Love in the New Testament...

[angellous_evangellous]

Unlike Paul he was very happy to have them around ... he often used them as examples.
It things had gone as he intended Mary Magdalene would have been recognised as as disciple and Apostle.

This is too stark a contrast.

Women are very active in both the Gospels, the Pauline epistles, and the other NT writings. This does not mean, however, that the writers or early church had a higher view of women than the other.

None of them teach that women can love. Jesus calls a woman a dog, and the Gospels say that women saw the empty tomb first - but this highlights the drama of the belief of the men.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

So what do you think Yeshua thought about women?

I don't know.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

I think that we can contrast the lack of love in the NT with the Pythagorean writings that have women loving (agape) their children and husbands. I'm not sure if women love in the LXX - I've been meaning to look it up...

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Bump for recent interest

 

[Heartfelt]

I made a rather distressing discovery this afternoon. I looked up every instance in the New Testament for phileo and agape - the two words used for love - and in no case is the subject of these verbs a woman.

Indeed, Paul expresses precisely the opposite in Ephesians 5 when he tells husbands to love their wives and wives to fear their husbands.

There is one case of a phileo derivitive being used in Titus, which is a deutero-Pauline writing. If it were not there we would have no indication in the NT that women could love.

ESV Titus 2:4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,​

BNT Titus 2:4 i[na swfroni,zwsin ta.j ne,aj fila,ndrouj ei=nai( filote,knouj

EDIT: I forgot about this one, which I think is a very late addition to the text.

Luke 7:44-47 44 Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven- for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little."

Perhaps it all comes down to which interpretation of the Bible you are looking at since there are so many...there are many ways to love I see more love from women than men in the Bible...typically where we are told to fear it means to respect or hold in high regard...not so much in, "OMG he's gonna kill me for doing that", sense if you know what I am saying...Look at Ruth for instance, or other main women in the Bible..their actions say it all.