Jesus Breaking down Taboos about Women
The cure of Peter’s mother-in-law is recounted in Matt 8:14-15; Mark 1:29-31 and Luke 4:38-39. After her cure she rose and served. If it is true that in Palestine as elsewhere in the world a woman should not serve men at table, then Jesus is freeing a woman from customs that hindered her.
Jesus did the same by allowing Martha to serve Him (Luke 10:38-42). Another interesting fact about that incident is that Mary sat at Jesus’ feet (Luke 10:39). This was the position of a disciple/student. It must surely have been remarkable for Jesus to allow this, considering the fact that women were not supposed to be taught.
Jesus did the same by allowing Martha to serve Him (Luke 10:38-42). Another interesting fact about that incident is that Mary sat at Jesus’ feet (Luke 10:39). This was the position of a disciple/student. It must surely have been remarkable for Jesus to allow this, considering the fact that women were not supposed to be taught.
Allowing women to accompany Him (Luke 8:1-3) was breaking down barriers on Jesus’ part because it would have been scandalous for women to leave home and travel with a rabbi.
More Breaking of Taboos about Women
I want to deal with another three passages in which Jesus overturns taboos about women, but to understand them, we need to know what is meant by being ritually unclean. The book of Leviticus contains various rules about clean/unclean. The concepts of clean and unclean for the Jews may be seen under four categories which you can read in the book of Leviticus in the OT.
• Food: Clean animals are those with a cloven hoof which chew the cud, otherwise they are unclean. Further details are in Lev 11. If you ate unclean food you became unclean.
• Leprosy and skin diseases made one unclean. The purity laws are in Lev 13-14.
• Contact with a corpse made one unclean. Details in Num 19:11-19.
• Sexual functions also made a person unclean, man or woman (Lev 15). For the purity laws concerning childbirth see Lev 12.
The length of the impurity varied according to the cause. The details are given in Leviticus. One remains unclean until one undergoes purification. As seen in Leviticus, most purification can be achieved by bathing. The point was that if unclean you were forbidden from taking part in worship, so therefore called ritually unclean. The concept of clean is somehow connected with the holy, and uncleanness is somehow connected with the profane.
Now let’s read some passages in Luke. Jesus healed the woman who had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years (Luke 13:10-17). Not only did He do it on the Sabbath when work was forbidden, but He also called her a “daughter of Abraham” (13:16). Elsewhere in the NT, people are called son of Abraham or children of Abraham, but nowhere else, is a woman called a daughter of Abraham. Jesus is making it clear that she is as good a participant in God’s covenant as a male. It should be noted that being said to be bound by Satan would have made her ritually unclean. The crippled woman can stand for all whose faith never wavers despite misfortune which befell them; although deformed she spent her Sabbaths in the synagogue.
The story of the raising of the little girl to life forms a sandwich around the story of the healing of the woman with the hemorrhage for twelve years (Luke 8:40-56; Matt 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-43). According to Jewish law anyone who touched a corpse would be ritually unclean but nevertheless Jesus took the little girl by the hand. Concerning the hemorrhaging woman, Jesus would have been ritually unclean after being touched by her. But Jesus doesn’t observe the law and does not undergo purification.
Jesus raised the son of the widow from Naim in 7:11-17. Widows were especially vulnerable. A widow did not inherit her husband’s estate; it passed to a son, or if there were no children it went to the nearest male relative. Thus a widow with no children would be penniless. Jesus violated custom by speaking to the woman on the street and then broke ritual purity by touching the bier which carried the corpse.
More Breaking of Taboos about Women
I want to deal with another three passages in which Jesus overturns taboos about women, but to understand them, we need to know what is meant by being ritually unclean. The book of Leviticus contains various rules about clean/unclean. The concepts of clean and unclean for the Jews may be seen under four categories which you can read in the book of Leviticus in the OT.
• Food: Clean animals are those with a cloven hoof which chew the cud, otherwise they are unclean. Further details are in Lev 11. If you ate unclean food you became unclean.
• Leprosy and skin diseases made one unclean. The purity laws are in Lev 13-14.
• Contact with a corpse made one unclean. Details in Num 19:11-19.
• Sexual functions also made a person unclean, man or woman (Lev 15). For the purity laws concerning childbirth see Lev 12.
The length of the impurity varied according to the cause. The details are given in Leviticus. One remains unclean until one undergoes purification. As seen in Leviticus, most purification can be achieved by bathing. The point was that if unclean you were forbidden from taking part in worship, so therefore called ritually unclean. The concept of clean is somehow connected with the holy, and uncleanness is somehow connected with the profane.
Now let’s read some passages in Luke. Jesus healed the woman who had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years (Luke 13:10-17). Not only did He do it on the Sabbath when work was forbidden, but He also called her a “daughter of Abraham” (13:16). Elsewhere in the NT, people are called son of Abraham or children of Abraham, but nowhere else, is a woman called a daughter of Abraham. Jesus is making it clear that she is as good a participant in God’s covenant as a male. It should be noted that being said to be bound by Satan would have made her ritually unclean. The crippled woman can stand for all whose faith never wavers despite misfortune which befell them; although deformed she spent her Sabbaths in the synagogue.
The story of the raising of the little girl to life forms a sandwich around the story of the healing of the woman with the hemorrhage for twelve years (Luke 8:40-56; Matt 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-43). According to Jewish law anyone who touched a corpse would be ritually unclean but nevertheless Jesus took the little girl by the hand. Concerning the hemorrhaging woman, Jesus would have been ritually unclean after being touched by her. But Jesus doesn’t observe the law and does not undergo purification.
Jesus raised the son of the widow from Naim in 7:11-17. Widows were especially vulnerable. A widow did not inherit her husband’s estate; it passed to a son, or if there were no children it went to the nearest male relative. Thus a widow with no children would be penniless. Jesus violated custom by speaking to the woman on the street and then broke ritual purity by touching the bier which carried the corpse.
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