practice.

[14] Star Trek aficionados will enjoy the reference.

[15] A man or a woman who made a vow to God or who had been dedicated to God from childhood. Numbers 6:2-27

[16] King David was both prophet and king - a rare situation.

[17] Despite the importance of this story, some Bibles do not list Huldah in the index.

[18] God also revealed the identity of Jesus to the prophet Simeon.

[19] A heavy, flat stone used to crush grain.

[20] Roman peace. The Romans cleared the sea of pirates and kept the sea lanes open. Their armies built and guarded roads and defended the borders of the Empire and kept peace in the provinces.

[21] In the ancient world, the ideal was for women to seclude themselves in their houses. Greek women were not supposed to greet unrelated men who came to visit their husbands. Though not often practiced, this impractical idea remained a cherished notion for centuries.

[22] The differences in the details of Easter morning are not problematic. Authentic eyewitness accounts of events should have some variation in details; otherwise, we would suspect the witnesses of collaborating to produce a false account.

A HOST OF WOMEN:

PROPHETS, WARRIORS, QUEENS,

DISCIPLES,

and ENTREPRENEURS

Women in the Bible, Volume I

Published by Andres & Blanton

Niantic, Connecticut

by Jan Schenk Grosskopf

Cover photo by Hannah Scheyder; the Mount of Beatitudes, overlooking the Sea of Galilee (2019).

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission by the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations for use in reviews. For information contact: Andres & Blanton Publishing, 42 Corey Lane, Niantic, Connecticut, 06357.

1. Women-Christianity 2. Bible-Women

3. Women-Social Construction-Religion

4. Women-Antiquity-Christianity

ISBN 978-0-9966721-6-0

Should you wish to own a copy, Host of Women is available on Amazon.