“I contend that women were the sacrifice that got the early church to a state that the victorious called unity.”
Many people are aware that male leadership has dominated the church since Early Christianity. However, most people are not as aware that in some areas of the Early Church, in particular the Eastern Church, women were an important part of the leadership in Early Christianity. While Western Christianity marginalized women’s roles as Christianity became more organized and a leadership structure was developed, the Eastern Church was developing the roles of widows and deaconesses. This paper will trace women’s roles in the first four centuries, looking both at the Western and Eastern Churches.
The role of women in the New Testament is the first opportunity to look at the roles of women within the first four centuries of the church. While parts of the New Testament demonstrate that there was adherence to certain gender roles, such as Paul’s statement about women keeping silent in 1 Corinthians 14:33-35 , there are other opportunities to observe the inclusion of women, even to the point of beginning to challenge gender roles. Jesus’ ministry was much more inclusive and the writers of the gospels recognize that women had a significant role in the ministry of Jesus. Mary and Elizabeth have central roles in the infancy narrative of Luke. In “The Changing Role of Women in the Early Christian World,” Howard Kee states that Mary “understands what God is doing.” Women provide for Jesus in both Mark and Luke (Mark 15:40-41, Luke 8:1-3). Also in Luke, Mary, sister of Martha shows women beginning to participate in the learning community (Luke 10:39). Jesus was so radical with his inclusion of women in the learning community and equal participants in that learning community that there are some early variants of Luke in which the Jews accused Jesus of entrapping the minds of women and causing women to neglect their usual purification rituals. Perhaps the most important role women play in early Christianity is being the first ones to share the news that Jesus is alive. Kee states, “there is a significant shift in the positive value of women in Mark, including the essential role that they fulfill as witnesses to the public career of Jesus and to their private experience of his having been raised from the dead.”
Paul challenges traditional gender roles in his statement in Galatians, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” In several places in The Acts of the Apostles, women are equal to men. Acts shares instances in which both women and men were converted (Acts 5:14), women and men were dragged to prison (Acts 8:3), and women and men were both baptized (Act 8:12). Women played an important role in the life of the new community and were critical to its existence. While males held the leadership roles, women are important to the new church. They were not excluded from functions associated with ministry at the beginning of the spread of Christianity. They helped to fund churches (Acts 18:2, 18-19, 1 Corinthians 16:19, and Romans 16:3-5), they taught converts (Acts 18:26), and they had roles in public worship (1 Corinthians 11:5). There were woman prophets (1 Corinthians 11:5 and Acts 21:9), Phoebe was a deacon in the church in Chenchreae (Romans 16:1), and Junia was an apostle (Romans 16:7). Women met the criteria for apostleship as outlined by Paul, having seen the risen Christ and received a commission to preach the gospel as well as the criteria from the author of Luke, accompanying Jesus during his ministry
As the new community slowly started to become more organized, women’s roles were slowly defined as well. And while the role of the female diaconate’s beginnings in the more orthodox line of Christianity is hard to see in the second century, in unorthodox sects, such as the Gnostics, women had an important role. The Gnostics looked back to the place women held in the Gospels, but they also looked to other women as well. Gnostics listened to prophetesses. There were great Gnostic teachers who had a prophetess by their side. There is evidence of two female slaves who were called deacons in the writings of Pliny the Younger. In a letter to the Roman Emperor Trajan, he writes about torturing two female slaves who were called deacons in order to understand more about the Christian sect. Pliny writes to Trajan, “I judged to all the more necessary to find out what the truth was by torturing two female slaves who were called ‘deacons.’”
Another slowly defined role for women in Early Christianity was that of widow. In the second century, there is not substantial evidence for leadership functions for widows. However, as in the New Testament, they were called to a life of prayer (1 Timothy 5:5), they were to refrain from bad habits such as gossip, slander, being busybodies (Titus 2:3 and 1 Timothy 5:13). The writings of the second century follow the biblical tradition and acknowledge that widows were assisted women, much like the poor, the orphaned, the sic, the oppressed, and the strangers. The Apostolic Fathers such as Ignatius of Antioch and Justin both include statements about the church’s responsibility to take care of widows and in some cases they were greeted along with the bishops, priests and deacons in pastoral letters. One example from the second century that does demonstrate a woman with a leadership role in a community is The Shepherd of Hermas. In one of the visions Hermas receives a book of revelations from an old woman. After she adds to the initial book she gives instructions to Hermas:
And so, you will write two little books, sending one to Clement and the other to Grapte. Clement will send his to the foreign cities, for that is his commission. But Grapte will admonish the widows and orphans. And you will read yours in this city, with the presbyters who lead the church.
Grapte in this passage is the female who is charged with the task of communicating Hermas’ writings, the instructions from the old woman, to the widows and orphans. This can be viewed as a potential forerunner later on when deaconesses helped with the teaching of women converts to the faith.
