Why Women May Speak, Lead, and Teach in the Church

Junia Is Not Alone,* and Neither are Plenty of Others:

Women and Leadership in the New Testament

http://www.allanbevere.com/2019/10/junia-is-not-alone-and-neither-are.html?m=1

by Allan R. Bevere

October 22, 2019

John MacArthur is at it again. In a recent conference, MacArthur reiterated his view that the New Testament is clear that women should not serve as pastors or in any leadership roles above men. (You can listen to his comments here.) But is it so clear? Actually, I believe it is clear, but in favor of women in church leadership.

I am going to give a quick fly-over of the pertinent passages that speak to women in ministry, but first let me make what I think is a crucial observation. All too often in making a case for or against this or that issue in looking at the Bible, we can narrowly focus on one or two passages of Scripture that seem to settle the question. The problem with such an approach is two-fold: first, it fails to understand those passages in their larger canonical context, in this case the canon of the whole New Testament. Second, and related to the first, is that when the passages in question are seen in light of the larger canonical context, a different understanding of particular Scriptures can emerge. In the case of women in leadership, the three passages often used to deny a place for women in ministry are 1 Corinthians 11:1-16, 1 Corinthians 14:33-40, and 1 Timothy 2:8-15. I will deal with these Scriptures in due course. Before that, I want to do a quick fly-over of the relevant New Testament passages that give us the larger picture of the question at hand.

The Gospels:

Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42)-- in the well-known story of Martha running around the kitchen practicing hospitality for Jesus and her other guests, she complains that Mary is not helping but rather sitting at Jesus' feet listening to his teaching. When the focus of this text is on Martha's complaint, what can be lost is that Rabbi Jesus is allowing and even commending Mary's posture as a disciple. Only disciples of the rabbi were permitted to sit at his feet, and that honor was reserved for men alone. It is reasonable to assume that if Mary was permitted to be a disciple, she was expected at some point to carry on his teaching to those around her. What Jesus is doing here is a radical reorientation of social convention.

The Samaritan Women (John 4:1-42)-- The first surprise of the story is that Jesus addresses a women and a Samaritan, something that no Jewish male in the first-century with any self-respect would do. The Samaritan woman herself is shocked that Jesus would even initiate conversation. After this encounter, the woman (I wish she had been named) returns to her villages and tell of her conversation with Jesus. John tells us "many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony..." (v. 39). Many from her village became disciples because of her preaching.

The Women at the Tomb (Matthew 28:1-10; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-12)-- I am excluding John's resurrection account because I want to deal with Mary Magdalene separately. All four Gospels are in agreement that female followers of Jesus were the first to hear of the resurrection of Jesus and the first to proclaim it to Jesus' male disciples. If one were trying to invent a fable of the resurrection of Jesus in first-century Judaism, having women as the first witnesses to resurrection would not be the way to tell the story. In first-century Judaism, women were generally considered to be unreliable witnesses, and this was especially true in Roman culture (cf. Luke 24:11). So, why do all four Gospels tells us women were the first witnesses? Because that's the way it actually happened. With the differences in the resurrection accounts, this is the one detail on which all four agree.

Interlude:

It is important to note that when Paul offers the nutshell of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, the women are conspicuously absent.

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me (vv. 3-8).

I do not believe that Paul purposely omits this detail, as he says at the outset, "For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received." But what seems to have happened in the two-plus decades after the event of Easter is that the women attested to in all four Gospels have dropped out of the basic proclamation-- perhaps for evangelistic reasons in contexts, both Jewish and especially Gentile, where the testimony of women was not respected. This is only conjecture, but it does make sense of the omission.

Now back to the task before us.

The central claim of the Gospel is that Jesus was raised from the dead. If the tomb was not empty, if Jesus' bones are still somewhere on the outskirts of Jerusalem waiting to be found, then Christianity is indeed nothing more than a hopeful fable unmoored from reality. It is the critical and essential claim of the Gospel-- and God entrusted that initial proclamation to women. They were the first preachers of the resurrection of Jesus.

