Jesus and the women

International Women's Day offers numerous ideas for an analysis of the role of women in society and in the family.  Proposing a biblical research on the condition of women in the Old Testament and in the Gospels can be a useful study path to sensitize students to reflect on the behaviors towards women present in the socio-cultural and religious schemes of the time of Jesus of Nazareth. an analysis on the role of women in today's society.  On this page, you will find some reflections made by historians and theologians on the relationship between Jesus and women that can constitute a starting point for a more in-depth study on the condition of the woman described in the Bible and above all to detect the difference in the behavior of Jesus towards the According to the American theologian Elisabeth Schussler, who has explored more than all the relationships between Jesus and the female sex, today's women must know that the first feminist, over two thousand years ago, it was he, Jesus, who we Christians we recognize as Lord and Savior.  That he loved women is a fact ascertained by historians: he not only loved them as people, but he also recognized them with dignity and respect. This thesis can be documented through a simple reading of the four Gospels.  In fact, Jesus clearly and above all was addressing the classes of "lower beings", such as the poor, the crippled, the sinners - and women - by spreading the message of freedom and equality in the Kingdom of God. But there are two factors here that go. explained: the condition of women in Palestine at the time of Jesus and the nature of the Gospels.  Both must be analyzed in detail, particularly the first. The situation of women in Palestine at the time of Jesus was definitely one of subordination to men and inferior beings.  Despite the fact that there were several heroines recorded in the Scriptures, according to the rabbis of the time - and for a long time after - women did not have the right to study the Scriptures (Torah).  A first-century rabbi, Eliezer, puts the strong point: "Rather than entrusting the Torah to a woman, it should be burned ... Whoever teaches his daughter the Torah is as if he were teaching her lust." Jesus was for promotion. of the equality of women with men, despite all this was in contrast with the social culture of the historical moment in which she lived.  The Jewish law, in the interpretation of the Pharisees, gave very little space to women. Jesus proved to be totally free from the taboos that weighed on the women he met in his ministry: he lets himself be touched by the woman with hemorrhage (cf. );  accepts the homage of the sinner (Lk 7: 26-50); accepts the homage of the sinner (Lk 7: 26-50); asks for water to a stranger not to frequent, a Samaritan woman (Jn 4). in the Annunciation, the Gospels testify to the women of the Easter tales a succession of female figures, there is even a group of itinerant women who follow Jesus (Lk 8,2s; Mt 27,55s and Mk 15,40s).  From the reading and interpretation of the passages cited in the Gospel it should be clear and evident that Jesus vigorously and radically defended women and promoted their equal dignity and equality in a macho society such as was that of his time.