Unless we read the gospels with an understanding of the culture Jesus lived in, we can miss the remarkable centering of women they contain.
Not only are women centered at the beginning, crucifixion and resurrection, but they appear as frequently as men, which would not normally be the case. If we look at contemporary historical accounts, they do not receive that much attention.
It doesn’t help Hebrew feminine words were translated into Greek neuter words into Latin masculine words. Never mind the Aramaic. Or the deliberate substation of male or neuter for female words by scribes, such as Logos for Sophia, Wisdom.
Ruah, breath, in Hebrew is considered feminine. Spiritus, its Latin translation, is masculine. But I digress.
Charlene Spretnak points out that Jesus’ mother had a profound influence upon this sensitivity. In a time when religious leaders used the guilt from the law to oppress along with Roman oppression, women were drawn to Jesus because they sensed he understood them, their concerns and the limitations that affected their lives.
He speaks to them as equals. He speaks to them in public. He takes their concerns as his own. None of this was culturally congruent for the times.
His parables feature women as well as men. A shepherd loses a sheep. A woman loses a coin.
He does not blame the mother for the son’s blindness. He is outraged over the sale of doves in the temple, not only because of greed, but because doves were the offering women had to buy to achieve their purification under Jewish law.
The dove is one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit. The masculine lens implanted with which we read the gospels obscures underlying references to the Divine Feminine.
He refuses to apply the law unequally. He knows the leaders are trying to trap him in the stoning of the woman caught in adultery. The law said to bring the man as well, yet the leaders did not. Only the woman, normally subject, was held responsible.
He did not condemn the woman at the well for her husbands. He just stated it as fact. Rather, he conversed with her in a way that recognized her intelligence.
As a Samaritan woman, he included them (Palestinians) in acknowledgement of equal human worth. Again the religious leaders were not in sync.
Perhaps one can understand the organized church’s desire to separate itself from predominant religious practices in that ancient world. But scholars acknowledge the transpositions of ancient myths into the Bible story. The only problem seems to have been considering women as equal in the faith. An example is the destruction of Gnostic texts which report Mary Magdalene’s prominence among the apostles.
If a faith claims that Jesus is the Redeemer, why are women only partially included?