Mary Magdalene (John 20:1-18)-- Two things of note in the story of Mary Magdalene at the tomb: First, when she recognizes the risen Jesus, her exclamation is "Rabbouni," "rabbi" or "teacher." This was a title of respect from a disciple, a student to one's teacher. Second, Jesus tells Mary to go and tell the men-- his male disciples-- of her encounter. Once again, we see the role of women as the first preachers of the resurrection. (It is interesting to ask why the risen Jesus did not appear to Peter and the beloved disciple when they were at the tomb.)

The Book of Acts:

The Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-21)-- With the coming of the Holy Spirit comes the fulfillment of the words of the Prophet Joel-- "You're sons and daughters will prophesy" (v. 17). The Greek word "prophesy" (προφητεύσουσιν; prophēteusousin) means proclaim or preach. In the Didache (100-120 A.D.), an early manual of church discipline and order, the traveling evangelists are referred to as prophets. In Revelation 11:3 the two witnesses "prophecy or "preach" wearing sackcloth. One cannot miss the echos of the Old Testament prophets. In these last days, daughters as well as well as sons will preach the gospel. To exclude our daughters from the call to preach is to reject the work of the Holy Spirit in these last days.

Not only that, Peter quotes Joel that even the lowest of those on the first-century social status totem pole will receive the Holy Spirit and preach-- "Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy" (v. 18). Throughout the book of Acts we see that the coming of the Spirit results in proclamation and the gift of the Spirit is no respecter of social status or gender roles.

Paul's Letters:

Romans (16:1-16)-- There can be no mistaking that the Roman Church had women in ministry working alongside the men, but let me mention three in particular.

First, in verse 1 Paul mentions Phoebe who is a "minister" or a "deacon" (διάκονον; diakonon). It is not clear if at this point in the history of the early church whether a deacon is a formal church office, but Phoebe participates in the list of leaders Paul mentions; and she is mentioned first and singled out as a diakonon. It is also highly significant that in 15:8, the Apostle refers to Jesus as a diakonon. Moreover, it is obvious that Phoebe is the bearer of this letter to the Roman Church. If Romans is a draft of Paul's defense of his gospel before the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, as Richard Hays suggests, then Paul has entrusted this singularly important epistle to someone who has to be a trusted leader.

Second, in 16:3-4 Paul writes, "Greet Prisca and Aquila, who work with me in Christ Jesus, and who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles" It is important that Prisca is mentioned first. In that world, the names of persons are listed in order of significance as in the Gospels when the writers often list in order Peter, James, and John (e.g. Matthew 17:1-2). In the Book of Acts, Peter emerges as the leader of the Apostles. Moreover, in Acts 18:18, Prisca (here Priscilla) is also mentioned before Aquila. Has Priscilla taken the lead in the couple's ministry? It is true that in 18:1-2 Aquila is given priority and mentioned first "with his wife Priscilla." Traditional gender roles are not completely rejected in the New Testament, but women in leadership in Roman Church does not conform to traditional conventions.

Third, and perhaps most important is Junia. "Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives who were in prison with me; they are prominent among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was" (16:7). Notice that Paul refers to Junia (a female name) as "among the apostles" (ἀποστόλοις; apostolois). Apostolic ministry eventually expanded beyond the original Twelve. Moreover, Junia was in prison with Paul. Can it be doubted that she was there for the same reason Paul was-- proclaiming Christ crucified and risen? From the witness of the New Testament, it was church leaders who were arrested and subjected to punishment, which makes strategic sense. To stop an undesirable movement, cut off the head and the rest of the body will die.

Those who argue that Junia was a man-- Junias-- do not have the manuscript evidence on their side. The first reference to Junia's gender outside the New Testament comes from Origen (c. 185-254) who confirms she was a woman, possibly because there were those in his day uncomfortable with that truth and sought to obscure it. In other words, there would have been no debate over Junia(s) gender a century or two later if she had been a he.

