Topic: “The Place of Women in the Roman World, Political Institution and Christianity”

Table of Contents
Introduction
1. The Place of Women in the Roman World
1.1. Domestic Life
1.2. Public Life
1.3. Marriage and Sexuality
1.4. Occupations
1.5. Religious Expression
2. The Place of Women in Roman Political Institutions
2.1. Octavia Minor (69-11 BC)
2.2. Livia Drusilla (58 BC-AD 29)
2.3. Antonia Minor (35 BC-AD 37)
2.4. Agrippina Major (14 BC- AD 33)
2.5. Agrippina Minor (AD 15-59)
3. The Place of Women in Christianity
3.1. Women in the Old Testament
3.1.1. The High Status of Women in the Old Testament
3.1.2. The Low Status of Women in the Old Testament
3.2. Women in the New Testament
3.2.1. Women in Jesus’ Ministry
3.2.2. Women in Paul’s Teaching
3.2.3. Women Leadership in Christian Communities
4. Evaluation
Conclusion
Bibliography

1
Introduction

The place of women in the Bible is greatly influenced by the Greek, Roman, and Jewish
cultural and political systems. In Roman world, women played a very significant role in the society,
politics which have influenced the Christianity. Even though, women were limited throughout the
history at the same time they have played an important role in the history of Christianity. Therefore,
this paper deals with the place of women in Roman world and who are involved in the political
institution. In addition, this paper highlights how women are play their roles in the Old Testament
and New Testament.

1. The Place of Women in the Roman World

In the Roman world women are always placed inferior to men. Especially, Greek women were
not allowed to appear in public, even they had separate part of house. They were supreme in
managing the household.1 Gregory E. Sterling quoted that, “A certain Hilarion who had gone to
Alexandira wrote home to his wife Alis and two other females, stating in a matter-of-fact way, “If
you have a child and it is a male, let it live; if it is a female, expose it.” The boys should be superior
to girls and boys should be fed more than girls. A significant shift for women with high social
status took place in the late Republic and early Empire of Rome. A sizeable number of women
received a fine education.2

1.1. Domestic Life

The life of women are bound with duties of home and farm but among Jewish women not
living in Palestine got much freedom.3 Greek women are considered as the most secluded. At the
Golden Age (475-425), the case of Athenian woman of citizen class was even very strict that they
even could not show their face at the window or door. But by the first century it was different
regarding the respect and freedom of women, however, some communities and families still hang
on older patterns. Boys are given privileged to learn philosophy, literature, science, politics, and

1
Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 2nd edition (Michigan: Eerdmans, 1993), 70.
2
Gregory E. Sterling, “Women in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds (323 BCE-138 CE)”, in Essays on
Women in Earliest Christianity, ed. Carroll D. Osburn (Missouri: College Press Publishing Company, 1993), 56.
3
C.C. Kroeger, “Women in Greco-Roman World and Judaism,” in Dictionary of New Testament
Background, eds. Craig A. Evans and Stanley E. Porter (Illinois: An Imprint of InterVarsity, 2000), 1276.

2
sports whereas girls remained confined to the women’s quarters. Therefore, women can escape if
they are afforded by wine.4 With comparison to Greek women the Roman women had greater
freedom. They even can engage in a broader range of activities. Roman women had great respect
and higher position in the society. Slaves were cheap and had to look after breastfeeding and
rearing of the children. Although women participate in society, they were bound to protect male
or tutor but, in some exceptions, they exchanged their tutelage from one man to another.5

1.2. Public Life

The public position of women was so unfavorable that it has even been doubted whether they
were Roman citizens. It was only through the men that women could exert any influence in the
public sectors.6 In the early Roman Empire, women were not allowed to vote hold political office.
Women are excluded from all civic and public duties, and so they cannot be judges, hold
magistracies, bring legal claims for others, represent in court, or act as for others in lawsuits.
Women are held to be excluded from the position of banker, since this is a male job.7 The leading
women of Roman society set a pattern for wealthy women outside of the inner circles in Rome.
The norm was that women could be seen in public, but not heard. Women exercised their influence
through men and not over them. It is, therefore, not surprising to find injunctions in the NT which
attempt to impose silence on women in public assemblies.8

