STRONG ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS

Jesus was -

  STRONG ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS

In stark contrast to Middle Eastern culture, here is how Jesus upheld women's rights. He was a champion for women's rights and if you study it will become clear that it has always been historically the political systems of males that have restricted women...

Feminist perspectives often, religions have been criticized for their view of women. And they should be! You can easily find illustrations of religious abuse of females throughout the world. Have you ever seen Jesus’ view on women?

Jesus Christ lived over 2,000 years ago, in today's Israel. His perspective toward women ran entirely against his Middle Eastern culture then and now. In Jesus’ time, women were often treated as property more than as persons. The woman's role was confined to meeting the needs of her husband and children.

Sad that Jewish rabbis comfortably began every temple meeting with the words, "Blessed art thou, O Lord, for thou has not made me a woman."

All women were excluded from public religious life. It was rare that women were taught the Torah, even in private.

Jewish law allowed a husband to divorce his wife for any reason. The wife had no legal rights to object, or to be cared for. The husband simply handed her a bill of divorce and she was sent away. Imagine the insecurity and cruelty that this law brought to women. And, of course, a wife could never divorce her husband, on any grounds.

In certain Arab countries even today, especially where governed by Sharia law, we see cultural and religious restrictions, where women are required to wear full or partial coverings. Women are not allowed to leave their home alone or with friends. They can only be in public with a proper male escort. Women are not allowed to drive. Or have any say in whether their husbands take other wives.

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Yet Jesus gave great honor to women. Constantly.

Jesus publicly included many women as his disciples. He taught crowds of both men and women. And he healed and performed miracles as readily for women, as for men.

Author Philip Yancey comments,
"For women and other oppressed people, Jesus turned upside down the accepted wisdom of his day.... Jesus violated the mores of his time in every single encounter with women recorded in the four Gospels." Read for yourself!

Here is just one example. All the people had heard Jesus' teachings about love and kindness. The strict and demeaning religious leaders thought they could capitalize on this. One of their more severe laws against women required stoning to death any woman caught in adultery. They found such a woman, instigated a mob and dragged her before Jesus. She stood alone in the seething crowd ready to stone her. The religious enforcers then said to Jesus:

"Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"1
They had Jesus in a no-win situation. If he gave her mercy, he was condoning adultery and proved to be an enemy of their law. If Jesus stoned her, then so much for his uniquely respectful treatment of women, and all his teaching about mercy and forgiveness.

Here's what happened.

Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. They continued to press him. Jesus straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.2

One by one they walked away, "beginning with the oldest" until it was only Jesus left with the woman. Jesus asked her,

"Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
"No one, sir," she said.
"Neither do I condemn you, " Jesus declared. "Go and sin no more."3
Jesus so honored women that when he rose from the dead, he chose to appear first to women. This is remarkable. Women had such little standing in that culture that they had no religious or legal authority as spokespersons. Yet Jesus gave them the role of being the very first to inform others of his resurrection.

Why?

Maybe Jesus wanted to solidify that it was for the sins of both women and men that he came to die. Maybe Jesus wanted women and men to know that he offers them complete forgiveness and can also give them direction, peace, and eternal life.

Jesus proved this in a conversation he had with another woman. She likely dealt with shame and constant criticism, having been married and divorced by men five times. Can you imagine her humiliation to be rejected by five men?

Jesus looked at the water she had drawn from the well and told her,

Jesus saw her at a public well where she came to draw water. It was at the hottest point of the day when no one else from her town would be there. Jesus told her,

Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."4

This was always Jesus' desire. That we would experience his life in us. Eternally.

Their conversation continued and the woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”5

Jesus' interactions with women are an important element in the theological debate about Christianity and women. Women are prominent in the story of Jesus. He was born of a woman, had numerous interactions with women, and was seen first by women after his resurrection.

The most striking thing about the role of women in the life and teaching of Jesus is the simple fact that they are there. Although the gospel texts contain no special sayings repudiating the view of the day about women, their uniform testimony to the presence of women among the followers of Jesus and to his serious teaching of them constitutes a break with tradition which has been described as being ‘without precedent in [then] contemporary Judaism.'

Jesus gave no explicit teaching on the role of women in the church. In fact, he left no teaching at all concerning women as a class of people…. He treated every woman he met as a person in her own right.

A plain reading of Jesus' teaching recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels indicates that Jesus forbids any hierarchy in Christian relationships, presumably including both women and men: "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you."[Mt 20:25–26a] [Mk 10:42] [Lk 22:25] While "lord it over" implies abusive leadership, his words "exercise authority" have no connotation of abuse of authority.

The Gospels describe two miracles of Jesus raising persons from the dead.
In both incidents the dead are restored to women—to the unnamed widow from Nain her only son[Lk. 7:11–17] and to Mary and Martha their brother Lazarus.
[Jn. 11:1–44]

** Search and read -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus'_interactions_with_women

For much more details in an outline which shows the true situation in the ministry of Christ...

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For more on Jesus' perspective and what he offers, please see this helpful article, Beyond Blind Faith.

(1) John 8:4
(2) John 8:6-8
(3) John 8:10,11
(4) John 4:13,14
(5) John 4:25,26

Then you must also consider Jesus Death, burial and resurrection then the upper poor encounter:

The New Testament identifies a number of women followers of Jesus. The four gospels differ in the number, names, and roles of such female disciples. Even greater variation is found in the non canonical gospels.