Galatians (3:28)-- "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." While this passage does not directly address leadership roles, it is another affirmation that in Christ, such stations in life should not be the basis for a church hierarchy. The main issue in Galatians is that there are some Jewish Christians who want to force Gentile converts to practice "the works of the law," that is, those identifying practices that marked out Jews as God's people from everyone else-- circumcision, kosher laws, Sabbath and holy day observance. For Paul, this relegates the Gentiles to second class status within the new covenant in Christ. So Galatians 3:28 is an affirmation of the irrelevance of these distinctions as a hierarchy within the church. To say that there is no "male and female," (and note that it is and not or) is to say that gender is not a determinative of equality and therefore hierarchy within the church. If there is to be no second class status based on these distinctions, it is reasonable to assume that such distinctions are of no account in the leadership of the church as well.

Philippians (4:2-3)-- Euodia and Syntyche (feminine names) are not getting along and that is causing enough of a rift in the church that Paul feels the need to briefly suggest they work things out. Paul refers to them as co-workers and "have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel." They are also mentioned with Clement, a man who is a co-worker as well.

Colossians (4:15)-- Paul says very little about Nympha other than there is a church that meets in her house. Whether her husband was an unbeliever or she was widowed we do not know. But hosting a congregation in her household would have made her "the house church leader and patroness."

We now come to three passages often used to exclude women from leadership.

1 Corinthians (11:1-16)-- It certainly appears that Paul affirms traditional gender roles here, but we should not expect it to be any different. Nevertheless, nowhere does the Apostle exclude women from leadership. Indeed, in verse 10 Paul states that a woman's veil in prayer is "a symbol of authority on her head." Moreover, there is also an equal kind of reciprocity that Paul affirms between men and women. "Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man or man independent of woman. For just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman; but all things come from God" (vv. 11-12). This reciprocity is "in the Lord," as believers in their roles relate to fellow believers. Could it be that the maintaining of traditional family roles was for the sake of evangelism to unbelieving Jews and Gentiles, who had a particular understanding of household management, rather akin to Paul's concern for Christians not behaving in ways that cause others to stumble (1 Corinthians 10:23-33)?

In distinguishing between gender roles, Paul is affirming that women are in the church, in the covenant as women, on their own status (not as under the old covenant where women were included by virtue of the men because of circumcision). As it has been noted, "In worship they are to be their true selves; this also means... that women were not to copy men but to be women in their public ministries."

(14:26-36)-- Women should be silent in worship, but why and when? The context of chapter fourteen is about order in worship. In reading up to chapter 14, we know that women in Corinth are participating in worship, which also means speaking publicly. Here Paul's admonition of silence concerns the fact that in this context women, who were not granted the kind of education enjoyed by men, were apparently disrupting worship by asking their husbands to explain what they did not understand (perhaps during the sermon). They are not scolded for wanting to learn. They are reminded that there is a time and place appropriate for learning.

1 Timothy (2:8-15)-- Three things: First, while in other places Paul seems to reinforce traditional gender roles, here he does the opposite. Men do not have to be stoic tough guys in worship. They can and should lift "up holy hands without anger or argument." It's OK to worship and get caught up in the Spirit. In insisting that women dress modestly, Paul is not concerned with the women of the congregation turning on the men by dressing provocatively. To the contrary, women do not have to settle for being (to use modern phraseology) "trophy wives," whose purpose is only to be beautiful to look at in worship. They have more significant roles to play in the church.

Second, women are to "learn in silence with full submission." While this admonishment grates against our twenty-first sensibilities, it must not be missed that the women are permitted to learn, just like Mary sitting at the feet of Rabbi Jesus. This does go against conventional roles for women. Women are to learn silently so they might at some point be able to teach when ready. The verb translated "permit" is in the present tense and should be rendered "I currently do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man." This prohibition is temporary. Moreover, Paul may be trying to keep the church from going down the road of a female-run pagan cult. Tom Wright states,

There are some signs in the letter that it was originally sent to Timothy while he was in Ephesus. And one of the main things we know about religion in Ephesus is that the main religion – the biggest Temple, the most famous shrine-- was a female-only cult. The Temple of Artemis (that’s her Greek name; the Romans called her Diana) was a massive structure which dominated the area; and, as befitted worshippers of a female deity, the priests were all women. They ruled the show and kept the men in their place.

