About Those Ladies

The prominent role of women (Luke 24:10) in the Gospels on the very first Easter morning poses a strong challenge to the so-called “feminist’” critique of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Significantly, women are not mentioned at all in the Apostle Paul’s treatment of Jesus resurrection in his first Letter to the Corinthians (15:1f) for the simple reason that in every culture in those times the testimony of a woman had no legal standing.  On this account many wish to charge Paul with being anti-woman (that charge is demonstrably false for a host of reasons that include his overarching statement in Galatians 3:28).  It was for the actual reason just mentioned, and that reason alone, that no women are included in his list of witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

The exclusion of women from Paul’s roster of witnesses actually bolsters the historical reliability of the Easter narratives in the Gospel accounts of Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20.  In those documents it is the women (two Marys and a Joanna, as well as others who are unnamed) who are the actual stand-outs.  It is they who, in a bold step of courage, made their way to the tomb to anoint the presumably dead body of Jesus with myrrh and aloes while the men (by and large) remained behind locked doors ”for fear of the Jews” (John 20:19).  The feminist interpretation of the Gospel accounts that appear in modern Bibles suggests that these documents are “paternalistic” perversions of a story that was originally centered in goddess worship.  It is males, they allege, who re-fashioned that originally “pristine” story into a new narrative where male leadership becomes validated in the Gospel accounts as we find them today.

Why then, I repeat, is it women who are stated to play the prominent role in the Easter accounts in such an impressive fashion?  It is because the Gospel writers (by the way, all males) told the bare truth of the matter concerning what actually happened that day.  While the Apostle Paul laid out the case for Jesus’ resurrection in the manner that the standards of testimony required, the Gospel accounts simply laid out the entire story, even at the expense of embarrassing the writers, whose goals was simply to let the plain truth be known.

Have a truly blessed Easter weekend in the certainty that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead on the first Easter.

I will be away from my post for the next few days, but look forward to returning to my blog this next weekend.

Remember to fight the good fight of faith.  The truth is on our side!