ABSTRACT
When we set Christianity beside Greco-Roman religion and Judaism, it does seem distinct in its explicit attempts to define the nature of women in relation to men. What we discover as implicit in the other traditions is clearly articulated by Christian writers from the first century onwards. Earlier in our discussion of the role of women within the early Christian communities, we noted a diversity of practice that reflected alternative notions of organization and structure.333 It is this diversity that prompts Christianity’s explicit definition of gender, particularly in relation to the nature and role of women. Because there is diversity in terms of women’s self-understanding and experience, when Christianity does consciously realize the need to conform to, rather than to challenge, society, it is compelled to argue for a particular understanding of gender. This early development formed the basis for subsequent Christian beliefs about the essential nature of women and men, and the prescriptions regarding the roles each has to fulfil within church and society. The charismatic communities of the first half-century provide the antithesis to the Christian concept of womanhood that emerged by the end of the century.
