Despite some women thinking that the Bible is sexist, scripture tells us of many strong and wise women who were crucial to the formation of the Judeo-Christian faith. The Bible tells us of Phoebe (a deacon), Junia (an outstanding apostle), Priscilla (who hosted Bible studies in her home) and Deborah (a Judge of Israel who everyone sought out for spiritual counsel, prophecy and judgment). God used Deborah to deliver the Israelites from their bondage to idolatry. Deborah is known today as the “mother of Israel” and is a saint in the Catholic Church.
It’s important to note that although the Jewish men often did not properly respect and regard women when dealing with spiritual matters, Jesus chose to engage with them regularly and treated them with equal respect. Jesus even used women for pivotal moments in His ministry. For example, Jesus chose to reveal Himself to women first after His resurrection and therefore chose women to be the initial messengers of the gospel news.
Jesus also chose to make a Samaritan woman one of His first evangelists. Not only was this risky for the obvious reason (that she was a woman) but Samaritans were considered to be an inferior group of people as they were the result of Israelites inter-marrying and intermixing with pagan foreigners. Many Jews of Jesus’ day considered Samaritans to be the worst of the human race and therefore chose to have no dealings with them.
Most importantly, God chose to use a woman to bare the Saviour of the World, Jesus Christ.
In summary, it was not God who did a disservice to women, but the institutions that were organized and run by men who claim to represent Jesus’ teachings.
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