Women in Sacred Texts

Women in the Sacred Texts

Throughout history people have seen the struggles of women to gain equality. Women have fought in the areas of work, play, the government, and general independence. However, one place this fight should not have gone was faith, but it has. Women now fight for equality in the traditions of religions all across the globe. Many of the issues women have, whether real or just blown out of proportion, are rooted in the sacred religious texts of the religion under attack. Three of the most well known and well studied religions of the world Christianity, Islam, and Judaism face some of the harshest feminist criticism. Sadly, more and more of these criticisms are made by people who have no information about the faith they are criticizing. This paper will go to the sacred texts of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam and to theological scholars in order to try and determine just how women are portrayed in each text, and how that portrayal has affected the way women live now.

According to The Sacred Worlds Compact Disc, the first religious tradition, Christianity, is the largest, most widespread religion in the world. It was started a little over two thousand years ago with the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus, a Jew, was a teacher and was eventually killed for political reasons of the era. His followers believed that his death did not mark the end, but a beginning for a new way of looking at life. Jesus’ miraculous resurrection convinced his followers that he was God in human form, he was the Messiah. In that time Judaism also believe in the appearance of a Messiah. However, the expectations for the Messiah in Judaism and what happened with the new way of life were a cause of tension between the new followers and traditional Jews.

Christianity today is made up of a variety of groups which can mostly be broken into three large groups which are Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestantism. In more recent times a movement as appeared with the desire to unify the whole of Christianity or at the very least facilitate working together to accomplish a common goal. Christianity has been a very male dominated religion; however, of late feminist versions of Christianity have become more apparent. These focus on images of God that are not strictly male, women who played huge parts in the stories of the Bible, and images of Creation that do not focus on women being unclean. Contemporary liberation theology adds to the division between the different groups because it spends a great deal of effort emphasizing the need to be politically active in order to address social expressions of sin. Evangelism is also a growing branch of Christianity. This approach relies on the study of scripture and the idea of being “born again”. Another aspect that is intertwined with Evangelism is “charismatic renewal” which is when divine powers are transferred to a believer, speaking in tongues is one common example.

The Bible, the Christian sacred text, is a collection of records about the time from the creation of the world to the future second coming of the Lord. Most Christians base their faith and way of life based on what this book contains. The first female figure appears in Genesis, book of the Bible. Eve is created from the rib of Adam (the first man) to be his companion in the Garden of Eden. “It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make him a help meet for him.” Very quickly after she is created Eve is blamed for getting Adam and her thrown out of the Garden; not such a great start for womankind, committing Original Sin.

The books of the New Testament are full of verses that say women are to be second to men. In Paul’s letters to the Corinthians he also states that women should be subordinate to men, who in turn are subordinate to God. “Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the women is man, and the head of Christ is God.” Later in I Corinthians 14: 33-35, Paul says,

33For God is not a God of disorder but of peace. As in all the congregations of the saints, 34women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. 35If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.

The order of creation is often a heavily used tool to justify the subjugation of women. This defense is found most prominently in I Timothy 2: 11- 15. These verses read:

11A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. 13For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15But women will be saved through childbearingвЂ"if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

There are one hundred eighty-eight major women mentioned in the Bible. Of that fairly large number, only eighteen make a list of “women with admirable characters”. This drastic difference in the number that appear and the number that are “admirable” speaks for itself. This list includes: Noah’s wife, Mary (Jesus’ mother), Ester, Abishag, Anna, Deborah, Dorcas, Elisabeth, Eunice, Euodias, Hannah, Joanna, Lois, Lydia of Thyatira, Mary, Milcah, and Phoebe. Most of these women were obedient, faithful wives and mothers who did nothing but raise their children and marry well. Of those that weren’t admired for their mothering skills were added to the list because they played the helpful hostess for important men.

In L. J. Peach’s book Women in World Religions Peach writes that women of the Christian faith have female role models that are unattainable models. Women are presented with the Virgin Mary, who gives birth to Jesus after the Immaculate Conception. No other woman on earth can accomplish that, it’s dooming oneself to frustration and ultimately failure. Catholicism values the Virgin as a saint and consequently contains certain “cults” that exclusively worship Mary and other saints. However, Protestants prohibit the worship of saints which leaves women with only the male Holy Trinity. The other major role model for women is Eve, the same Eve that is blamed for the fall of all mankind. Very few women actually fall into this category, or even strive to be included in it.

As is seen in the text of the New Testament and by the lack of attainable, “real” role models for women, the Bible does make women secondary to men a lot of the time.