1.3. Marriage and Sexuality

One of the major limitations in a girl’s education was the fact that she married at an earlier age
than her male counterparts. The martial practices varied within a single community according to
the citizenship of the people.9 Hebrew women get married shortly after the onset of menstruation.
The divorce was not uncommon among the Jews, the School of Shammai insisted that it was
possible only in the case of adultery whereas the school of Hillel maintained several reasons such
as spinning in the street, talking with a stranger, a spoiled dinner, a god bite that did not heal or

4
Kroeger, “Women in Greco-Roman World and Judaism,” 1276-77.
5
Kroeger, “Women in Greco-Roman World and Judaism,” 1277.
6
Richard A. Bauman, Women and Politics in Ancient Rome (London: Routledge, 1992), 2.
7
Bruce W. Frier, Thomas A. McGinn and Thomas A. J. McGinn, A Casebook on Roman Family
Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 457-60.
8
Sterling, “Women in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds (323 BCE-138 CE)”, 68-72.
9
Sterling, “Women in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds (323 BCE-138 CE)”, 57-59.

3
finding another woman who was more attractive. Therefore, Paul warns that elder should be “the
husband of one wife” (1 Tim. 3:12). However, women should not have more than one husband
and adultery was punished harshly.10

In Greek law, a woman was under the authority of a male throughout her life. The fact that
female did not marry but was married. A women’s legal status in marriage is best illustrated by
divorce laws. A husband could divorce his wife simply by sending her away.11 Greek women are
specially classified by their sexual function. Wives were neglected both socially and sexually even
though, Solon the Law Giver had decreed that a husband should visit his wife’s couch ate least
three times a month. Girls exposed as infants and regarded as slaves who were useful for supplying
the other types of sexual partners. Corinth was known for its courtesans that grew enormously
wealthy because of their profession. Roman women usually get married at the age of fourteen.
They often got married in unwillingly. Roman prostitution was frequently of a highly sordid
nature. In Rome, adultery and divorce were common, often husband and wife did not even share
the same friends.12 The later versions pre-supposes that only a man may divorce his wife. This is
in keeping with the general practice among Jews in Palestine and probably represents the language
but no the position of the historical Jesus who forbade all divorce. The Pauline and Markan
versions both presume the right of a woman to divorce her husband.13

1.4. Occupations

The traditional occupation for Greek and Roman women within the home was weaving their
family’s clothes. Some women, however, earned incomes. Jewish women specially worded within
doors for they ground the meal, baked the bread, cooked, cleaned, and washed the clothes, as well
as spinning, weaving, and sewing garments for the family, and outside the house they fetched
water from the village well, gathered firewood, worked in the fields, sold produce at market and
drove the animals to pasture. In the Community they serve as midwife, nurse, or attendant. Non-
Palestinian Jewish women served as fortunetellers, magic workers, and purveyors of position.14
The occupations of Greek women were shepherdesses, grocers, wool workers, laundresses,

10
Kroeger, “Women in Greco-Roman World and Judaism,” 1277-78.
11
Sterling, “Women in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds (323 BCE-138 CE)”, 59-61.
12
Kroeger, “Women in Greco-Roman World and Judaism,” 1278.
13
Sterling, “Women in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds (323 BCE-138 CE)”, 63-66.
14
Kroeger, “Women in Greco-Roman World and Judaism,” 1278.