A disciple (not to be confused with an apostle) is widely held to refer to "one who follows a person's moral teachings", more commonly called a "student".

Women feature prominently in accounts of Jesus' crucifixion and in reports of his resurrection and at the Pentecost. In all four gospel accounts, women were the first to receive a sign of Jesus' resurrection and to report it to others (the "Good news").

Authorship of one of the apocryphal gospels, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, is attributed to this most famous of Jesus' female apostles. And in Pistis Sophia Chapter 96, Christ says;"Where I shall be, there will be also my twelve ministers. But Mary Magdalene and John, the virgin, will tower over all my disciples and over all men who shall receive the mysteries in the Ineffable. And they will be on my right and on my left. And I am they, and they are I."

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Disciple[edit]
Main article: Disciple (Christianity)
In biblical usage, the term "disciple" often means "student" — someone who believes in the person's message and tries to follow the person's moral values and teachings. Under such a definition, all women and men followers of Jesus could be considered disciples of Jesus, as long as they followed the teachings of Jesus.

The Great Commission declares;"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe (obey) all things that I have commanded you...
"[Matt. 28:19–20a]

John the Baptist had disciples.

Apostle[edit]
Main article: Apostle (Christian)
The term apostle is derived from the New Testament Greek word ἀπόστολος or apostolos, meaning one who is sent forth as a messenger and should not be confused with a disciple (who is a follower or a student who learns from a "teacher"). Traditionally, Jesus is said to have had 12 Apostles who spread the word of the Gospel after his Resurrection.

Christian scholars and theologians disagree on the meaning of "apostle";

Some consider the term apostle means one who starts Christian congregations, like the apostle Junia who is believed to have been one of the founders of the Church of Rome. Or one who wrote Gospels like Mary Magdalene or Thecla. Or evangelists who were called personally by Christ to follow him like Mary Magdalene, Joanna, or Susanna. Or early martyrs of the church like Thecla or those who walked very closely with Christ and were present during the Crucifixion, the Resurrection and the Pentecost like Mary Mother of Christ, Mary Magdalene, and Mary Salome.
Others believe that there were exactly 12 male Apostles chosen directly by Jesus Christ and that Judas Iscariot was replaced by Matthias to maintain a dozen witnesses.
Others believe that the term apostles includes any of those who are either students of the 12 apostles, or otherwise implied to be apostles e.g., Paul, Luke, Silas, Timothy and Barnabas on the basis of New Testament passages like
1Corinthians 9:1,13.

In the apocryphal Pistis Sophia, Jesus calls his 12 male apostles and his 7 female apostles to discourse after his resurrection. Of these seven women apostles; Mary Mother of Christ, Mary Magdalene, Martha and Mary Salome speak prevalently concerning their own exegesis of the scriptures and the divine mystery to create the immortal light body or Greater Soul.

In the apocryphal First Apocalypse of James James says, "I am satisfied [...] and they are [...] my soul. Yet another thing I ask of you: who are the seven women who have been your disciples?"
Jesus speaks to James: "When you speak these words of this perception, encourage these four: Salome and Mariam and Martha and Arsinoe [...] since he takes some [...] to me he is [...] burnt offerings and [...]. But I [...] not in this way; but [...] first-fruits of the [...] upward [...] so that the power of God might appear.
The perishable has gone up to the imperishable and the female element has attained to this male element."

Although the apocryphal Gospels of Christ and James enumerate seven women apostles, only Junia is called an apostle in the New Testament; Paul says in Romans 16:7, "Greetings to Andronicus and Junia, my relatives, who were in prison with me. They are very important apostles. They were believers in Christ before I was." In the English Standard Version (ESV), however, this is translated as "They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me."
Female disciples identified in the New Testament[edit]
Mary Magdalene
Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the mother of James the Just, Joses, Jude the Apostle, Simon who might be Simon the Zealot, and possibly the mother of Thomas Didymus and Mary Salome
Mary Salome, wife of Zebedee who was the father of James the Greater and John the Apostle. Possibly both the daughter and sister-in-law of Mary and the
sister of Jesus.
Sisters Mary and Martha of Bethany, also the sisters of Lazarus
Mary of Clopas possibly Mary Salome the daughter or wife of Clopas
The Marys
Joanna
Susanna
Priscilla[
Tabitha/Dorcas
Lydia
Phoebe
Junia
Tryphena of Rome and Tryphosa
Julia
Nympha
Apphia

Women receive power of the Holy Spirit at the Pentecost
Probable New Testament female disciples[edit]
The following New Testament women, though not called "disciples" in scripture, were closely identified with either Jesus or his apostles.

** Unnamed women at Pentecost with Mary Mother of Christ, his brothers and the 12 Male Disciples
Unnamed sisters of Jesus,one of which might be Mary Salome
Wife of Simon Peter
Wives of apostles other than John
Wives of Jesus' brothers Joseph, James, Simon and Jude
Mariamne sister of apostles Bartholemew and Phillip
Woman with an issue of blood
Poor widow who cast two copper coins into the temple treasury
Widow of Nain
Woman who anointed Jesus' feet
Woman bent double
Saint Photini and her five sisters: Anatole, Photo, Photis, Paraskeve, Kyriake
Woman taken in adultery

*** This list should show the latitude of Christ in His relationships with the women around Him... He was the perfect example of how a male should treat and inter face with the women around them.... It gives a clear picture that HE was never against women and treated them as equals with men!

Amen!

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