Now if you were writing a letter to someone in a small, new religious movement with a base in Ephesus, and wanted to say that because of the gospel of Jesus the old ways of organising male and female roles had to be rethought from top to bottom, with one feature of that being that the women were to be encouraged to study and learn and take a leadership role, you might well want to avoid giving the wrong impression. Was the apostle saying, people might wonder, that women should be trained up so that Christianity would gradually become a cult like that of Artemis, where women did the leading and kept the men in line? That, it seems to me, is what verse 12 is denying. The word I’ve translated ‘try to dictate to them’ is unusual, but seems to have the overtones of ‘being bossy’ or ‘seizing control’. Paul is saying, like Jesus in Luke 10, that women must have the space and leisure to study and learn in their own way, not in order that they may muscle in and take over the leadership as in the Artemis-cult, but so that men and women alike can develop whatever gifts of learning, teaching and leadership God is giving them.

Third and finally, Paul writes in 2:15, "Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty." The reference here is to Genesis 3:16:

To the woman God said,

"I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children,
yet your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you."

Are Paul's words based upon the curse or upon the undoing of the curse? Some have read this in the first way-- that the task of women is primarily to bear children and be subordinate to their husbands as a result of the fall. But it can also be read, and I think better, as Paul's belief that the curse of pain in delivering a child and being ruled over by her husband are being undone in Jesus. For Christians, we do not live under the curse and all that comes with it. We have been freed from it. So, I think Paul's words are conceptually more akin to, "Women will be kept safe in their childbearing (the curse notwithstanding) and must remain in faith and love and holiness, with modesty (not conforming to men's images of them).

Even though Jesus has undone the curse of sin, we still live with its effects. I think this is why we see the tension in the New Testament between affirming traditional gender roles and yet moving beyond them. How do believers live as citizens of the Age to Come when This Age is still very much alive and well? It is not always easy to know.

I am not suggesting there are no difficulties with these last three passages that need to be untangled, but when viewed in the context of the New Testament canon, it is obvious they must be seen in light of what is affirmed throughout-- women had an important place in the first decades of the church and participated in its leadership as apostles, disciples, teachers, and evangelists.

In thirty-five years of pastoral ministry, I have become a better pastor because of my female colleagues in ministry; and I rejoice to be a co-worker with them.

Junia is not alone. Thanks be to God!

- ARB

*The main title of this post Junia Is Not Alone is taken from the title of an ebook written by Scot McKnight.

Nat Geo: The Apostles, Part2

Continue from -
Nat Geo: The Apostles, Part 1

http://relevancy22.blogspot.com/2012/04/nat-geo-apostles.html

SPREADING THE GOSPEL

by National Geographic

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/03/apostles/apostles-art-gallery

The Bible says Jesus named a dozen of his most devoted disciples Apostles, or messengers, choosing a number that paid homage to the 12 tribes of Israel. The 12 Jews preached their new faith across thousands of miles in the first century A.D., changing history. Several early converts—including Matthias, Mary Magdalene, Mark, and Luke—also became apostles. A vision transformed Saul, a persecutor of the early Christians, into Paul. His missionary journeys helped spread Christianity throughout the Mediterranean.

MARY MAGDALENE

Mary, from Magdala, followed Jesus after he cured her of “seven demons.” She stayed

near him during the Crucifixion and was the first to see him after his resurrection.

BY DOMENICHINO, ARTE & IMMAGINI SRL/CORBIS

PETER

Jesus gave some disciples a second name; Simon the fisherman was also Peter, the “rock.”

He was the first to invite non-Jews to join the early church.

BY EL GRECO, ERICH LESSING, ART RESOURCE, NY

ANDREW

Persuaded by John the Baptist, Andrew and his brother Peter became Jesus’ first followers.

Andrew later preached in Greece and perhaps Ukraine.

BY EL GRECO, SCALA/ART RESOURCE, NY

JAMES THE GREATER

He was a fisherman with his brother, John, and was beheaded in Jerusalem. Some

believe that he preached in Spain and was buried there.