While the evidence is questionable about women in leadership roles in the second century, there is no doubt that women were being martyred just as men were during this time. There are three women whose stories are documented, Blandina, Perpetua, and Felicitas, Perpetua’s slave girl. Blandina was put to death with several other Christians in Lyons. She was considered the leader and mother of this group of martyrs. The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas is the oldest piece of Christian literature we have that was written by a woman. It documents Perpetua’s time in prison, her preparation for death and her death. It also allows us to see a glimpse of her family life as we hear about the child, whom she loves, her problems with her father, and visions about her already dead brother. Interestingly, both Perpetua and Felicity’s husbands are non-existent in the story. Perpetua does exemplify strong women as she leads the other prisoners, demands for better treatment from the authorities for both herself and Felicitas. Through her dreams and visions she becomes the voice of God for her companions in prison as these dreams and visions are preparing her and her companions for death. She is also able to experience the healing of all of her relationships with her old family as she begins to prepare for her new heavenly family.
In the third century, there are two opposing viewpoints on the role of women in the church. The Western Church and writers and the Alexandrian Fathers in the East, upheld the institution of widows as the recipients of Christian charity, there is no place for women ministers within the church. However, in the Syrian Church, the role of the deaconess is developed. The Didascalia Apostolorum is the first document that includes instructions for deaconesses.
In the West, widows continue to have a special place and role in the church. They even are enrolled in some places. Hippolytus’ Apostolic Tradition includes several passages that indicate it was an important duty of Christians to take care of widows, this includes giving them gifts, feeding them and honoring them. One of the most interesting developments in this time, as noted by Apostolic Tradition, is the appointing of widows. Hippolytus stresses that the widows were appointed and not ordained. Their role is prayer and even though it was the duty of all Christians to pray, that was imposed on the widows in a special way. While there are women who continue to have this special place and role, it is not ordination. Tertullian makes this clear. In his writings against the heretical sects, he was opposed to the role of women in these sects. Tertullian did not believe women should teach, discuss, exorcise, teach in church, baptize, nor “claim any function proper to a man, least of all the sacerdotal office.” However, Tertullian with his Montanist allegiance did make an exception for prophetesses, but he was specific in that they could not disclose the vision they received in public, especially on a Sunday. They were to go to the leaders of the group and share her vision and then the leaders would determine if it was authentic.
Similar to the Western Church Fathers of the third century, the Alexandrian Fathers also noted the role of widows and senior women within the church. Both Clement of Alexandria and Origen list widows along with bishops, priest and deacons and gave specific instructions for the widows. In the East, as in the West, widows are registered and they have a specific duties including being helpful to those in need, caring for the strangers, and teaching young women, particularly encouraging them to remain chaste. For Origen widows who were following the Lord and performing His work meant they were teaching young women the qualities that make them good wives, good mothers, good housekeepers and gracious and charitable Christians. Origen was opposed to the prophetesses. In his comment on 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, he mentions various women in the Bible who could be interpreted as having a leadership role and either says they lead women or they spoke to men about their visions. They did not speak in public at a gathering of people. While both Clement and Origen mention women deacons, it is in the past tense, not in the present tense. Clement refers to 1 Corinthians 9:5 in which apostles are asking if they can take their faithful wives with them to be their partners in ministry and to teach in the women’s quarters, where the apostle should not be going. At one point Origen explains Romans 16:1-2, in which Paul is commending to the Romans their sister in Christ, the deacon Phoebe and compares her actions of hospitality to that of Lot and Abraham. While both Clement and Origen acknowledge that there were women deacons in the church in the time of Paul. They do not use this as a support or argument for instituting the role of a women deacon in their day.
The largest shift in views about the role of women in the church happens in the Syrian Church in the third century. This is perhaps the largest shift in the view of women in the church since Jesus and Paul challenged gender roles in the first century. The Didascalia Apostolorum is the first document that includes instructions for deaconesses.
Wherefore, O bishop, appoint thee workers of righteousness as helpers who may co-operate with the unto salvation. Those that please thee out of all people thou shalt choose and appoint deacons: a man for the performance of the most things that are required, but a woman for the ministry of women.
That section of the Didascalia Apostolorum entitled, “On the appointment of Deacons and Deaconesses” continues on to explain why deaconesses were needed, for the ministry of women. Deaconesses were tasked with going into see women whose husbands were heathen, anointing women at baptism, instructing the newly baptized women, visit women who are sick, minister to women who are in need, and bathe women who have begun to recover from sickness. However, it is also clear that deaconesses were not close helpers to the bishops as deacons were. The deacons also receive much more instruction on their role than the deaconess does. It is also clear that while the deaconesses were anointing women who were baptized, they are not allowed to baptize even the women, baptizing was reserved for the men.
