Women in ancient society--Greek, Roman, or Jewish--had a domestic, not a public, role; feminine subordination was self-evident. To Paul, however, Christian faith transcends barriers to make all free and equal (Galatians 3:28). Of all ancient writers Paul was the most powerful spokesman for equality. Nevertheless, just as he refused to harbour a runaway slave, so he opposed any practice that would identify the church with social radicalism (a principal pagan charge against it). Paul did not avoid self-contradiction (1 Corinthians 11:5, 14:34-35). His opposition to a public liturgical role for women decided subsequent Catholic tradition in the East and West. Yet in the Greek churches (though not often in the Latin) women were ordained as deacons--in the 4th century by prayer and imposition of hands with the same rite as male deacons--and had a special responsibility at women's baptism. Widows and orphans were the neediest in antiquity, and the church provided them substantial relief. It also encouraged vows of virginity, and by AD400 women from wealthy or politically powerful families acquired power as superiors of religious communities. It seemed natural to elect as abbess a woman whose family connections might bring benefactions.
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From Christianity
The tendency to spiritualise and individualise marriage
Christianity has contributed to a spiritualisation of marriage and family life, to a personal deepening of the relations between marriage partners and between parents and children, as well as between heads of households and domestic servants in large families. Marriage can be called the most intimate form in which the fellowship of believers in Christ is realised. In the early church, children were included in this fellowship. They were baptised when their parents were baptised, took part in the worship life of the congregation, and received Holy Communion with their parents. The Eastern Orthodox Church still practices as part of the eucharistic rite Jesus' teaching, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them." During the first decades of the church, congregational meetings took place in the homes of Christian families. The family became the archetype of the church. Paul called the members of his congregation in Ephesus "members of the household of God" (Ephesians 2:19).
In the early church the Christian foundation of marriage--in the participation of Christians in the body of Christ--postulated a generous interpretation of the fellowship between a Christian and a pagan marriage partner: the pagan one is saved with the Christian one "for the unbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is consecrated through her husband"; even the children from such a marriage in which at least one partner belongs to the body of Christ "are holy" (1 Corinthians 7:14). If the pagan partner, however, does not want to sustain the marriage relationship with a Christian partner under any circumstances, the Christian partner should grant him a divorce.
Jesus himself based his parables of the Kingdom of God on the idea of love between a bride and groom and frequently used parables of a wedding that describe the messianic meal as a wedding feast. In Revelation the glorious finale of salvation history is depicted as the wedding of the Lamb with the bride, as the beginning of the meal of the chosen ones with the Messiah-Son of man (Revelation 19:9: "Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb"). The wedding character of the eucharistic meal is also expressed in the liturgy of the early church. It is deepened through the specifically Christian belief that understands the word of the creation story in Genesis "and they become one flesh" as indicative of the oneness of Christ, the head, with the congregation as his body. With this in mind the Christian demand of monogamy becomes understandable.
In the so-called ethical lists in the Letter of Paul to the Colossians and in 1 Peter, Christian marriage is distinguished from the marriage practices of its pagan environment by its stricter ethical demands. The rules concern the mutual relationship of the marriage partners, fidelity, as well as attitudes toward children and slaves of the house.
Christianity did not bring a revolutionary social change to the position of women, but it made possible a new position in the family and congregation. In the world of the early church, women were held in very low esteem, and this was the basis for divorce practices that put women practically at men's complete disposal. With the prohibition of divorce, Jesus himself did away with this low estimation of women. The decisive turning point came in connection with the understanding of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. Even the Jewish view of the patriarchal position of man was substituted by Paul with a new spiritual interpretation of marriage. "There is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). In fulfilment of the prophecy in Joel 3:1, the Holy Spirit was poured out over the female disciples of Jesus, as well.
This created a complete change in the position of women in the congregation: in the synagogue the women were inactive participants in the worship service and sat veiled on the women's side, usually separated from the rest by an opaque lattice. In the Christian congregation, however, women appeared as members with full rights, who used their charismatic gifts within the congregation. In the letters of Paul, women are mentioned as Christians of full value. Paul addresses Prisca (Priscilla) in Romans 16:3 as his fellow worker. The four daughters of Philip were active as prophets in the congregation. Peter, in a sermon on Pentecost, spoke about men and women as recipients of the gifts of the Holy Spirit: "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy" (Acts 2:17). Pagan critics of the church, such as Porphyry (c. 234-c. 305), maintained that the church was ruled by women. During the periods of Christian persecution, women as well as men showed great courage in their suffering. The fact that they were spontaneously honoured as martyrs demonstrates their well-known active roles in the congregations. In this, representatives of patriarchal, rabbinic, and synagogic traditions within the Christian Church saw a danger to congregational constitutions. Paul, on the one hand, included women in his instruction, "Do not quench the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5:19), but, on the other hand, carried over the rule of the synagogue into the Christian congregation that "women should keep silence in the churches" (1 Corinthians 14:34). In the 20th century the Roman Catholic Church still refuses to ordain women as priests.
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