4
scribes, hairdressers, sellers of olive oil, salt, honey, and sesame seed. As the households they were
wetnurses, governesses, nannies, and ladies’ maids, as entertainers they were flute girls, dancers,
acrobats, jugglers, harpists, and singers. In education filed they were painters, poets, and
philosophers. The occupations of the Greek women were also followed by their Roman
counterparts. A primary income of Roman women was the textile industry in which both Priscilla
and Lydia were employed. Slave women performed manifold domestic tasks and earned their
freedom. Upper-class women involved in athletic, literary, and academic pursuits, the treater and
home games. Christianity was to offer women abundant spiritual, intellectual, and emotional for
their energies and aspirations.15

1.5. Religious Expression

Women could not qualify as constituting members official congregation in the Jewish service.
Even Mishnaic law forbade women from carrying their infants outside the home on the sabbath, a
restriction that must have kept many women from the synagogue. Traditional Greek religion had
frequently denied woman legitimate participation in blood sacrifices, consulting oracles, entrance
to temples and sometimes even in offering prayers.16 Roman women were well integrated into the
religious lives of their families, but they did not enjoy the same full range of opportunities of
participation as did men. Women were chiefly responsible for ensuring the ritual supplies, the
responsibilities women had within their own homes. The women of Roman households were
charged with continued prosperity and good fortune of their families.17

2. The Place of Women in Roman Political Institutions

The politics of the imperial women sheds instructive light on the new order. For the Republic
was dependent largely on Livy and Cicero, supported by other sources. For the two Agrippinas
and Messalina are fully documented by the greatest Roman historian. Women who saved Rome
from financial and military crises in the fourth and third centuries BCE.18 Married women were

15
Kroeger, “Women in Greco-Roman World and Judaism,” 1279.
16
Kroeger, “Women in Greco-Roman World and Judaism,” 1279-80.
17
Celia E. Schultz, Women’s Religious Activity in the Roman Republic, eds. Robin Osborne, P.J. Rhodes
and Richard J. A. Talbert (North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 136-37.
18
Lewis Webb, “Female Interventions in Politics in the libera res publica: Structures and Practices”, in
Leadership and Initiative in Late Republican and Early Imperial Rome, eds. Roman M. Frolov, and Christopher
Burden-Strevens (Boston: Brill, 2022), 151.

5
members of organized social network, the order of married women, whose criteria for entry
probably included marriage, high social position and wealth. Members of this wealthy married
women had privileges and status symbols, including unrestricted movement in Rome.19 R.V.
determines that many strategies were adopted from domestic, funerary, and religious practices.
Various legendary precedents for female interventions in politics are adduced.20 Men argued firmly
to block women from engaging in the public sphere. The political system in ancient Rome involved
men exclusively – from senators to magistrates.21 However, elite women slowly and gradually,
could manipulate their husbands and through them exercise control over the political world, and
that’s how women were able to influence the Roman political landscape and the course of history.
The number of the Julio-Claudian family in detail, the following women were chosen as
representative of the larger family group, particularly since the largest amount of evidence exists
from them: Octavia Minor, Livia, Antonia Minor; Agrippina Major, and Agrippina Minor.22

2.1. Octavia Minor (BC 69-11)

Octavia was dignified, intelligent, and attractive; she was held in high regard as a woman of
virtue and principle. She played an important role in the shifting political realities of the civil war
and the early empire. She acted to promote the best interests of her husbands and of her brother,
the emperor Augustus.23 She was the elder sister of the emperor Augustus, born in Nola, Italy of
Gaius Octavius, a Roman senator and Atia Balba, the niece of Julius Ceaser. She played an
important part in her brother Augustus’s campaign to claim the Roman empire, especially in his
conflicts with Mark Antony. She brokered peace between the two men in 37 BC, but it was short-
lived.24

19
Webb, “Female Interventions in Politics in the libera res publica: Structures and Practices”, 161.
20
Lewis Webb, “Women and Politics in Late Republican Rome”, The Classical Review 70, no. 2 (October
2020): 447-48.
21
Bauman, Women and Politics in Ancient Rome, 10.
22
Judith P. Hallett, Fathers and Daughters in Roman Society: Women and the Elite Family (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1984), 8.
23
Marjorie Lightman and Benjamin Lightman, A TO Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women, Revised
Edition (New York: Imprint of Infobase Publishing, 2008), 236.
24
Mary White Singer, “The Problem of Octavia Minor and Octavia Major,” Transactions and Proceedings
of the American Philological Association 79 (1948): 268-70.