BY GAROFALO, FINSIEL/ALINARI/ART RESOURCE, NY

JOHN

John and his brother, James, “sons of Zebedee,” were in Jesus’ inner circle. The

fourth Gospel, three epistles, and the Book of Revelation are attributed to John.

BY VALENTIN DE BOULOGNE, RÉUNION DES MUSÉES NATIONAUX/ART RESOURCE, NY

PHILIP

Like nearly all of the Apostles, Philip hailed from Galilee, the region in northern Israel where

Jesus’ ministry was centered. He may have been martyred in Hierapolis.

BY POMPEO GIROLAMO BATONI, ILIFFE COLLECTION/ NATIONAL TRUST PHOTOGRAPHIC LIBRARY/JOHN HAMMOND/BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY

BARTHOLOMEW

Some believe he was Nathanael, who questioned the Messiah’s small-town origin: “Can

anything good come out of Nazareth?” He may have gone to Turkey, India, or Armenia.

BY REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, FRANCIS G. MAYER, CORBIS

THOMAS

Though doubting Thomas needed to touch Jesus’ wounds to be convinced of the

resurrection, he became a fervent missionary who is said to have proselytized in India.

BY EL GRECO, UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/ ART RESOURCE, NY

MATTHEW

Jesus shocked Jewish society by dining with Levi, whose job as a tax collector had made

him an outcast. As an Apostle, Levi was called Matthew and wrote the first Gospel.

BY GUERCINO, HANS-PETER KLUT, BPK, BERLIN/ GEMÄLDEGALERIE ALTE MEISTER, STAATLICHE KUNSTSAMMLUNGEN DRESDEN/ART RESOURCE, NY

JAMES THE LESSER

The Bible reveals little about this James—only that he was a “son of Alphaeus.” Most

scholars think a different James wrote the biblical epistle of that name.

BY GEORGES DE LA TOUR, PHILIPP BERNARD, RÉUNION DES MUSÉES NATIONAUX/ART RESOURCE, NY

THADDAEUS

Several stories connect Thaddaeus, known also as Lebbaeus or Jude, to Persia. According

to Eastern tradition, he converted the city of Edessa after healing its king.

BY ANTHONY VAN DYCK, FRANCIS G. MAYER, CORBIS

SIMON

The Bible calls him Simon the Zealot, perhaps a reference to his political affiliation. Later

accounts depict him as a missionary to Persia, where he was martyred.

BY EL GRECO, ERICH LESSING, ART RESOURCE, NY

JUDAS ISCARIOT

Famous for betrayal, Judas (gold robe) was paid 30 pieces of silver for leading Roman soldiers

to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Judas later repented and hanged himself.

BY PHILIPPE DE CHAMPAIGNE, ERICH LESSING, ART RESOURCE, NY

MATTHIAS

To replace Judas Iscariot, the Apostles chose Matthias, who was a disciple during

Jesus’ ministry. Post biblical lore says he preached in the “land of the cannibals.”

BY ANTHONY VAN DYCK, ELKE ESTEL AND HANS-PETER KLUT, BPK, BERLIN/STAATLICHE KUNSTSAMMLUNGEN DRESDEN/ART RESOURCE, NY

MARK

Also called John, he was mentored by Peter—his likely source for writing the second Gospel -

and traveled with Paul to Antioch. Mark founded the Church of Alexandria.

BY VALENTIN DE BOULOGNE, DANIEL ARNAUDET AND JEAN SCHORMANS, RÉUNION DES MUSÉES NATIONAUX/ART RESOURCE, NY

LUKE

A gentile physician from Antioch who joined Paul’s missions, Luke chronicled the

development of the early church in the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.

BY EDWARD MITCHELL BANNISTER, SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM, WASHINGTON, D.C./ART RESOURCE, NY

Paul

Nat Geo - The Apostles, Part 1

 

ISRAEL
Franciscan priest Fergus Clarke gazes at the Tomb of Christ in Jerusalem's Church of the
Holy Sepulchre. The tomb's emptiness echoes the Apostles' message: Jesus rose
from the dead. Photograph by Lynn Johnson.

