Students, Prophets and Deacons
Women in the New Testament
by Stephan Collishaw
Women played a vital role in the early church — a much more important role than, perhaps, we allow for them today.
· They wrote liturgy — that is hymns or prayers
· They were prophets
· They were counted among the disciples
· They took positions of leadership in the gospels
· They bankrolled Jesus’ ministry
· They were deacons
· They were called apostles
The fact is, Jesus’ story begins and ends with women.
Women did not play minor walk-on roles in first-century Christianity, but were absolutely pivotal to the outworking of God’s plan through his son, Jesus.
The story starts with two women: Elizabeth and Mary. Both are to be mothers of important men. One is probably in her late 40s and the other is probably much younger, perhaps no more than a teenager.
God reveals himself to Mary and speaks to her through an astounding divine visitation.
She is one of the few people in the New Testament who has such an intense encounter with one of God’s angels — Gabriel no less (Peter’s meeting is in a dream — there is no suggestion that God reveals himself in a dream to Mary).
What happens immediately after this revelation is fascinating.
Mary travels down to Judea to stay with Elizabeth, and then we get a burst of song. Ten verses, written in the traditional Hebraic style with a set of parallels, the rhyme of meaning, which we see in the Psalms.
This is a cleverly composed poem; it’s not a spontaneous outburst.
And the fact that is recorded in the Gospel of Luke, many years after the event, suggests that the words were used by the early church as part of their worship.
It had become part of their hymnal.
Mary’s song is balanced against that of Zechariah and in the very next chapter of Luke’s gospel we get more of this balancing as the baby Jesus, taken to the temple for the very first time, meets two prophets — Simon and Anna — one a man, the other a woman.
‘There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.’
Luke 2:36–38
Anna is called a prophet. Her lineage is shared to establish her importance. Her devotion is commended. And finally — most importantly — she is the first person to preach the messiahship of Jesus.
She ‘spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.’
She declares Jesus as the redeemer.
It is part of a theme in the gospels of women being the first to preach Jesus and recognise his messiahship.
If the gospel starts with women, it ends with them too.
At the end of Mark’s gospel, all of the male disciples of Jesus have deserted him. The only followers left around him as he dies are women.
And they are first on the scene of his resurrection. It is to women that Jesus reveals himself first.
‘“Don’t be alarmed,” [the angel] said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
Mark 16: 6–8
The women are given a commission. They are the ones who are to first proclaim the good news — the gospel; it is they who are to preach to the male disciples — to teach them — the wonderful truth of his resurrection.
The earliest manuscripts of the Gospel of Mark end there, at that specific point, with the revelation of the gospel to the women, but not the men.
In John’s gospel, when Jesus appears to Mary Magdelene, she turned to him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!”
Mary calls him her teacher. Her rabbi. She studied at his feet. She was one of his disciples.
And she was not the only female student that Jesus had.
In Luke 10 we are told explicitly that another Mary also sat at Jesus’ feet; that she was his disciple.
In this extraordinary chapter, we are given two models of how a woman should behave.
Martha demands that women should be subject to the normal patriarchal structures in first century (and 21st century) society. According to Martha, a respectable woman’s job was to serve. To do the domestic work.
Jesus tells her she is wrong.
‘“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed — or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”’
Luke 10: 41–42
Women do not have to submit themselves to patriarchal servitude. Like Mary, they have been invited to sit ‘at the Lord’s feet’; to be his students. His disciples.
Not both. One negates the other. Mary cannot make the dinner because she is sitting at Jesus’ feet.
Not only was it possible — probable — that Jesus had female disciples, its clear that women were the ones bankrolling his ministry (Peter and Andrew with their Galilean fishing business obviously weren’t).
‘After this, Jesus travelled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.’
Luke 8 v 1–3
Sometimes, perhaps, we assume these women travelled around with Jesus to cook for him and wash his clothes.
But the gospel tells us very explicitly what they are doing: they were supporting the ministry financially.
Without that support, it would undoubtedly have been difficult, if not nigh on impossible for Jesus to conduct his ministry.
Church tradition might leave us to assume (having misread Paul) that women were quickly subjected in the church hierarchy.
But this is quite obviously not the case.
It is clear, following the example of the gospel, that women are still prominent in their financial support of the early church. In Acts 12 it becomes apparent that the early church has found its home in the house of a female believer.
But they were not just providing money and property to facilitate the work of male disciples; they still operated as disciples too, preaching, and leading the people.
In Acts 21:9 we hear about Philip, who ‘had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.’
Presumably these women remained unmarried following Paul’s commendation that those who could, should stay single so that they could serve the Lord with all of their hearts.
These four women devoted themselves to ministry and spent their time prophesying. It is interesting that they are not evangelising like Philip, their father. They are prophets, like Anna. God spoke through them.
They were not alone in their prominent position in the early church. Paul is keen to celebrate and commend the work of female Christians.
‘I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae.’
Romans 16:1
Women served in an official capacity in the early church. They operated as prophets and deacons. They were apostles too.
‘Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.’
Romans 16:7
Not only is Junia commended as an apostle, Paul says that she is an outstanding apostle. And brave too. She has been imprisoned for her faith but continues the work of the Lord.
Women played key roles in the church, both during the ministry of Jesus and in the early church. They were disciples, apostles, prophets, they supported the ministry and the early church financially. They were courageous, staying with Jesus after his male followers had fled. Being arrested for their faith. They were most certainly not there to make the tea. Women were among his closest companions. They were his strength. They were the ones that he first revealed himself to.
