He was to treat his wife with courtesy, for her tears called down Divine vengeance (n.d., 270) Was bound to love and cherish his wife, to support her in comfort, to redeem her if she had been sold into slavery, and to bury her, on which occasion even the poorest was to provide at least two mourning fifes and one mourning woman.
Harlotry was forbidden (Lewis 1966, 425).Įdersheim pointed out that the Hebrew husband It was a man’s world, but Hebrew law protected woman’s person. Though women did not ordinarily inherit property, in a case of a sonless home the daughters might inherit (Num. Though the Hebrew woman was under the authority of her father and later of her husband, she enjoyed considerable freedom and was not shut up in the harem. Mothers were to be honored (Exodus 20:12) and to rebel against, or show disrespect for, one’s mother was a most serious offense which could be punished by death (Deuteronomy 21:18ff 27:16). While women were somewhat legally inferior under the law of Moses, practically speaking, wives and mothers in Israel enjoyed the greatest of dignity. Though the Jewish opinion of womanhood during the time of Christ needed considerable improvement-a male’s morning prayer expressed thanks to God that the petitioner was neither a Gentile, a slave, or a woman-such attitudes were the result of heathen influences. Wives were truly second-class persons more honor was shown to a man’s mistress than to his wife. Chastity and modesty among women were virtually unknown (note Paul’s reference to female homosexuality in Romans 1:26). In Rome women enjoyed greater practical freedom, though not legal, than in Greece, but licentiousness was rampant. Wives led lives of seclusion and practical slavery.
Aristotle viewed women as somewhere between slaves and freemen. In the antique Greek world, women were considered inferior to men. In order to appreciate the role of New Testament womanhood, one must, by way of contrast, consider the plight of ancient woman as she stood in the world in general. The names of those women who ministered to the Master, and later those who served with distinction in the church, have become proverbial. Nor are the feminine names that adorn the New Testament record less illustrious.
Thus could the apostle Peter direct attention to those “holy women” who aforetime “hoped in God” (1 Peter 3:5). The Genesis narrative distinctly lends itself to the impression that Eve, as the culmination of the creative week, was a climactic jewel in Jehovah’s handiwork.Īs one wanders down the corridors of Old Testament history he is ever refreshed by encounters with such as Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, Rachel, Miriam, Deborah, Abigail, Ruth, Esther, and other noble women. The divine portrait of woman, as painted on the Biblical canvas, is remarkable indeed. This indicated the modesty that was to characterize her. God had not formed woman out of the head, lest she should become proud nor out of the eye, lest she should lust nor out of the ear, lest she should be curious nor out of the heart, lest she should be jealous nor out of the hand, lest she should be covetous nor out of the foot, lest she be a busybody but out of the rib, which was always covered (Edersheim 1957, 146). The ancient Jewish Rabbis were fond of saying: And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man (Genesis 2:21-23). And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7).Īnd Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone I will make him a help meet for him (Genesis 2:18).Īnd Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: and the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.