The Apostolic Constitutions, which is a reworking of the Didascalia Apostolorum, includes a prayer for the ordination of deaconesses, which closely parallels the prayer for the ordination of a deacon:
Concerning a deaconess, I Bartholomew make this constitution: O bishop thou shalt lay thy hands upon her in the presence of the presbytery and of the deacons and deaconesses, and shalt say:
O Eternal God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of man and of woman, who didst replenish with the Spirit Miriam, and Deborah, and Anna, and Huldah: who didst no disdain that Thy only begotten Son should be born of a woman; who also in the tabernacle of the testimony and in the temple, didst ordain women to be keepers of Thy holy gates, do Thou now also look down upon this Thy servant, who is to be ordained to the office of a deaconess, and grant her Thy Holy Spirit, and cleanse her filthiness of flesh and spirit, that she may worthily discharge the work which is committed to her to Thy glory, and the praise of Thy Christ, with whom glory and adoration be to Thee and the Holy Spirit for even. Amen.
The Apostolic Constitutions also acknowledged a few small shifts in the role of the deaconess. Like a deacon, a deaconess could be a messenger of the bishop, so they were to be ready to travel about and serve. However, it is once again clear they are not allowed to baptize or teach in church.
The Didascalia Apostolorum also addresses the role of widows in the church. As in other places, the widows were to be taken care of by the church along with the poor, sick, orphaned and strangers. However, there were also some widows who were appointed and formed an order of widows. In order to be appointed a widow had to meet certain requirements. They could not be under fifty years old, they should be without anger, be meek, quiet, gentle, they should not be quarrelsome, or gossips. They should be obedient to their bishops, priests, and deacons. Their task was to pray for the Church:
But a widow who wishes to please God sits at home and meditates upon the Lord day and night, and without ceasing at all times offers intercession and prays with purity before the Lord. And she receives whatever she asks, because her whole mind is set upon this.
The widow’s role was more defined by the Didascalia Apostolorum, but it was not a role of leadership.
Entering into the fourth century in the Western Church, widows continue to have an important role that is continuing to develop. Jerome writes letters to these great Roman women, who were mostly widows to teach them about widowhood, how they should act, how they should model widowhood to the younger women. Often Roman ladies would start communities of women in their own houses. Registered widows were to be older. There was a fear that young widows would break their vow of chastity and enrage Christ, their Spouse. In addition widows should read both the Bible and the writings of pious men daily, make friends of the poor and needy, and live simply.
While widows had their place in the Western Church in the fourth century, it is extremely clear that West did not allow the role of deaconess to flourish as it was in the Eastern Church. Ambrosiaster’s commentary on 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-14 stresses a woman’s role in church. She should remain silent, she should remain veiled, and above all remain submissive to men. She was not permitted to teach or have authority over men. Their role in church was to keep quiet, pray, and listen. For Ambrosiaster 1 Timothy 3:11 refers to women in general. There cannot be a deaconess. He goes on to argue against Eastern Church’s practice of ordaining deaconesses citing that the Apostles only chose men as their deacons, when there were holy women at that time.
In the Eastern Church in the fourth century, there is a proliferation of documents regarding the status of widows and deaconesses in the church. The Ecclesiastical Canons of the Apostles defined the role of widows in the church:
Cephas said: Three widows shall be appointed two who persevere in prayer, because of all of those who are in temptations and to receive revelations and instructions concerning what is required; and one who, abiding with those who are tried by sickness, is of good service, watchful, informing the presbyters of what is necessary: not a lover of filthy lucre, avoiding much wine in order to be able to watch in the night service of those who are sick, and in case anybody required from her other good works; for these things too are the first treasures of the Lord.
Documents such as The Apostolic Constitutions recognize that “many educated women had joined the Christian faith an contributed richly, both by word and example, to the evangelization of those around them.” However they were still not permitted to teach in the Church.
The late fourth century in the Eastern Church was the golden age of the deaconess, perhaps represented by John Chrysostom’s deaconess, Olympia. To proclaim the merits of the deaconess, John wrote commentaries on the women praised by Paul including Phoebe, Priscilla and Mary. Phoebe, Chrysostom notes, Paul calls sister and acknowledges her rank as a deaconess. He notes that Paul acknowledges she instructed Apollos in the way of the Lord. He also points out that Priscilla is listed before her husband, Aquila, perhaps because she was more faithful. And Mary, he notes has worked beside Paul, teaching and performing other ministries. Deaconess Olympia, after an unhappy first marriage, determined she was not going to be entangled in married life. She devoted her time and wealth to the service of the Church, ministering to the necessities of the sick and the poor, supporting the work of the Church in Asia Minor, Greece, and Syria with donations and land. She lived a very ascetical life, renouncing many luxuries, remaining abstinent, and severely restricting her food and sleep.