The great respect in which Jesus held the posi- tion of woman, the high dignity He attached to it, is shown not only by His actions and words, but by the new sanctity which He gave to marriage. The words, ' The twain shall become one flesh ' (Mt 195 =Mk 10^), placed the wife at once on a level with the husband, and made the divorces that were so common impossible. Directly this teach- ing was received, it was impossible that woman should be deprived of her right as wife on the flimsiest excuse, or without any excuse at all. The revolution such a declaration made is realized only when we hear the comment of the spiritu- ally minded disciples, ' If the case of the man is so with his wife, it is not expedient to marry ' (Mt 19^^). That woman had a position in life of equal importance with that of rnan is made plain by the whole story of~the Gospels : Anna, Elisalietli^ the "Virgin Mary, Martha^ Mary, and Mary Magda- lene rivalling in their own spheres St. Peter, St. John, St. James, St. Andrew. Without the part played by woman, that story would have been altogether incomplete.
One other suggestion as to the influence of woman which St. Matthew gives us is as interest- ing as it is unexpected. The dream of Pilate's wife is an evidence of the power that Christ's life and teaching exercised beyond the narrow circle of Jewish thought. Pilate, governor though he is, neither hears nor sees anything, and even when face to face with Christ is only puzzled not con- vinced. His wife, on the other hand, is deeply interested in all that she hears. Her mind is full of the doings of the Prophet of Nazareth. Her sleep is disturbed. She wakes frightened, and so convinced of the greatness of the issue her husband is trying, that she dares to interfere, though with- out success (Mt 27^®). Not too much can be made of this ; but it is an indication, which the Gospel narrative emphasizes, fha.f, wnrppn arp mnri^. sus- ceptible to re1ip^r>ng i"ipressions than men, and are ready to make larger sacriflcej. As women ministered at~the Birth, the Presentation in the Temple, and during those early years when His mother was His chief teacher, so they ministered at the Entombment, when they anointed His body ; at the Resurrection, when they carried the news to the frightened disciples ; and at the Ascension, when they with tlie Apostles and the rest of His disciples received His blessing. Cf. next article.
Literature. — Edersheim, LT ; Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marnis Aurelius ; PRES, art. ' Familie und Ehe ' ; Brace, Qesta Christi; Church, Pascal, and other Serm. 264; Moore, God is Love, 184 ; Lightfoot, Serm. on Special Occasions, 220 ; Gunsaulus, Paths to the City of God, 232.
G. H. S. Walpole.
WOMANLINESS.— Christianity is distinguished for the honour it assigns, the liberty it allows to woman. ' Christianity raises woman from the slavish position which she held, both in Judaism and in heathendom, to her true moral dignity and im- portance, makes her an heir of the same salvation with man, and opens to her a field for the noblest and loveliest virtue' (Schsiffs Apostolic Christianity, p. 441 f.). The duties of husbands are, according to St. Peter (1 P 3''), to be regulated by a recogni- tion of the principle that their wives are 'also joint heirs of the grace of life.' In the Christian society ' the conventional distinctions of religious caste or of social rank, even the natural distinction of sex, are banished,' for ' there can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female ; for ye are all one man in Christ Jesus' (Gal 3^^). Lightfoot m loco quotes a saying of Jesus from the Apocryj^hal Gospel of the Egyptians, which may be founded on this verse — 'Being asked by Salome when His kingdom should come, He is reported to have answered, "When the two shall be one, and the male with the female, neither male nor female."' This mystical saying has its fulfllment in the character of Jesus. For the characteristic of Jesus Christ, and so the regulative principle of Christian morality, is completeness, symmetry, harmony, balance. Other men are known and loved for this or that excellence ; but of Jesus Christ, with resjject. to His personal perfection, we can say what was said of Shakspeare with regard to his artistic pre-eminence, ' His speciality is everything. ' Manhood in its wholeness and fulness is found in Him, alike wide in its range and lofty in its reach. Hence Jesus Christ is not a pattern merely for one sex, or one age, or one time, or one temperament, or one class. In this sense, too, there is in Him neither male nor female, bond nor free, Jew nor Greek, learned nor unlearned.
The sphere of woman is the home, not the world. Man lives in effort and conflict. ' But woman is at home in the region of feeling and affection, and she finds her highest vocation in the cultiva- tion of those loves and sympathies that make home the dearest spot on earth.' Man, being thus active and even combative, develops ' pertinacity and self-assertion ; whereas the receptive nature of woman manifests itself rather in patient endur- ance and tender devotion to the service of loved ones. Her emotions dominate her intellect ; her judgment to a certain extent is biassed by her feelings. On the other hand, where moral as well as intellectual considerations come into view, woman's judgment is likely to be as just as that of man, whose decisions are frequently based on grounds of reason alone ' (Bruce, The Formation of Christian Character, p. 57 f.). May we find any such signs of womanliness in the character or teaching of Jesus?