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Women in Sacred Scripture
 "In the
beginning . . . God created man in his own image, in the image of God he
created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:1, 27; 5:1–2) And from
the beginning (of the Bible) men and women serve as characters in God’s
revealed epic of election and redemption that is inaugurated by the
mysterious admixture of God’s infinite love and humanity’s felix culpa.
From the beginning God’s creation mirrors the Creator in unity. How then may
we speak of "women in Sacred Scripture" or "men in Sacred Scripture," as if
Genesis 1–3, for example, could admit of such an extrapolation? On the one
hand, it would seem that to speak of "women in Sacred Scripture" is too
arbitrary an abstraction from the biblical portrayal of human persons. On
the other hand, such an abstraction might help us to discern more clearly
God’s will by focusing on certain moments of his grace in the witness of
particular women in the Bible. Here we must be circumspect: an examination
of all the women of the Bible, no more or less so than an examination
of all the men of the Bible would prove amorphous and disobliging.
But an examination of a few key women, with salient roles in God’s election
and redemption, proves advantageous toward an exposé. Let us begin with the
beginning in the Old Testament, continue into the New Testament, and
conclude with an albeit partial composite.
The Elect
The Old Testament is
the story of election. It is the story of the election of a people—men and
women—by God. Adam and Eve are joint sharers in the preternatural gifts.
This is made especially poignant in that each eats individually of the
forbidden fruit. The sin of disobedience is not brought by one upon the
other: both are guilty and both are punished. However, the loss of the
preternatural gifts and banishment from the Garden of Eden does not bring
about the annihilation of the imago Dei or humanity’s dependence on
God. Adam and Eve are procreators, and it is Eve who acknowledges that their
first son, Cain, is God’s gift—"I have gotten a man with the help of the
Lord." (Genesis 4:1) Likewise, Eve saw the hand of God in the birth of Seth to
restore Abel’s loss; it is at the birth of Seth’s first son that "men began
to call upon the Lord." (Genesis 4:25–26) And so it was that men and women
called upon the Lord, often with mixed results of confusion, destruction,
and restoration, until the Lord chose one forefather and foremother in the
persons of Abraham and Sarah.
The initial call to
Abraham (Genesis 12:1–3) comes not just to an individual but also to a married
man (Genesis 11:29). Thus, Sarah is an integral sharer in the Lord’s promise to
Abraham of blessing, progeny, and land. Despite Abraham’s cowardice in
offering Sarah to Pharaoh of Egypt (Gen 12:10–20) and to Abimelech of Gerar
(Genesis 20:1–7), the Lord protects her. However, Abraham’s lack of trust in
God’s safeguarding is paralleled by Sarah’s lack of trust in God’s promise.
It is Sarah who sends Hagar (the Egyptian) in to her husband to force the
hand of God’s promise (Genesis 16:1–6); it is Sarah who mocks God and laughs at
the prospect of a child in her advanced age (Genesis 18:9–15). The attempt to
circumvent God’s plan through Hagar’s vicarious fecundity vis-à-vis Ishmael
is as much Abraham’s fault as Sarah’s and it is rejected by God. Although
God shows compassion for Hagar and Ishmael, allowing them some semblance of
the promises made to Abraham (Genesis 16:7–14; 21:13–21), there is to be no heir
without God’s direct intervention and acknowledgement thereof. With divine
intervention (Genesis 21:1–2), Sarah conceives and bears Isaac. So too, Genesis
22 recounts Abraham’s recognition of Isaac as God’s gift in one of the most
compelling pericopes in the Old Testament. The blessings on Abraham and
Sarah are abundant. The progeny is complete in Abraham and Sarah. Only the
land remains. Sarah becomes the stake by which Canaan is forever claimed for
the descendants of Abraham and Sarah. At Sarah’s death, Abraham buys a plot
from Ephron the Hittite in Canaan and buries her there (Genesis 23:1–20), since
it is implausible that the foremother should be buried in alien soil.
In like manner, it
is implausible that their son, Isaac, should marry among alien people.
Abraham dispatches to his and his wife’s people for a suitable mate,
Rebecca. Isaac shows his father’s cowardice; like father, like son, Isaac is
willing to risk Rebecca’s defilement for his own security (Genesis 26:1–11).
Isaac’s role, other than siring Esau and Jacob, is small in comparison to
Rebecca’s. It is to Rebecca that the Lord reveals the nature of the struggle
in her womb, that the younger shall usurp the elder (Genesis 25:23), not to
Isaac. Isaac’s preferment of Esau is not favored in God’s plan, but
Rebecca’s love for Jacob is rewarded in his purchasing of Esau’s birthright.
Moreover, by her machinations, it is Rebecca who serves as the instrument of
God’s will in obtaining the blessing for Jacob rather than Esau, and it is
Isaac who remains in the dark as to God’s plans. Esau marries among the
aliens, the Hittites (Genesis 26:34–35). The enmity between the two brothers
that had begun in Rebecca’s womb continues as the leitmotiv which causes
Jacob to flee back to Rebecca’s people for a suitable wife, Rachel.
