{"id":64268,"date":"2025-05-01T07:00:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T11:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/?p=64268"},"modified":"2025-04-29T13:16:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T17:16:41","slug":"5-ways-women-participated-in-the-early-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/daily\/5-ways-women-participated-in-the-early-church\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Ways Women Participated in the Early Church"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Roman<\/a>

PORTRAIT OF A ROMAN LADY. This mosaic comes from Pompeii, Italy, and depicts a woman from the late first century B.C.E. or early first century C.E. Photo: Dominik Matus\/CC by SA-4.0.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

What was life like for women in the Christian Church<\/a> during the first century C.E.? When the books of the New Testament were being written, how did women contribute to and participate in the Church?<\/p>\n

In her article \u201cWomen in the Early Church<\/a>,\u201d published in the Summer 2020 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review<\/em>, Holly Beers<\/a> of Westmont College looks at some of the ways women served in the early Church. The Bible expounds on many of these, and archaeological and historical sources identify others. Before delving into the specifics, Beers first establishes what constituted normal life for women in the Roman Empire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During the first century C.E., the average woman in the Roman Empire spent the majority of her day providing for her family\u2019s basic needs. This primarily constituted household work and food preparation. Elite women had time for luxuries and may have learned to read and write, but the average woman would have been busy with work from sun up to sun down.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t

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FREE eBook: Life in the Ancient World<\/strong>. Craft centers in Jerusalem, family structure across Israel and ancient practices\u2014from dining to makeup\u2014through the Mediterranean world.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t