 

In the Footsteps of the Apostles

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/03/apostles/todhunter-text

They were unlikely leaders. As the Bible tells it, most knew more about mending nets

than winning converts when Jesus said he would make them "fishers of men."

Yet 2,000 years later, all over the world, the Apostles are still drawing people in.

By Andrew Todhunter

Photograph by Lynn Johnson

March 2012

In the town of Parur, India, in the southern state of Kerala, the polished stone floor of the old church of Kottakkavu gleams so brightly that it mirrors the crimson, pine green, and gold-upon-gold altarpiece like a reflecting pool.

Around the altarpiece, painted clouds hover in a blue sky. Small statues stand in niches backlit with brilliant aqua. On a rug near the church wall a woman in a blue sari with a purple veil covering her hair kneels motionless, elbows at her sides, hands upraised. In a larger, newer church adjacent, a shard of pale bone no bigger than a thumbnail lies in a golden reliquary. A label in English identifies the relic as belonging to St. Thomas. On this site, tradition says, Thomas founded the first Christian church in India, in A.D. 52.

In Parur and elsewhere in Kerala exotic animals and vines and mythic figures are woven into church facades and interiors: Elephants, boars, peacocks, frogs, and lions that resemble dragons—or perhaps they are dragons that resemble lions—demonstrate the rich and decidedly non-Western flavor of these Christian places. Brightly painted icons are everywhere, of Thomas and the Virgin Mary and Jesus and St. George. Even Hindus pray to St. George, the dragon slayer, believing he may offer their children protection from cobras. At Diamper Church in Thripunithura a painted white statue of the pietà—the Virgin Mary holding the dead Jesus—is backed by a pink metal sun radiating rectangular blades of light.

Kerala's Thomas Christians—like Christians elsewhere in Asia and in Africa and Latin America—have made the faith uniquely their own, incorporating traditional art, architecture, and natural symbolism. And so a statue depicting Mary flanked by two elephants shading her head with a bower seems at home among the palms of southern India.

INDIA
India’s 27 million Christians credit the Apostle Thomas with bringing Jesus' message
there - and dying for it. Adhering to a faith that challenges the Hindu caste system can
still be risky: In 2008 extreme nationalists killed at least 60 Christians and displaced
some 60,000 in Odisha state. Worshippers there still gather, but less openly, in a
pastor’s home (above). Photograph by Lynn Johnson.

SPREADING THE GOSPEL

The Bible says Jesus named a dozen of his most devoted disciples Apostles, or messengers, choosing a number that paid homage to the 12 tribes of Israel. The 12 Jews preached their new faith across thousands of miles in the first century A.D., changing history. Several early converts—including Matthias, Mary Magdalene, Mark, and Luke—also became apostles. A vision transformed Saul, a persecutor of the early Christians, into Paul. His missionary journeys helped spread Christianity throughout the Mediterranean.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/03/apostles/apostles-art-gallery

Thomas, or Doubting Thomas as he is commonly known, was one of the Twelve Apostles, disciples sent out after Christ's Crucifixion to spread the newborn faith. He was joined by Peter, Andrew, James the Greater, James the Lesser, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thaddaeus, Simon—and Matthias, who replaced the former disciple and alleged traitor, Judas Iscariot. In time the terms "apostle" and "apostolic" (derived from the Greek apostolos, or messenger) were applied to others who spread the word. In the case of Paul, he claimed the title of apostle for himself, believing he had seen the Lord and received a spiritual commission from him. Mary Magdalene is known as the apostle to the Apostles for her role of announcing the resurrection to them. Although only two of the four Evangelists—Matthew and John—were among the original Apostles, Mark and Luke are considered apostolic because of the importance of their work in writing the New Testament Gospels.

In the first years after the Crucifixion, Christianity was only the seed of a new religion, lacking a developed liturgy, a method of worship, and a name—the earliest followers called it simply "the way." It was not even a formal sect of Judaism. Peter was the movement's first champion; in the Acts of the Apostles we hear of his mass conversions and miraclemaking—healing the lame, raising the dead—and in an un-Christian flourish, calling down a supernatural death upon one couple who held back a portion of their donation to the community.

