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THE JEWISH RELEGATION OF WOMEN: A CHRISTIAN OR A NON-CHRISTIAN ATTITUDE 1.

0 INTRODUCTION

The case of gender difference does not just limit itself to the discourse of cul ture. It has also been seen to be present in certain religions. That is why the title of this write-up seems to be asking whether the relegation of women which is seen in Jewish culture can be seen in the Christian Religion. Firstly, bearin g in mind that the topic has already taken a stand that such a practice is found in the Jewish culture, an exposition is made about our understanding of the rol e of women. So as to support the stand of the topic, the Bible remains our chief source, although without neglecting other various important literary witnesses. In this presentation, an effort is strongly made to attempt a clarification of some lingering questions such as: what is the interplay between culture (Jewish) and religion (Christian)? To what extent did the Jewish culture affect the Chri stian Religion? How has Christianity seen the place of womanhood? What effort ha s she made to correct this practice of relegation found in the Jewish culture? T hese and some other similar questions serve as the propelling intent towards the mobility of this paper. 2.0 THE ROLE OF WOMEN To speak of a role is to speak of certain duties and obligations which are speci fic to one. That is why we can say that a doctor has the function of a doctor an d the scientist has his own function. So also does the man as well as the woman. It has been a common historical belief that the Jewish culture, and in fact, no t only her but various other cultures practice gender inequality. This belief is not just limited to the past histories; it is still experienced in our world to day. The simple proof that such an aura still exists is the rise of scholars, me n and women alike who are out to defend either the woman folk or the man folk as against one being more superior than the other. Prominent in this, are the Femi nist group who are in dare need to reclaim the woman ego in the face of certain practices which they consider degrading to them. They want to prove to the world that what a man can do a woman can also do, even better than the man. In these cultures that used to practice or practice or are in potency of practicing gende r inequality, or more precisely, the relegation of women are found an inflow of such influences in the religious practices of such a culture. For instance, ther e may be some places a woman may not be allowed to enter as much as it concerns worship; there are certain functions that are reserved only for the woman during religious worship and many other instances one can think of. This practice has so permeated many religions that even such a religion may ensh rine it as part of their articles of faith. This is because religions grow in a culture. Every religion has a culture from which it sprouted. Thus, this cultur e clearly affects and influences such a religion. Some people would argue that a peoples culture rises alongside her religion. But whichever way, the point remai ns that there is always that crossbreeding of religion and culture in the sense that both influences themselves. Now, for the Jews, the issue of right has nothi ng to do with roles. Everyone may have different roles but the same and equal r ight. The Jewish notion of right is absolute and grounded in the sanctity of the individual. The distinction the Jews have thought between right and roles may h ave engendered the confusion that exists when one considers how the women are tr eated in Judaism. How can the right of a human not be found in the role he is pe rforming? My role as a man is undoubtedly connected with the right I claim as a man. Thus, whether role or right, it is the person who acts and reacts. The prob lem here is that the role of the women in Jewish culture has facilitated their r elegation that it becomes almost difficult to discern their place without subscr iption to relegation. 3.0 THE JEWISH RELEGATION OF WOMEN: AN OVERVIEW Whichever way one looks at it, the culture and the religion of the Jews favors e ither theoretically or practically gender inequality. It is this gender inequali