Jacob and Rachel
become the parents of the tribes that form the Hebrew people. It is by
Rachel’s first son, Joseph, that the blessing, progeny, and land will see a
medial fulfillment in Egypt. Rachel is the true wife of Jacob, the one whom
he desires and loves most, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin. Rachel is
the one whom God remembers by opening her womb with Joseph and by acceding
to her wish for a second son with Benjamin before her death in labor (Genesis
30:23–24; 35:16–18). Furthermore, it is her body that becomes yet another
stake in the claim for Canaan, when Jacob buries her in Bethlehem (Genesis
35:19; 48:7). And even though each tribe is not linked to Rachel directly,
the progenitors of the prosperity in Egypt are her two sons, Joseph and
Benjamin. Without Rachel, it is impossible to conceive of the fortune and
fertility of the Hebrew people as we find them in the beginning of Exodus.
From Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel an entire people has been constituted
and has prospered. When that people is oppressed and in bondage, it is
women—Shiphrah and Puah, the midwives, Pharaoh’s unnamed daughter and Moses’
unnamed mother—who protect the Hebrews’ future leader, Moses, the one whom
God picks to lead his people to the fulfillment of election in the promised
land, because God has heard the cry of their appeal (Exodus 3:7). To be sure,
the election of the Hebrew people is the precursor to the redemption of all
people in Jesus Christ. As women played a vital role in the election, so did
they play a vital role in the redemption.
The Redeemed
The New Testament is
the story of redemption. It is the story of the redemption of all people—men
and women—by God. At the center of the redemption, of course, is the
Redeemer, Jesus Christ, one with the Creator, the Father, and the
Sanctifier, the Holy Spirit. The holy gospels have as their aim to describe
the immediate words and deeds of the Redeemer, just as the other books tell
of the words and deeds of his apostles and disciples. To speak of anyone,
man or woman, after the advent of the Incarnate Word, is to speak of him or
her in relation to that Word. Specifically, the gospels recount a plethora
of men and women in Jesus’ life and work, wherein the election of the Father
is transubstantiated into Redemption by the Son through the Holy Spirit.
There is no greater
exaltation for the human race than that the Son of God should become man and
be born of woman. There is no human being closer to God than his mother,
Mary, who as the Theotokos bore him in her womb with love beyond all
telling. Mary is the most significant woman in the created order and
perforce the most significant woman in the Bible. Mary is the "new Eve," by
whose fiat God’s plan for Redemption is set in motion so that the
faults inaugurated by the first Eve might be atoned in her Son. It is at the
moment of his sacrificial obedience on the Cross that Jesus entrusts the
Church to his mother and his mother to the Church (John
19:25–27).
This exaltation of his mother manifests the importance of women in his life
and provides the paradigm for his relationship with women of respect and
compassion.
There are women at
the most significant moments of Jesus’ life.
Elizabeth,
along with John the Baptist still in her womb, is the first woman (other
than Mary) recorded to worship him and recognize the fulfillment of
Gabriel’s promise to Mary (Luke 1:42–45). And it is Rachel’s voice that is
intoned to mourn for the Holy Innocents (Matthew2:16–18; cf. Jeremiah 31:15; 40:1),
whose slaughter by Herod is the prefigurement of Israel’s rejection and
murder of the Messiah on the Cross. More women than men stand at the foot of
the Cross (Matthew 27:55–56; Mark 15:40–41; Luke 23:49; John 19:25–27). The
activities of more women than men are recorded immediately thereafter (Matthew
27:61; Mark 15:47; Luke 23:55–56; cf. John 19:40–42). Women are among the
first witnesses of the Resurrection (Matthew 28:1–6; Mark 16:1–12; Luke
24:1–12; John 20:1–2, 11–18). Ergo, women figure substantially in the
Incarnation and the Redemption.
There are also women
who are most significant in Jesus’ earthly ministry as the beneficiaries of
his respect and compassion. According to Luke (8:1–3), there were many women
disciples of Jesus who traveled about with him. In fact, the reminiscence of
Jesus’ presence in Martha and Mary’s home, wherein Jesus would rather have
women listening to his teaching than fussing about with other things,
illustrates Jesus' respect for women (Luke 10:38–42; cf. John 11:1); since
they must cooperate in their own salvation, women need to learn from Jesus
as much as anyone else. Similarly, women need to reform their lives. John
(4:7–42) records Jesus' deferential encounter with a Samaritan women. It is
clear that Jesus knows that she is a Samaritan, and a very sinful one at
that, but he does not chide her. Instead, he explains to her who he is and
what his coming means. Jesus’ disciples do not understand, but the Lord
knows exactly what he is about in working with and through this woman by
whom many Samaritans came to believe (John 4:39). Jesus also notes the
generosity and example of a poor widow as a lesson for his disciples (Mark
12:41–44; Luke 21:14). Perhaps the most striking portrait of Jesus’ respect
for women (and love for sinners) is when he poses a prostitute as an example
for Peter (Luke 7:36–50). At dinner in the home of a Pharisee, a prostitute
wipes Jesus’ feet with her hair and tears and anoints them with oil. Luke
states that it is the Pharisee who questions Jesus in his mind, but it is to
Peter that the lesson is addressed about sin and forgiveness.
