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One notable aspect of the Christian moral revolution was its insistence that women are equal to men in dignity and worth. The earliest Christians took seriously the declaration in the book of Genesis that both men and women are created in God’s “image and likeness” (Gen 1:27). As the Gospel spread around the Mediterranean world, so did the biblical truth that men and women “are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28; cf. 1 Cor 11:11-12).
The Church’s advocacy on this point became so well known that her pagan critics frequently accused her of promoting an effeminate religion suitable only for women and slaves. In the derisive words of the philosopher Celsus, who lived in the second century: “[Christians] manifestly show that they desire and are able to gain over only the silly, and the mean, and the stupid, with women and children” (Contra Celsum, Bk III, Ch 44).
Celsus’s critique was echoed by another pagan, Caecilius, who features in a dialogue called Octavius, written by a Christian apologist named Minucius Felix. In the dialogue, written at the end of the second century, Caecilius describes Christianity as being guilty of “having gathered together from the lowest dregs the more unskilled, and women, credulous and, by the facility of their sex, yielding” (Ch VIII).
These samples suffice to show something of the rampant misogyny which characterized the ancient world. Within this milieu, it is all the more remarkable that the New Testament should provide so many examples of holy and heroic women. Here we shall consider seven such role models.
Continued below.
stpaulcenter.com
The Church’s advocacy on this point became so well known that her pagan critics frequently accused her of promoting an effeminate religion suitable only for women and slaves. In the derisive words of the philosopher Celsus, who lived in the second century: “[Christians] manifestly show that they desire and are able to gain over only the silly, and the mean, and the stupid, with women and children” (Contra Celsum, Bk III, Ch 44).
Celsus’s critique was echoed by another pagan, Caecilius, who features in a dialogue called Octavius, written by a Christian apologist named Minucius Felix. In the dialogue, written at the end of the second century, Caecilius describes Christianity as being guilty of “having gathered together from the lowest dregs the more unskilled, and women, credulous and, by the facility of their sex, yielding” (Ch VIII).
These samples suffice to show something of the rampant misogyny which characterized the ancient world. Within this milieu, it is all the more remarkable that the New Testament should provide so many examples of holy and heroic women. Here we shall consider seven such role models.
1. Elizabeth
Continued below.
7 Amazing New Testament Women - St. Paul Center
One notable aspect of the Christian moral revolution was its insistence that women are equal to men in dignity and worth. The earliest Christians took seriously the declaration in the book of Genesis that both men and women are created in God’s “image and likeness” (Gen 1:27). As the Gospel...