ty that creates the aura of the denigration of women in the Jewish cultural, pol itical, social and religion settings. Judaism has believed, and continues to main tain, that within its religious life, men and women have distinct and differenti ated roles. The Jews are seen in many literary testimonies as a people whose cul ture clearly gives way for the relegation of women. In fact in their laws, they generally portray the woman as not as important as the men. Inside the pages of the Bible are also find such testimonies and laws that place the woman after the man. In fact, it is in the bible that one can be able to find in an understanda ble and credible way the Jewish and the Christian culture in dialogue. Thus, as has already been said, for this write-up, the Bible forms our main source. Some writers have seen it that although one of the essential characteristics of Israe lite law is that there are no legally defined social classes among free Israelit esthe laws present a picture of women as socially inferior to men Pertaining to t he area of family life, a woman is expected strongly to be loyal to her father, and then when married should be subordinate to her husband. Concerning the matte rs of economics, women are not easily permitted to hold property, though they co uld inherit it if there are no male heirs. This right of inheritance is chiefly seen in various biblical passages as a special decree in answering the needs of the woman. For example the scriptures presents to us how this law was made on ac count of the daughters of Zelophehad who requested that they be allowed to inher it their fathers property. God answered through Moses that he should see to it th at their fathers heritage be passed on to them. Thus, He gave this law -Then spea k to the Israelites and say, if a man dies without sons, his heritage will pass t o his daughter-(cf. Nm 27:1-11). But this was modified to require daughters who inherited their fathers property to marry into a clan of her own paternal tribe, s o that the Israelites may each preserve the heritage of his father (Nm 36: 8). Th e implications of all these passages is that the laws were made because of the r isen cases of the time. That means that before then, nothing like the property o wnership of a woman exists. Mircea continually indicated that the inferior economic situation of women is al so shown by the fact that when a person took a vow to dedicate the members of hi household, probably to the service of God in the temple or to donate their mone tary worth, there is differentiation in values. A man between twenty and sixty years of age is valued at fifty silver shekels-th e sanctuary shekel; a woman will be valued at thirty shekels; between five and t wenty years, a boy will be valued at twenty shekels, a girl at ten shekels; betw een one month and five years, a boy will be valued at five silver shekels, a gir l at three silver shekels; at sixty years and over, a man will be valued at fift een shekels and a woman at ten shekels. (Lev. 27: 3-7) It is undoubtedly clear also that women had no equal right of disposition of fam ily property. This is connected with the vow a woman may make concerning either herself or her familys property, for the head of the family could annul the vows under his authority if he did not do so the day he heard them (Nm 30: 5-8). In t he lay down of rules, women are also instructed to remain isolated during menstr uation (Lev. 15: 19-24). The impurity of menstruation was contagious. A man woul d become impure by having sexual relations with a menstruating woman for seven d ays. He would become impure by touching her, sitting on a seat on which she sat or eating the food that she had cooked. This was clearly seen to the denigration of women. It even became a metaphor and a reference example for contamination ( Eze 36:17, Lam. 1:9). The woman is also instructed to remain isolated some days after childbirth and is declared unclean (Lev. 12: 1-8). In these verses are fur ther seen the denigration of the woman. The period of the impurity of the woman may increase if she has given birth to a baby girl. Nevertheless, a woman who to uched a mans genitals while protecting her husband in a fight could have her hand s cut off (Dt 25: 11-12). The woman may not be allowed to defend her case in fro nt of elders who accuses her against a guilt. The case of Susanna in the book of Daniel chapter 13 is a confirmation to this. Even in the New testament we notic e in the episode of the miracle of the loaves the relegation of the woman in Jew