6
2.2. Livia Drusilla (58 BC–AD 29)

Livia was the most important woman of her time. Her character, discretion, and intellect
complemented her strategic skills and were enhanced by the advantage of a long life. She spanned
the period before the onset of civil war, through the reign of her husband Augustus and much of
that of her son Tiberius.25 She was the third and last wife of the emperor Augustus. An old patrician
family. For more than half century, Livia Drusilla was the most visible and powerful woman in
ancient Rome. Her prominence and authority were not due to her wealth or patrician ancestry,
although she had both, but rather to the fact that she had the good fortune to marry the man who
became Rome’s first emperor, Augustus, and give birth to tis second, Tiberius. She was smart and
savvy enough to take advantage of her situation and she acquired bona fide influence at a time
when women could not vote, hold public office, or appear in public without a guardian. Livia
exercised unprecedented freedom. There is no Roman woman who was more enigmatic nor more
intriguing than Livia Drusilla.26

2.3. Antonia Minor (35 BC- AD37)

Antonia was a woman of strong character and impeccable morality; she was intelligent and
married only once. Twice she was name Augusta. Antonia was the younger daughter of Octavia
and niece of Augustus. She married Nero Claudius Drusus, the son of Livia Drusilla, and the
stepson of the emperor Augustus, in 16. Antonia maintained extensive connections in the East and
owned a great deal of property in Egypt. Berenice (I), the daughter of Salome and niece of Herod
the Great, was one of her clients and friends.27 In her lifetime Antonia had held an elevated position
under three emperors Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula until she fell into disfavor under Caligula
and was either killed or died of despair.28

25
Lightman, A TO Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women, 188.
26
Diana E.E. Kleiner, “Livia Drusilla and the Remarkable Power of Elite Women in Imperial Rome”,
International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 6, no. 4 (January 2000): 564-67.
27
Lightman, A TO Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women, 26-27.
28
Erhart K. Patricia, “A Portrait of Antonia Minor in the Fogg Art Museum and Its Iconographical
Tradition”, American Journal of Archaeology 82, no. 2 (September 1978): 210.

7
2.4. Agrippina Major (14 BC – AD 33)

Vipsania Agrippina was an extraordinarily powerful and ambitious woman fully conscious of
her noble heritage and determined to see that she, her husband, and their children received the
titles, honors, respect, and positions due them. She was the daughter of Julia, the only child of
Augustus and his first wife. Around 5 AD. Agrippina married Germanicus Julius Caesar, whose
lineage marched hers. She accompanied her husband on his campaign to lower Germany in 14
AD. She was generous and popular with the troops, whom she helped with food, clothing, and
medical care. On October 10, 19 AD. Germanicus died, he accused Piso and Munatia of poisoning
him. She returned to Rome with her husband’s ashes, determined to avenge his death and to
promote the interests of her six surviving children: Drusus Julius Ceasar, Nero Julius Caesar, Gaius
Caligula, the younger Agrippina, Julia Drusilla (I), and Julia Livilla. Agrippina brought formal
charges against Piso and Munatia.29

2.5. Agrippina Minor (AD 15- 59)

Julia Agrippina grew up under the influence of her formidable mother the elder, Vipsania
Agrippina. She was brilliant woman, politically astute, charming on occasion, and cultured, she
left a now lost memoir that justified her choices during the reigns of three different emperors, one
of whom was her brother; the second, her husband; and the third, her son. Julia Agrippina’s son
Nero Claudius Caesar was born in 37, the same year that her one surviving brother, Gaius Caligula,
succeeded Tiberius as emperor. She set out to protect and promote the interest of her son, the future
emperor Nero, and to find a new husband. Agrippina received the title Augusta, only the second
woman to be so honored while alive and the first to carry the title during her husband’s lifetime.
She exercised enormous power during the early years of Nero’s reign, generally viewed as Nero’s
best year.30

