Woman's Place in the Early Church.
By George Dana Boardman
WOMAN occupies a conspicuous place in the primitive church. This will be evident if I simply mention some of the feminine names which appear in the New Testament records: Anna, Apphia, Chloe, Claudia, Damaris, Dorcas, Elizabeth, Eunice, Euodia, Joanna, Julia, Lois, Lydia, Martha, Mary of Bethany, Mary of Magdala, Mary of Nazareth, Mary of Rome, Mary the mother of Mark, Mary the wife of Cleopas, Persis, Phoebe, Priscilla, Rhoda, Salome, Susanna, Syntyche, Tryphœna, Tryphosa, etc. Moreover, there are many women on whom the Lord bestowed signal favors, but whose names have not come down to us; for example, Peter's mother-in-law, the widow of Nain, the daughter of Jairus, the woman with the issue of blood, the Canaanite mother and daughter, the woman with the eighteen years' infirmity. Once more, there are the many anonymous women who tried in one way or another to serve the Lord Jesus; for example, the woman-evangelist of Jacob's well, the penitent adorer in Simon's house, the widow with her two mites, Pilate's wife, the wailing women on their way to Calvary, the praying women of the upper chamber, etc. Indeed, it may be doubted whether any secular history, so small as the four gospels, was ever written, in which the womanly element so largely prevails, as in the life of Jesus the Christ. Nor is this surprising. For, first, woman's distinctive temperament makes her, if I may so say, a natural believer in Jesus Christ. He is emphatically “the seed of the woman.” “Not she with trait’rous kiss her Saviour stung,
Not she denied him with unholy tongue;
She, while apostles shrank, could danger brave,
Last at his cross, and earliest at his grave.”
Secondly, woman owes an incalculable debt to Jesus Christ. His birth marks the turning point in woman's history. Hitherto, as in heathen countries to this day, she had been the victim of man's caprice, cruelty, lust, scorn, and tyranny. Even the Hebrews themselves, although taught from the beginning to reverence woman, had been wont to regard her as man's handmaid, rather than his equal; in fact, a Jewish morning prayer prescribes that a man shall bless God for three things, namely, that he was not born a Gentile, a slave, or a woman. But when the fullness of the time came, and God sent forth his Son, to be born of a woman, as well as under the law, then was woman herself emancipated, and restored to her paradisal equality with man. Henceforth, at least in the realm of the spiritual life, there was to be neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female; for all are one in Christ Jesus. It has been so ever since; wherever Jesus Christ has been best known, there woman has been most honored. Woman, let me repeat, owes everything to the Son of Mary.—George Dana Boardman, D. D., in S. S. Times.