that women should lead domestic lives in subordination to men and nurturing children. New Testament literature, however, creates a different understanding of God’s purpose for humanity. Jesus is presented as no warrior, but as suffering a violent death without violent resistance, and God is said to have raised him from the dead. Those who identified him as the messiah were to follow his example in lives of unaggressive and unselfish love through God’s inspiration. In this new social ethos, women