3. Women in Christianity

The recent feminists some scholars have found the relative visibility of women in the New
Testament and other early Christians texts indicative of a quantitative and qualitative difference in

29
Lightman, A TO Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women, 9-11.
30
Lightman, A TO Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women, 12-14.

8
the roles of women in early Christian communities.31 The biblical texts such as Galatians 3:28; 1
Corinthians 14:34-35; Ephesians 5:22; and 1 Timothy 2:12 discuss the women in the early
Church.32 Women performed many serving functions in the early church. Organization was given
to their work through the orders of widows and deaconesses. There had been many places where
women functioned as teachers and prophets in New Testament times. Women as wives and
mothers gave the Christian home the strength that made it such a powerful influence in the spread
of Christianity in the Roman world.33

3.1. Women in the Old Testament

The Old Testament records a wide variety of attitudes towards women. OT teaches about
women deal with each statement about women in its own context.34 A common phenomenon in
the Bible is the pivotal role that women take in subverting man-made power structures.35 Women
did not receive opposition for the roles they played but were honored instead.36 Women were
responsible for “maintenance activities” including economic, social, political, and religious life in
both the household and the community.37
3.1.1. The High Status of Women in the Old Testament
Several OT passages give the example of outstanding women. Miriam, the older sister of
Moses and Aron, was held in very high esteem in Israel. Deborah was an outstanding and respected
leader of the Israelites in the period of the judges. She was a prophetess (Judg. 4:4).38 In a similar
way, Naomi (a Judean), and Ruth (a “foreigner,” a Moabitess) are clearly the major individuals
through whom Yahweh works out His purposes in the book of Ruth. The author of 1 Samuel 1-2

31
Ross Shepard Kraemer, Her Share of the Blessings: Women’s Religions among Pagans, Jews, and
Christians in the Greco-Roman World (New York: Oxford University, 1992), 128.
32
Kathy J. Pulley, “Women in the Church in Recent Discussion”, in Essays on Women in Earliest
Christianity, ed. Carroll D. Osburn (Missouri: College Press Publishing, 1993), 1.
33
Evertt Ferguson, “Women in the Post-Apostolic Church,” in Essays on Women in Earliest Christianity,
ed. Carroll D. Osburn (Missouri: College Press, 1993), 496
34
John T. Will, “Women in the Old Testament”, in Essay on Women in Earliest Christianity, ed. Carroll D.
Osburn (Missouri: College Press Publishing, 1993), 25.
35
Joel Rosenberg, “Bible: Biblical Narrative.” in Back to the Sources: Reading the Classic Jewish Texts, ed.
Barry W. Holtz (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984), 64.
36
Geoffrey P. Miller, “A Riposte Form in the Song of Deborah,” in Gender and Law in the Hebrew Bible
and the Ancient Near East, eds. Victor H. Matthews, Bernard M. Levinson, Tikva Frymer-Kensk (New York: T & T
Clark, 1998), 120.
37
Carol L. Meyers, “Was Ancient Israel a Patriarchal Society?” Journal of Biblical Literature, 133, no. 1
(2014): 8-27.
38
Will, “Women in the Old Testament”, 30-31.

