Women

“Women” is Scripture’s ordinary word for adult female human beings, and it appears across narrative, law, poetry, and letter alike. A point of language first: in both Hebrew and Greek the common noun covers woman and wife without distinction (Hebrew ishshah, Greek gynē), so the same word names a person and a social role. The text’s foundational statement about the relation of woman and man is that a man leaves his father and his mother and joins with his wife, and they become one flesh (Genesis 2:24).

Scripture repeatedly places women at turning points of the story. Hannah’s prayer celebrates the God who raises up the poor out of the dust and lifts the needy from the dunghill, and who keeps the feet of his holy ones (1 Samuel 2:8–9). Luke describes Elizabeth and Zechariah together as righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord (Luke 1:6), and the promise that nothing spoken by God is impossible is spoken to a woman (Luke 1:37). In the resurrection accounts it is a woman, Mary Magdalene, whom the risen Jesus sends to his brothers with the message, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17).

Women also carry theological weight as figures and as addressees. The woman of Genesis is promised hostility between her offspring and the serpent’s, her offspring bruising the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). Paul appeals to Eve as a warning — he fears the Corinthians’ minds might be corrupted as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness (2 Corinthians 11:3) — and 1 Peter commends to wives the hidden person of the heart, the incorruptible adornment of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God’s sight (1 Peter 3:4).

Christian traditions read this material differently. Egalitarian readings, appealing to the “one flesh” union of Genesis 2:24 and to the declaration that in Christ there is neither male nor female (Galatians 3:28), hold that women and men share fully in ministry and authority. Complementarian readings, stressing the created order and texts such as 1 Peter 3:4, hold that Scripture assigns distinct roles within marriage and the church. Catholic and Orthodox teaching additionally honors Mary as the woman whose offspring is promised in Genesis 3:15 and as the model of faith under the words spoken to her in Luke 1. These are genuine confessional disagreements, not matters on which Scripture’s wording alone settles the question.

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.