How (Not) to Read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-women, Anti-science, Pro-violence, Pro-slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture

by Dan Kimball

But these feelings about the roles of men and women weren’t limited to the Jewish culture during the time of Jesus. They were just as common in Greek and Roman culture. The Greek poets wrote how women are the source of evil in the world.5 Roman law placed a wife under the absolute control of her husband, who had ownership of her and all her possessions. He could divorce her if she went out in public without a veil. A husband had the power of life and death over his wife, just as he did over his children. With the Greeks, women were not allowed to speak in public.6 There were, of course, exceptions to this. But the exceptions seemed to be women who were born into a wealthy home or had achieved higher social status. Because of their wealth, they avoided some of the discrimination.