9
displays a very lofty view of Hannah. The author of 1-2 Kings held the prophetess Huldah in very
high esteem.39 The author of the book of Esther presents Esther with the highest possible esteem.
God used Esther as His instrument to deliver His people living in the Persian empire from the plot
of Haman the Agagite to put them to death (4:14; 7:3-10; 8:3-9:28).40 There are many texts in the
OT which reflect a high view of women. Both man and the woman are completely indebted to God
alone for their existence and for the life they enjoy.41 In the Song of Solomon, the male does not
dominate, and the female is not subordinate.42 The author of Proverbs holds women in such high
regard that he personifies Wisdom as a woman.43
3.1.2. The Low Status of Women in the Old Testament
OT writers consistently display a low view of women. They cite the law which allows a man
to divorce his wife but does not allow a woman to divorce her husband (Deut. 24: 1-4), the
differences between the length of a mother’s uncleanness depending on whether she has a son or
a daughter (Lev. 12:1-4), the limitation of the priesthood to males (Exod. 28:1; etc.), and various
other OT texts in support of this position.44 Property was transferred through the male line and
women could not inherit unless there were no male heirs (Numbers 27:1-11; 36:1-12).45 Women
did tasks as important as those of men, managed their households, and were equals in daily life,
but all public decisions were made by men. A woman was always under the authority of a man:
her father, her brothers, her husband, and since she did not inherit, eventually her eldest son.46 The
ancient world was a man’s world: such prominence as women attained was achieved by force of
character.47

39
Will, “Women in the Old Testament”, 31-33.
40
Will, “Women in the Old Testament”, 34.
41
Will, “Women in the Old Testament”, 34.
42
Will, “Women in the Old Testament”, 35.
43
Will, “Women in the Old Testament”, 37.
44
Will, “Women in the Old Testament”, 39.
45
Eryl W. Davies, The Dissenting Reader Feminist Approaches to the Hebrew Bible (Burlington: Ashgate,
2003), 1.
46
Michael S. Berger, “Marriage, Sex and Family in the Jewish Tradition: A Historical Overview,” in
Marriage, Sex, and Family in Judaism, eds. Michael J. Broyde and Michael Ausubel (New York: Rowman &
Littlefield, 2005), 215.
47
J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, “Women,” in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary: The Most
Accurate and Comprehensive, ed. Moises Silva (Michigan: Zondervan, 2011), 3174.
Douglas and Tenney, “Women,” 3175.

10
3.2. Women in the New Testament

The genealogy in Matthew 1:1-17 occur with the inclusion of four women (1:3, 5, 6; i.e.,
Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Uriah’s wife). They are uniquely used by God in furthering the course
of salvation history toward its climax in Christ.48 Luke depicts women, without needing Jesus’
intervention, as self-reliant. The widow who demands justice from the unjust judge eventually
achieves her goal (18:1-8); Anna, Elizabeth, and Mary the mother of Jesus act independently and
with self-confidence; and so forth. Luke simply presents the common view that women are capable
people.49 The number and range of female ministry roles took a leap forward in the early Church.
Paul’s greetings to the Roman church reflect this. It is the same with the rest of the NT record.
Women are singled out in the early church as apostles (Rom. 16:7), prophets (Acts 21:9; 1 Cor.
115), evangelists (Phil. 4:2-3), patrons (Rom. 16:2), teachers (Acts 18:24-26; Titus 2:3-5), deacons
(Rom. 16:1; 1 Tim. 3:11), prayer leaders (1 Cor. 11:5), overseers of house churches (Acts 12:12;
16:14-15; Col. 4:15), prayers warriors (1 Tim. 5:5); and those who were known for their mercy
and hospitality (5:10). 50

3.2.1. The Place of Women in Jesus’ Ministry

In Jewish world, Women’s roles and functions are limited and severely restricted such as: (1)
their rights of inheritance, (2) their choice of relationship, (3) their ability to pursue a religious
education or fully participate in a synagogue, and (4) limited their freedom of
movement.”51 Phyliss Trible says, “Considerable evidence depicts the Bible as a document of
male supremacy.”52 Carol L. Meyers also says that male dominance was real but fragmentary, with
women also having spheres of influence of their own.53

