Clark Theological College

Aolijen; Mokokchung, Nagaland

Paper Presentation

Subject: Methodological and Critical Issues in New Testament Studies

Topic: The place of women in the Roman World. Political institutions and Christianity
Presenter: Eyingthung Tsanglao
Facilitator: Dr. Tali Ao.

Introduction
In the ancient Roman world, which considered of many ethnic communities, but all
communities practice patriarchal culture. Where only male is considered citizens of the state
whereas women belong only to the homes and have no place of standing in the society. Thus,
in this paper will be deal with the situation of the life of women consisting of Roman
Women, Jewish, Greek women in the ancient Roman World.

1.Palce of Women in the Roman World

Women in the early Roman empire in practice were more prominent than some ancient texts
would indicate. Wealth and social position made some women patrons and gave them
considerable power and influence apart from the social theory of the time. 1 The Roman
woman enjoyed far greater freedom than her Greek sisters and might engage in a broader
range of activities. They also accorded deep respect and enjoyed a higher position in society.
Their conduct with whom she influenced was characterized by loyalty, integrity and nobility.
But many families droved to cities for economic, military and political pressure which they
have to leave behind their farms. So, women have to find themselves living in three-story
tenements/apartment, deprived/bereft of the many responsibilities and duties that had
previously occupied their time, which means they have to find a new way in order to put
meaning into their lives. Thus, roman women were bound throughout their life to a male
protector or tutor/guide, with some notable exceptions, a women exchange their
tutelage/tutor/guidance from one man to another, that is from father to husband at marriage
and to a son or guardian in the event of her husband’s death.2

2. Domestic Life of a Women in Ancient Roman World

1
Everett Ferguson, Background of Early Christianity, Second Edition (Michigan: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), 71.
2
Catherine C. Kroeger, “Roman Women,” Dictionary of New Testament Background, ed. Craig A.
Evans and Stanley E. Porter (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 2000), 1277. (1276-1280)

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2.1. Roman Women
Comparing to other women in the ancient Roman world, a Roman woman enjoyed far greater
freedom and engaged more in broader range of activities. Her condition is better and enjoyed
more respect in the society. The traditional roman matron installed on the family farm was
industrious, stern and chaste. But military, economic and political pressures drove many
families off the farms and into the larger cities. Here, the woman found themselves living in
three-story tenements, bereft/deprived of many responsibilities and duties that has previously
occupied their time. Slaves were cheap and took even the breastfeeding and rearing of the
children. Women were forced to look for new ways to occupy their time and to put meaning
into their lives. Their conduct and that of those whom the woman influenced was
characterized by loyalty, integrity and nobility.3 Thus, the Roman women participate in many
aspects of the society; Roman women were bound throughout their lives to a male protector
or tutor.

2.2. Palestinian and Diaspora Women

A Palestinian house consists of father, mother, children and slaves. The children are tented by
women in their infancy. Women have the responsibilities of schooling their children at home
where law and purity issues are taught. These lay heavy upon women, for the law threatened
with death those who transgressed its condemnation.4
Though women were usually 9bound to the duties of home and farm, a surprising degree of
liberty is attested in Biblical accounts of women who wandering with Jesus (Lk. 8: 1-3).
Among Jewish women not living in Palestine there seems to have been considerable parallels
in practice. Philo of Alexandria, and early contemporary of Jesus and the apostle Paul,
decreed those unmarried women should go only to the door of the women’s quarters whereas
married women might procced as far as the front door or even pass through the streets in a
litter to pray in the synagogue at an hour when few others would be around. In other diaspora
circumstances Jewish women appear to have moved about quite freely.5

2.3. Greek Women

The condition of Greek women tended to be more secret, though lower-class women were
obliged to leave their homes to draw water and to trade in the marketplace. The Greek
women were considered to have less virtue than men. they are not trusted with responsible
3
Kroeger, “Roman Women,” Dictionary of New Testament Background., 1277.
4
Rose Kraemer, “Jewish Women in Greco-Roman Palestine: An Inquiry into image and Status,”
Journal of the American Oriental Society. 4/118 (October 1998), 570.
5
Kroeger, “Roman Women,” Dictionary of New Testament Background., 1276.

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choices, and compelled to be confine within homes. While certain philosophers propounded a
far more enlightened view of women, restrictive customs were the norms in many
households.6 Thus, women in the ancient Rome are viewed as possessions of men. They may
face divorce for any sort of reason that their husband desired, though if the reason was other
than adultery. Greek women were possession to the society as well as, they had limited
freedom and could not own property as they were not considered as citizens.7

3. Occupations
Far more is known about the occupations of Greek women. They were shepherdesses,
grocers, wool workers, laundresses, scribes, and hairdressers, sellers of olive oil, salt, and
honey and sesame seed. They sold garlands, perfume, dyes, shoes and textiles in the women’s
market. Within the households of the affluent they were wet nurses, governesses, nannies and
ladies’ maids. As entertainers they were flute girls, dancers, acrobats, jugglers, harpists and
singers. Those with more leisure learned how to read, sometimes at the time as their children.

