Story from the bible 2 - Essay Example

the teachings of the Old Testament in which women were often considered to be the root of evil on earth and were therefore condemned to a life of inequality in eternal servitude to the men whom she’d wronged. Although this has long been accepted as the historic custom, there is little evidence in the Bible that Jesus felt this was an appropriate behavior. When one reads through the gospels carefully, one can find numerous instances in which women were considered to be inferior to men, but that Jesus broke the customs and laws concerning how they were to be treated.

Throughout the gospels, Jesus can be seen to act in direct opposition to the way in which men were expected to treat women as he deliberately moved against Old Testament law to embrace women as equal human beings engaged in the process of life. In his actions and words, Jesus can be seen to take a revolutionary approach toward women as he consistently treated women as real people of equal value to men. In the gospels alone, there is a lot of evidence that women were not considered equal to men.

The idea that they were considered marginal individuals is discussed in the Women’s Bible Commentary in a number of areas but Jesus recognized them anyway. In Mark 5: 25-34, for instance, a woman who has “had a discharge of blood for twelve years” without finding any successful treatment believes that if she can just touch Jesus’ clothes she will be healed of her illness. She is correct in her belief as she sneaks up behind him and the instant her hand touches his robe, her body is healed but she is doubly-marginal because she is a woman and because she is bleeding, but Jesus turns and speaks with her and blesses her anyway.

Another form of a double-marginal woman was a woman who was also a foreigner. There are at least two places where Jesus went directly against custom by speaking with these women directly. In John 4:7-5:30, he takes time to speak with a woman from Samaria. Unlike the woman