In like manner,
Jesus’ compassion for women is boundless. He raises Jairus’ daughter from
death (Matthew9:18–19, 23–26; Mark 5:21–24, 35–43; Luke 8:40–42, 49–56) and
the widow of Nain’s son (Luke 7:11–17). On seeing a woman stooped in
infirmity, he cannot help but heal her, even though she did not ask for his
compassion and even if the act might arouse the ire of some because it was
performed on the Sabbath day (Luke 13:10–13; cf. Matthew 12:11–12; John
5:1–18). The compassion of Jesus toward women is not limited to the
daughters of Israel, for Jesus casts a demon from a Syrophoenician woman’s
daughter (Matthew 15:21–28; Mark 7:24–30).
Possibly the most
moving instance of Jesus’ compassion occurs in John 8:1–11. Jesus is
teaching in the temple when scribes and Pharisees bring a woman who has been
caught in adultery before him; their intention is to stone her, for her
guilt is clear and the law of Moses prescribes it. Jesus’ words are few:
"Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."
At his words, they depart, but the woman stays and stands before him. And
Jesus speaks to the adulterous woman words that sum up his compassionate
mind-set toward the human race he redeems—"I do not condemn you. Go and do
not sin again."
Women’s Biblical Witness
A composite of
women’s biblical witness shows their intimate sharing in the most
significant biblical moments with men. All in all, it is somewhat futile to
sever the witness of men from that of women or vice versa. The
momentous biblical events of election and redemption are not gender
differentiated; they are moments of an identification between God and
humanity that are best considered along the lines of a unified human
experience, rather than as if man and woman were somehow in tension with one
another. However, insofar as we may distinguish the biblical characters in
order to learn from the particular successes and failures of our
predecessors in the Faith, we have much to learn from the witness of
biblical women. Three general themes are evident: humanity’s place in God’s
election, humanity’s place in Lord’s redemption; and the fundamental dignity
of mankind.
First, men and women
were instruments in God’s election from the beginning. The story of God’s
creative act is as much a story about Eve as it is about Adam. The
preparation for God’s chosen people is as much a story about Sarah, Rebecca,
and Rachel as it is about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All that commences with
God’s theophany to Moses in Exodus 3 has been prepared by God in concert
with the men and women of his choosing in order that Israel might become "a
kingdom of priests and a holy nation." (Exodis 19:6; cf. Isaiah 61:6) The Old
Testament proclaims a divine principle about God’s concern for his creation.
It is a concern that places human beings—men and women alike—in a
relationship with him so that they might participate in an association with
him despite their original sin and anticipate their redemption by him in the
person of the Son. Men and women are coequal sharers in his promise to
Abraham of blessing, progeny, and land. They are also heirs to the deeper
meaning of that initial promise, a reality veiled in the Old Testament and
revealed in the New Testament: that they should have not only blessing but
redemption, not only progeny but eternal life, and not only land on earth
but a home in heaven.
Second, men and
women were instruments in the Lord’s redemption. Just as God allowed their
participation in the covenants of old, so he permits their participation in
the earthly life and work of the Redeemer. Because of Jesus’ unique
personhood and natures—divine and human—no analogy between any man or woman
is illustrative, and no man or woman may be compared. No matter how worthy a
man or woman becomes because of his or her imitation of Christ, no matter
how deserving a human being may be of dulia, latria is paid to
God— Father, Son, and Spirit—alone. However in this regard, the Blessed
Virgin Mary stands alone among human beings. Her pivotal role in the
election and the redemption is singular. By divine providence, Mary is
deserving of our hyperdulia. As Eve was "the mother of all the
living" (Genesis 3:20) in a natural sense, Mary is the mother of the Redeemer
and mother of the redeemed, that is, the "mother of all the living" in a
supernatural sense. The election is wondrously fulfilled in the redemption.
Therefore, Peter could rightly reinterpret the understanding of Exodus 19:6
for Israel to be constitutive of the new Israel, the Church, "a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, God’s own people" (1 Peter 2:9). In the new dispensation,
as Paul points out, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave
nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ
Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs
according to promise." (Galatians 3:28–29)
Finally then, the
Lord’s goodness to his people, male and female, exemplifies the reality of
human dignity in the created order. From the beginning men and women were
crafted in the imago Dei, and because of the Incarnation all
men and women are invited to share in the fruits of the Passion and
Resurrection. The composite portrait of women in the Old and New Testaments
makes obvious God’s respect and compassion for women. With respect to our
contemporary age, as we begin the third millennium of Christianity, women
ought to see that their role in salvation history has been critical for
God’s revelation and redemption. Women need to focus on God’s beneficence to
them, especially in his choice of a woman as the mother of his Son. That
pinnacle of God’s graciousness and the collective witness of the Bible
demonstrate women’s importance in God’s salvific will. From the beginning
men and women have been called to union with God. Indeed it is a woman,
speaking to another women, who sums up the whole of the biblical witness as
it addresses humanity, when Elizabeth says to Mary: "Blessed is she who
believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from
the Lord." (Luke 1:45)
By Prof. Michael F. Hull, New York
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