48
Larry Chouinard, “Women in Matthew’s Gospel: A Methodological Study,” in Essays on Women in Earliest
Christianity, ed. Carroll D. Osburn (Missouri: College Press, 1993), 434-435.
49
Stevan Davies, “Women in the Third Gospel and the New Testament Apocrypha”, in “Women Like
This” New Perspectives on Jewish Women in the Greco-Roman World, ed. Amy-Jill Levine (Georgia: Scholars
Press, 1991), 86.
50
Linda L. Belleville, “Women in Ministry: An Egalitarian Perspective,” in Two Views on Women in
Ministry, eds. Stanley N. Gundry and James R. Beck (Michigan: Zondervan, 2005), 34-36.
51
Athalya Brenner-Idan, Feminist Companion to the Hebrew Bible in the New Testament (London:
Bloomsbury, 1996), 305.
52
Phyllis Trible, “Depatriarchalizing in Biblical Interpretation,” Journal of the American Academy of
Religion 41, no. 1 (March 1973): 30-48.
53
Meyers, “Was Ancient Israel a Patriarchal Society, 18.

11
 In Jesus’ ministry, He abandoned many Levitical laws about clean and unclean since He
apparently fellowshipped with the unclean, allowed unclean women to touch Him, and was willing
to touch a corpse and stop a funeral procession to help a woman (Mark 5:25-34).54 Women who
was a member of Jesus’ physical family (His mother Mary), women who were His friends but did
not travel with Him (Mary and Martha), and those women who followed Jesus in Galilee and to
Jerusalem (Mary Magdalene and others). That Jesus taught women and allowed them to follow
Him reveals how different He was from other rabbis in His treatment of women.55 Jesus’ relatively
open treatment of women has often been noticed; and observed that the Gospels represent him as
accompanied by female as well as male followers (Mk 15:40-41; Mt 27:55; Lk 8:2-3).56 Godly
women stand out in Jesus’ life and ministry: Mary (mother of Jesus), Mary Magdalene, Martha,
Mary of Bethany, etc. Women remained at the cross until the burial and were first at the empty
tomb.57

3.2.2. The Place of Women in Paul’s Teaching

Paul depicts women as active in the mission and work of the early Christian movement: nine
of the twenty-eight persons he specifically greets in Romans 16 are women.58 The occasional
nature of Paul’s letters must be taken into consideration when evaluating such difficult texts as 1
Corinthians 14:34-35, or its parallel in 1 Tim 2:8-15. In both cases, the abuses are being ruled out,
but this does not foreclose the issue of whether or not women who did not abuse their privileges
might speak or exercise authority if it was done in a proper and orderly manner. In fact, in view of
the evidence that various women were Paul’s co-workers in the Gospel ministry it is unlikely that
these texts were ever intended to do more than rule out certain abuses. 59 Paul certainly does not
warrant the title of chauvinist, but he was also no radical feminist.60 Paul sets high standards for

Ben Withering III, “Women NT,” in The Anchor Bible Dictionary 6 Volume Set, ed. (New York:
54

Doubleday, 1992), 6510.

55
Ben Witherington III, Women in the Ministry of Jesus (Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 1984),
123.
56
Elizabeth A. Clark, “Women,” in Encyclopedia of early Christianity, eds. Everett Ferguson, Michael P.
McHugh and Frederick W. Norris (New York: Routledge, 1999), 1181.
57
Douglas and Tenney, “Women,” 3175.
58
Clark, “Women,” 1181.
59
Withering III, “Women NT,” 6512.
60
Ben Witherington III, Women in the Earliest Churches (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984),
125-26.

