The Women Evangelicals
It was on that Sunday evening after Abner and John’s disciples arrived at Bethsaida that Jesus made the most daring announcement of his time on Earth. With no warning whatsoever Jesus told the apostles, “Tomorrow we will set apart ten women to minister for the kingdom.”
Earlier, when Jesus had everyone take two weeks rest after the second preaching tour, he had also asked David Zebedee to do two things: first, to ask David’s parents to come back to their home, and second, to send out messengers to all of the women who had helped at the large Bethsaida camp recruiting ten of them who were devoted to the gospel. These women had all listened in on the lessons taught to the new evangelists, but it never dawned on them or anyone else that Jesus would dare to send women out to teach the gospel and care for the sick. The ten women that Jesus selected were Agaman, a widow from Damascus; Milcha, one of Thomas’ cousins; Celta, a Roman centurion’s daughter; Ruth, Matthew Levi’s oldest daughter; Martha, Peter and Andrew’s older sister; Nasanta, daughter of Elman the Syrian physician; Rachel, who was Jesus’ brother Jude’s sister-in-law; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, one of Herod Antipas’ stewards; Susanna, the daughter of the former chazan of the Nazareth synagogue; and Elizabeth, the daughter of a wealthy Jew from Tiberias and Sepphoris. Later Jesus added two more women to the group: Mary Magdalene and Rebecca, the daughter of Joseph of Arimathea.
Jesus told the women to organize themselves, and he had Judas provide the money they needed to buy their supplies and pack animals. They elected Susanna as their chief and Joanna as their treasurer. From this time onward they furnished their own funds; never again did they ask Judas for support. In this era when women were confined to the women’s gallery and not allowed on the main floor of the synagogue, it was astonishing to see them authorized to teach the new gospel of the kingdom. The honor that Jesus gave these ten women was the emancipation proclamation that set all women free for all time; no more were men to look down on women as their spiritual inferiors.
Jesus’ decision shocked the twelve apostles. They had heard him say many times that, “in the kingdom of heaven there are neither rich nor poor, free nor bond, male nor female: all are equally the sons and daughters of God,” but they were stunned when he wanted to bring women on as religious teachers and permit them to travel with the group. The whole country side was stirred up by this action and Jesus’ enemies capitalized on it. But the women who believed in the gospel stood behind their sisters and voiced their approval of Jesus acknowledging women’s place in religion. For a short time later in the early days of the new Christian church, the apostles and the general population recognized women—called deaconesses—as teachers of the gospel. But as time went on the people fell back to their old ways. Even Paul, who agreed with women’s rights in theory, never practiced it.
Excerpt from Son of Man: Urantia, Chapter 29, The Third Preaching Tour
Son of Man: Urantia, is a restatement of the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the Urantia revelation and in accordance with its urging to do so for today’s generation.
Full episode here: The Third Preaching Tour
https://robertakezer.substack.com/p/chap-29-the-third-preaching-tour
Son of Man: Urantia, Books: (English and Spanish)
Son of Man: Urantia, PDF’s (English and Spanish)
https://son-of-man-urantia.sellfy.store
Godspeed, everyone.
Bob
Excerpt: The Women Evangelicals