Subservient

• There are many references to the proper roles of the two sexes in both the Jewish scriptures (the Christian Old Testament) and in the New Testament. In both, women are expected to have a subservient role to men, but this is spelled out much more clearly in the New Testament, particularly in the teachings of the apostle Paul.
  
  

Equal

• In the Old Testament, there are numerous women of action who meet men on equal terms, outsmart them or rise to the many challenges of doing without men--no easy thing in the ancient world. The stories of Deborah, Ruth, Judith and Esther are four examples.
  
  

Controversy

• In modern times, there is continuing controversy over the roles of men and women as defined in Paul's letters to churches in the ancient Mediterranean world. Men were in charge: they made the decisions, ran their families and society, and ruled over their women. Women were to be submissive, reverent, quiet homemakers who knew their place. They were never to have authority over men or teach in church.
  
  

Enlightenment

• The idea of subservience held sway for much of Christian history. The Bible was understood to be literally the "Word of God" and therefore had to be obeyed without argument. That started to change with the Enlightenment and then the industrial and scientific revolutions. Biblical studies slowly developed as an academic discipline and close study of scripture undermined claims to its inerrancy.
  
  The long-accepted Bible roles of a man and a woman, with their ancient origins in the Adam and Eve stories in Genesis, increasingly came to be questioned. If the stories were metaphors or myths rather than historically true, women could seek equality with men without defying or denying God.
  
  

Feminism

• Feminist thinkers increasingly argued that men used scripture in a chauvinistic way to deny women their rightful place in humanity. An early, and still famous, challenge like this came from American feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her "Revising Committee" who in 1898 produced "The Woman's Bible." The Christian churches have slowly yielded ground but in the major denominations debates continue about the roles of men and women as presented in the Bible. These can be bitter and divisive, but show no sign of ending soon.