To turn from a consideration of the place of women in Judaism and in the Roman Empire of New Testament times to look at the attitude and behaviour of Jesus as presented in the gospels, is to be immediately aware of a startling contrast. Jesus’ approach to women is ‘without precedent in contemporary Judaism’.1 Jeremias, in considering the impact of the Kingdom of God in the life of the believer says of the place of women, ‘Nowhere in the social sphere does
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