In order accurately to understand the position of woman in Israel, it is only necessary

carefully to peruse the New Testament. The picture of social life there presented gives a

full view of the place which she held in private and in public life. Here we do not find

that separation, so common among Orientals at all times, but a woman mingles freely

with others both at home and abroad. So far from suffering under social inferiority, she

takes influential and often leading part in all movements, specially those of a relig ious

character. Above all, we are wholly spared those sickening details of private and public

immorality with which contemporary classical literature abounds. Among Israel woman

was pure, the home happy, and the family hallowed by a religion which consisted not

only in public services, but entered into daily life, and embraced in its observances

every member of the household. It was so not only in New Testament times but always

in Israel. St. Peter's reference to "the holy women" "in the old time" (1 Peter 3:5) is

thoroughly in accordance with Talmudical views. Indeed, his quotation of Genesis 18:12,

and its application: "Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord," occur in precisely

the same manner in Rabbinical writings (Tanch. 28, 6), where her respect and obedience

are likewise set forth as a pattern to her daughters.42

Some further details may illustrate the matter better than arguments. The creation of

woman from the rib of Adam is thus commented on (Shab. 23): "It is as if Adam had

exchanged a pot of earth for a precious jewel." This, although Jewish wit caustically had

it: "God has cursed woman, yet all the world runs after her; He has cursed the ground,

yet all the world lives of it." In what reverence "the four mothers," as the Rabbis

designate Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel, were held, and what influence they

exercised in patriarchal history, no attentive reader of Scripture can fail to notice. And as

we follow on the sacred story, Miriam, who had originally saved Moses, leads the song

of deliverance on the other side of the flood, and her influence, though not always for

good, continued till her death (compare Micah 6:4). Then "the women whose heart

stirred them up in wisdom" contribute to the rearing of the Tabernacle; Deborah works

deliverance, and judgeth in Israel; and the piety of Manoah's wife is at least as

conspicuous, and more intelligent, than her husband's (Judg 13:23). So also is that of the

mother of Samuel. In the times of the kings the praises of Israel's maidens stir the

jealousy of Saul; Abigail knows how to avert the danger of her husband's folly; the wise

woman of Tekoah is sent for to induce the king to fetch his banished home; and the

conduct of a woman "in her wisdom" puts an end to the rebellion of Sheba. Later on, the

constant mention of queen mothers, and their frequent interference in the government,

shows their position. Such names as that of Huldah the prophetess, and the idyllic

narrative of the Shunammite, will readily occur to the memory. The story of a woman's

devotion forms the subject of the Book of Ruth; that of her pure and faithful love, the

theme or the imagery of the Song of Songs; that of her courage and devotion the

groundwork of the Book of Esther: while her worth and virtues are enumerated in the

closing chapter of the Book of Proverbs. Again, in the language of the prophets the

people of God are called "the daughter," "the virgin daughter of Zion," "the daughter of

Jerusalem," "the daughter of Judah," etc.; and their relationship to God is constantly

comp ared to that of the married state. The very terms by which woman is named in the

Old Testament are significant. If the man is Ish, his wife is Ishah, simply his equal; if the

husband is Gever, the ruler, the woman is, in her own domain, Gevirah and Gevereth, the

mistress (as frequently in the history of Sarah and in other passages), or else the dweller

at home (Nevath bayith, Psa 68:12).43

Nor is it otherwise in New Testament times. The ministry of woman to our blessed Lord,

and in the Church, has almost become proverbial. Her position there marks really not a

progress upon, but the full carrying out of, the Old Testament idea; or, to put the matter