ish culture (Mk 6: 30). This narrative exposes that the women were not always co unted in public gatherings, 4.0 THE CHRISTIAN ATTITUDE It is true as we have already established that the Christian culture and Religio n grew out of the Jewish Culture and Judaism as a religion. Yet, the Christian c ulture differed in certain principles from the Jewish culture. An effort is bein g made to prove the case in focus as one of those practices that Christ and his followers criticized and refused to be part of. In the selection of practices t o be appropriated into the Christian lifestyle, it seems that the relegation of women remains one out of the many practices the Christians preached against and worked assiduously through the lives to contradict the practice in vogue. In ord er to discuss in a more appreciable manner the Christian attitude towards such a practice, we need to take our satellite of investigation first of all to Christ who is the founder of the church. It is true the founder that we can assess the practices of his followers who carried on after he must have died, resurrected and gone back to heaven to his eternal Father. 4.1 The example of Christ In the first instance, Christ made his mission clear to the Jewish community tha t he has not come to abolish the law and the prophet but to fulfill them. From t he ipsisima verba of Christ, he clarifies: do not imagine that I have come to abo lish the law and the prophets. I have not come to abolish but to complete them (M tt. 5:17). This implies that he has come to change certain practices which may n ot be according to the will of the father who sent him. When on an occasion the Pharisees came to Jesus so as to probe him (with the question of why his discipl es break away from the tradition of the elders) concerning his disregard in cert ain cultural/traditional practices, Christs answer depicted that he has come not to follow in their godless practices, but to change them for a better lifestyle( cf. Mtt. 15: 1-9). In this episode, they, if allowed may have elongated their li st of questions to -why do you not show signs that the man is ever superior to e very woman? But the son of God in his answer fearlessly implied through his answ er that his ways are not their ways. For the Christians following the teachings of their great founder, in worship and in matters of the kingdom of God, there i s no gender inequality. This is exemplified in the answer Jesus presented when h e was asked about the greatest in the kingdom of God (Mtt. 18:1-4). His answer d emonstrated no sign of favoritism because of ones gender. More so, it suffices to say that all the actions, reactions and interactions of Christ on earth exposed the activities of Christ of being different from the cul ture he grew in. In the episode of the woman caught in the act of adultery, a no rmal Jew would have shouted at the report of the Pharisees and scribes and would immediately give his consent for the woman to be stoned to death. No one would even want to mention the man who was with the woman as if it was only the woman who was bound by the law not to do such. The point here is that Christ gave an e xtraordinary response to the case and even never condemned the woman but advised her not to sin again (Jn 8:3-11). This signifies a different message which He, the Christ has come to communicate. Remember the case of the woman who anointed the feet of Jesus at the house of the Pharisee who invited Christ for a meal. Pe ople who witnessed the episode were indignant with the woman; yet Christ made th em to understand that the woman should be given the freedom to do what her mind tells her and not to always intimidate the woman who has done her own part (Lk 7 ; 36-50). Christ through this teaching expressed and emphasized the belongingnes s of the woman in every culture. As already hinted, not just did the life of Christ present a clear contradiction to the Jewish practice, he showed it through the miracles that he performed whi ch never implicitly communicated any message of the denigration or of the woman folk. Examples of some of these miracles may include: the cure of Peters mother i n-law(Mtt. 8:14, Mk 1: 30, Lk 4:38-39), the cure of the woman with the sickness of haermorrhage (Mtt. 9:18, Mk. 8:21, Lk 8:40-56), the cure of the daughter of t he Canaanite woman(Mtt. 15:21-28)etc. Christ in his dealings with people did not