12
the wives of church officers and for women in official positions (1 Tim 3:11; Tit 2:3-5).61 While
Paul approved women praying and prophesying at Corinth, on the other hand, he required women
to cover their heads. However, in Roman cultural (Corinth was a Roman colony), both men and
women covered their heads in some religious settings. The problems in complicated the presence
of three cultures in ancient Corinth such as Jewish, Greek and Romans who had colonized Corinth
in 44 BC. To compound of the problem, people behaved different at home, in public, and in
religious and other special settings.62 Which culture (Roman, Greek, or Jewish) provides the
correct context from which Paul is reasoning? It will also encounter the biggest hermeneutical
question -left unanswered by most studies.63

3.3. Women Leadership in Christian Communities

In the New Testament there are several examples of women leaders in early Christian
communities. One is the woman known as Priscilla who together with her (husband) Aquilla, was
a key member that both the author of Acts and Paul himself sometimes refer to the couple as
Priscilla and Aquila, rather than vice versa.64 Woman such as Mary of Magdala were key members
of the circle around Jesus of Nazareth, evidence for the leadership has been largely and
intentionally suppressed.65 In Greek society, the education of women beyond the elementary
grades was not thought to be all that practical or necessary. The education of Roman women began
to be taken seriously in the centuries before Christ. Within Judaism especially, women learners
and teachers were a rarity -which makes Jesus’ instruction of Mary and the inclusion of female
disciples particularly noteworthy (Luke 10:38-42). It also explains Jesus’ exclusion of women
among the Twelve.66

61
Douglas and Tenney, “Women,” 3175.
62
Mark C. Black, “1 Cor. 11:2-16 – A Re-Investigation”, in Essays on Women in Earliest Christianity, ed.
Carroll D. Osburn (Missouri: College Press, 1993), 191-202.
63
William R. Baker, “Hat or Hari in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 or Does It Matter? What are Christian Women
to Do?,” in Women in the Biblical World: A Survey of Old and New Testament Perspectives, .ed. Elizabeth A.
McCabe (New York: University Press of America, 2011), 67.
64
Kraemer, Her Share of the Blessings: Women’s Religions among Pagans, Jews, and Christians in the
Greco-Roman World ,175.
65
Kraemer, Her Share of the Blessings: Women’s Religions among Pagans, Jews, and Christians in the
Greco-Roman World, 174.
66
Beck, “Women in Ministry,”41

13
 The mother of John Mark in Jerusalem has a household in which good number of the believing
community are gathered in nocturnal prayer. The narrative indicates that Mary’s house is the
recognized center of activity for the community and the natural place where they would assemble
in time of crisis. Lydia the purple merchant of Philippi has her own household, all of whose
members receive baptism with her together. Nympha in Colossae hosts an ekklesia in her house
(Col. 4:15).67

4. Evaluation

The New Testament passages which spoke the limitation of women in church are emerged
from the influenced of Greek, Roman and Jews cultures. In Greek culture women are restricted in
public and even they had to cover their head. The place of women was limited in managing the
household. The pastoral Epistles closely related to the conception of Greek women (1 Tim. 5:14;
Titus 2:3-5). The boys should be superior to girls. Comparing to Greek the Roman women had
greater freedom and had great respect and higher position in the society but they were not allowed
to vote hold political office. Bible presents women inferior to men, nevertheless the leadership of
women influenced both in the Old Testament and New Testament. Throughout the history, Women
had been placed inferior to men because of the culture. Jesus did not concern about the culture and
reformed the idea of women inferiority. Women also played very significant role in the society,
even in the Bible they ruled, judged, prophesied, helped, saved the people of Isarel, and did great
ministry. In my local place women played a vital role in church activities. Even women are greater
number in Church than men. The leadership of women in church became one of the most
controversial topics in today’s churches, however leadership of women unstoppable.

Conclusion
This paper revealed the place of women in Roman world including political institution and
Christianity. We have seen that the women had a very low status in the society and no privilege to
engage in public leadership. However, one way or another some women influenced by their
leadership in families, societies, Roman world, and Christianity. Therefore, through this paper a
reader can understand the place of women in Roman world and its influence on Christianity.

67
Carolyn Osiek, Margaret Y. Macdonald and Janet H. Tulloch, A Women’s Place House Churches in
Earliest Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2006), 157-58.

14
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