A primary source of income for the Roman woman was the textile industry. Wool working
was considered an indication of virtue, even for the most aristocratic women. Some were
independent entrepreneurs. In the taverns they were innkeepers, barmaids and waitresses. 8

4. Religious Expression
Traditional Greek religion had frequently denied woman legitimate participation in blood
sacrifices, consulting oracles, entrance to particular temples and sometimes even in offering
prayers. Aristocratic Roman women supported the worship of the traditional gods of the
Roman Empire. The vestal virgins, dedicated to the goddess of hearth and home, were
considered responsible for maintaining the welfare of Rome and held enormous prestige and
power. Women assumed positions of priesthood in the worship of the Roman emperors.
Several were known as the high priestesses of Asia. Often these appointments had political
implications, and they were reserved for women of influential families. Ordinary women
resorted to spells, curses and magic in their efforts to contact the divine.9

5. Social Freedom of Women

6
Kroeger, “Roman Women,” Dictionary of New Testament Background., 1276-1277.
7
“The Role of Greek and Roman Women,” https://www.the-role-of-greek-and-roman-women/html.
Accessed on 20-3-2022.
8
Kroeger, “Women in Greco-Roman World and Judaism,” Dictionary of New Testament Background,
1278-1279.
9
Kroeger, “Religious Expression,” Dictionary of New Testament Background., 1279.

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Perceptions of degrees of social freedom, and even what constitutes such freedom, are
difficult to judge, since they are always relative to what the judger knows. The social freedom
of women varied in the societies, and what we know of legal restrictions and protections must
be compared whenever possible to what the non-legal sources indicate is really happening.
High status women appear in epigraphically commemorations in large numbers as
benefactors, patrons of cities, temples, and social clubs, and as priestesses of numerous cults,
in both Greek and Roman contexts. Women painters, philosophers, and even barristers are
known as lower status women probably had greater freedom of movement, since the welfare
of their families depended on their ability to share in the family work. The relative seclusion
of women was an upper-class ideal, accompanied in elite and affluent circles by less labour
and a more pampered existence. Although formally excluded from political decision making,
the women of aristocratic ruling families were often in fact quite influential in the informal,
behind the scenes of political negotiation that represented the real power. They were not
invisible, but on the contrary, very visible, even as the language of public male discourse and
political structures tried not to acknowledge that visibility, but rather to render women
socially invisible.10

6. Women in the Christian congregations.

A number of the women among Jesus’ followers seem to have had some measure of social
and financial independence. They are depicted as traveling with his disciples and contributing
to his ministry expenses (Lk. 8:1-3). Despite their lack of presence among the apostles,
women played crucial roles in Jesus’ life and ministry from the beginning. Jesus’ mother
Mary is depicted as the first human to hear of Jesus’ coming and is commended by God for
her faith (Lk. 1:28, 30, 42, 48). Jesus regularly taught women (Jn. 4:10-26; 11:20-27) and
received their acts of kindness and financial support (Lk. 8:3; 10:38-42; 23:56). Joanna, the
wife of Chuza, the tetrarch Herod Antipas’s steward (Lk. 8:3), may have been the follower of
Jesus named Joanna (Lk. 24:10).11
Jesus apparently taught that both men and women can remain unmarried out of dedication to
God (Mt. 19:3-12). This teaching ran counter to most Jewish and pagan traditions, in which
marriage and procreation were obligations and (for women) the principal means of achieving
fulfilment. Many of his contemporaries would have considered some of Jesus’ views on
women radical, but he stopped short of calling for dramatic changes in existing gender
10
Carolyn Osiek and David L. Balch, Family in the New Testament World: Households and House
Churches (Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997), 58.
11
James S. Jeffers, The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era: Exploring the Background of
Early Christianity (Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press, 1999), 251.

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relationships. Therefore, According to Acts, the women disciples joined with the men in
prayer and fellowship following Jesus’ resurrection (Acts 1:14). They evidently helped to
elect Matthias (Acts 1:15-26). They reportedly received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and
spiritual power along with male believers at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-11, 17-18). Thus, women
were also among the first believers (Acts 5:14; 12:12; 16:14-15; 17:4, 34).12

Conclusion
Therefore, the condition of women in the ancient Roman world was miserable. As women
has no right of her own, but subjected to her husband, father and son in case of the demised
of her husband. They live under the tyranny of the male domination over every aspect of their
life. women were regarded as incapable of the level of intellectual ability achieved by men. It
allotted to women the duty of childbearing and child rearing. A general principle, however, is
that class and status override sex in determinations of social roles; That is, prominent,
wealthy, and high-status women had more social power (though not necessarily more
freedom as moderns would see it) than poorer and lower status women. Thus, lower-class
women would not have considered the necessity for their greater involvement as "freedom,"
since it meant heavier work. Women managed small businesses, sold and bought in the
marketplace, even fought as gladiators. There is no doubt from literary and epigraphically
evidence that women participated fully and publicly in Greco-Roman society, even as more
conservative male voices tried to pretend, they did not. It is not sufficient to ask about social
"class," a notoriously elusive concept, much less about vague terms like "upper class" and
"lower class," whose meaning is heavily determined by the specific expectations of a culture.

Bibliography

Balch, Carolyn Osiek and David L. Family in the New Testament World: Households and
House Churches. Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997.

Ferguson, Everett. Background of Early Christianity. Second Edition. Michigan: William B.

Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993.

Jeffers, James S. The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era: Exploring the
Background of Early Christianity. Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press, 1999.

Dictionary
12
Jeffers, The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era., 252.

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Kroeger, Catherine C. “Roman Women.” Dictionary of New Testament Background. Edited
by Craig A. Evans and Stanley E. Porter. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 2000. 1276-
1280.

Article
Kraemer, Rose. “Jewish Women in Greco-Roman Palestine: An Inquiry into image and
Status.” Journal of the American Oriental Society. 4/118 (October 1998).

Webliography

The Role of Greek and Roman Women,”

https://www.the-role-of-greek-and-roman-women/html. Accessed on 20-3-2022.