distance himself from the woman, and even a woman from another area as in the c ase of the Samaritan woman (Jn 4:1-26). in His teachings, he was quite objective and did not boils any particular promise down to only the man or the woman. The beatitude (Mtt. 5: 1-12)expresses this character of universality. He never allo wed the woman to feel as if they were not allowed to follow him just as the apos tles followed him (Lk 8:2). Even when Christ admonished the Jews concerning the question of divorce, his argument which tried to correct the old impression of t he freedom of every man to divorce the wife at will communicates to us that he h as made marriage an institution of equality(cf. Mtt. 5: 31-32, Lk 6: 20-23). See ing that this message of equality is carried on by his apostles even after his d eath, Christ instructs them and warns them against those men who devour the prope rty of widows(Mk 12:40). 4.2 The Churchs imitation of Christ Christ having accomplished his Fathers purpose on earth, ascended back to heaven and then left the message of the kingdom in the hands of the apostles. It is wor thy of note and really plausible that all these teachings were not in any way ne glected by the apostles of Christ after Christ ascended into heaven. That is why people looking at how they performed just like Christ -the people of Antiochcannot but ascribe the name Christians to the earliest followers of Christ(Acts 11:26). We are close to certainty that the disciples held everyone in the commun ity of believers as equal because of the manner the first problem of the early c hurch was handled without neglecting anybody. The complaint made against the par tiality experienced by the Hellenist widows during the daily distribution of foo d was addressed with an immediate alacrity to buttress the Christian attitude a nd point that no one ought to be neglected(Acts 6: 1-6). There are also various episodes in the epistles of the new testament concerning this very attitude of t reating everybody as free and equal citizens in the resurrected lord. Evident he re is the letter of St. Paul to the Galatians 3:27-28 where we are been presente d that all of us through faith and our baptism has become the children of God. I n this passage, it is made clear that the distinctions about slave and freeman, Jew and Greek, and male and female have been all dismantled by our oneness in Ch rist. Furthermore, the Church has been faithful to this practice as evidenced in the w ritings of the successors (Popes) of St. Peter in history. They have heralded wo men upliftment. Men and women have continued to be themselves, within an equalit y that promotes union. Pope John XXIII in his Encyclical, Pacem in Terris, advo cates: Human beings have the right to choose freely the state of life which they prefer , and therefore the right to set up a family, with equal rights and duties for m an and woman, and also the right to follow a vocation to the priesthood or the r eligious life. In no. 19, he reiterates that; To these rights is certainly joined the right to demand working conditions in wh ich physical health is not endangered, morals are safeguarded, and young people s normal development is not impaired. Women have the right to working conditions in accordance with their requirements and their duties as wives and mothers. The Church furthermore emphasizes on the dignity and respect of the human person regardless of gender or age or status. It is not right to demand of a womanwhat a strong adult is capable of doing or would be willing to do. In consonance wi th the popes, John E. Stambaugh and David L. Balch while commenting on the commu nity life and non-segregational life of the early Christians elaborates: Women played as prominent role as men. Slaves and freed men and women shared equ ally with the free born within the group, at least in the early decades, there w as a conscious rejection of the status-conscious norms of society. In their views, the Christians abolished within a generation of Jesus death the c eremonial requirements of the Jewish law and developed new ones to replace them. Making reference to the letter of St. Paul to the Galatians 2:12-14, and in str essing the togetherness of Christians in table fellowship (the Lords Supper) in c

ontrast to other typical Jewish groups, our writers say that Christian practice d eveloped, the boundaries of that table followership changed, and ceremonial rigo r was relaxed so that the whole Christian communitymale and female, shared equall y in the table of the Lord. 5.0 Conclusion In a practical sense and to relay to us the practical relevance of all these Chr istian testimonies concerning the intent of our exposition, the two American wri ters, Lupori Catherin and Richardson Mary Jo presented us with the fate of the C atholic women in the 20th century using the American society as the case study. For them, there has been notable events that really affected the American cathol ic women in an admirable way. They unravels that Catholic women were not just on ly workers in nearly all areas of labour force but many were also valid leaders. They organized union members and assisted the church in such matters as educati on and social welfare. Additionally, women earned degrees in theology and the Unite d states bishops in a pastoral letter acknowledged that the womens sphere was no longer confined to the family and urged women to vote. In essence, we have tried to present our case that the relegation of women which is normally noticed in t he Jewish culture remains far from being a Christian attitude. Christianity has ever been known to be champions in Human Rights and even, one cannot explore the history of the dignity of man without making reference to the Churchs contributi on. Nevertheless, it should be clear in our minds that there are differences bet ween an essence and a function. Essentially, on the one hand, the principle of e quality is enthroned above all as much our followership of Christ is concerned. On the other hand, The church, for functionality sake shares works to her member s so as to foster her unity -as many parts of the body make up the body and work for the good of the body(cf. 1 Cor. 1:10, 12 :12)- and for the glorification of God. Thus, let no person confuse both. The God who created all things in heaven and on earth(cf. Col 1;16, I Jn1:3) and made humanity men and women- in his imag e( Gen. 1 & 2) has a purpose for his creation, and thus ought to be respected by any culture religion and society. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

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