The Significance of Women in the Gospel According to Matthew and the Application to the Contemporary Kenyan Society

Abstract

Having received the gospel message from Jewish vessels, as it were, which were lamentably male-dominated and women-segregating, Christianity has done little, if anything at all, to bring the two genders onto an equal plane. In the first part, I will locate the place and role of women in Old Testament times. I shall describe their condition in socio-cultural life as well as in the religious domain. In the second part, I will deal with the role and place of women in New Testament times, that is in the first century of Christianity. By the very nature of the gospel message, it is not easy to draw a line between the socio-cultural life and the religious life of the Christian communities. As a result, these two aspects of life will be dealt with as one inseparable way of life.