In its earliest days the movement was too insignificant to attract wide-scale persecution, and Christians, as they came to be called, had more friction with neighboring Jewish sects than with the Roman Empire. The faith's first martyr, according to the Bible, was St. Stephen, a young Christian leader who enraged a Jewish community by suggesting that Christ would return and destroy the Temple of Jerusalem. After he was tried for blasphemy, around the year 35, his accusers dragged him out of the city and stoned him to death while he prayed for them. The young Saul—who would soon become Paul in his celebrated conversion on the road to Damascus— observed Stephen's execution, minding the cloaks of those who stoned him.

In the year 44 King Herod Agrippa I imprisoned and beheaded James the Greater, the first of the Apostles to die. In 64, when a great fire in Rome destroyed 10 of the city's 14 quarters, Emperor Nero, accused by detractors of setting the fire himself, pinned the catastrophe on the growing Christian movement and committed scores of believers to death in his private arena. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote: "An immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind … Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired." In the year 110 Ignatius, the bishop of Antioch, was arrested by the Romans under Trajan, shipped to Rome, and condemned to death ad bestias—by beasts—at the public games. Bloody episodes like this would recur sporadically for the next two centuries.

Tradition holds that 11 of the Twelve Apostles were martyred. Peter, Andrew, and Philip were crucified; James the Greater and Thaddaeus fell to the sword; James the Lesser was beaten to death while praying for his attackers; Bartholomew was flayed alive and then crucified; Thomas and Matthew were speared; Matthias was stoned to death; and Simon was either crucified or sawed in half. John—the last survivor of the Twelve—likely died peaceably, possibly in Ephesus, around the year 100.

SPAIN
Wending across northern Spain, the Way of St. James has brought pilgrims to James the Greater's
presumed tomb in Santiago de Compostela since medieval times. About 200,000 made the trek last
year. Some collect stamps for church-issued "passports" as a record of how far they've walked. For
others, progress is marked by spiritual transformation. Photograph by Lynn Johnson.

In the early days, Columba Stewart, a Benedictine monk and historian at Saint John's Abbey in Minnesota, told me, "the organizational structure, the great institution of the church—signified for Roman Catholics today by the Vatican and its complex hierarchy—simply wasn't there. There was an apostolic band of followers. There were missionary efforts in major centers, first in Jerusalem, then Antioch, then Rome, but certainly no sense of a headquarters. Instead you had this tiny, vulnerable, poor, often persecuted group of people who were on fire with something."

The Apostles were the movement's cutting edge, spreading the message across the vast trade network of the ancient world and leaving small Christian communities in their paths. "To study the lives of the Apostles," Stewart said, "is a bit like what we've been doing with the Hubble telescope—getting as close as we can to seeing these earliest galaxies. This was the big bang moment for Christianity, with the Apostles blasting out of Jerusalem and scattering across the known world."

Thomas the Apostle went east, through what is now Syria and Iran and, historians believe, on down to southern India. He traveled farther than even the indefatigable Paul, whose journeys encompassed much of the Mediterranean. Of all the Apostles, Thomas represents most profoundly the missionary zeal associated with the rise of Christianity—the drive to travel to the ends of the known world to preach a new creed.

Mark the Evangelist too spread the word, bringing Christ's message to Egypt and founding the Coptic faith. But for some Catholics, Mark represents most emphatically the saint as political symbol, powerfully linked with the identity of Venice. Although a figure from the ancient past, he retains a stronger grip on the consciousness of modern-day Venetians than Washington or Lincoln holds on most Americans.

If Thomas is the iconic missionary and Mark a political cornerstone, Mary Magdalene epitomizes the mystical saint, closely associated with grace and divine intercession. Other saints, including Thérèse of Lisieux and Teresa of Ávila, play a similar role among Catholics, but none has exerted a stronger pull on the imagination, or created more controversy, than Mary Magdalene. Once maligned as a reformed courtesan, venerated today by millions worldwide, she was a significant presence in Christ's inner circle.

Although one tradition holds that she died in Ephesus, others maintain that she traveled from the Middle East to southern France. But establishing with scientific certainty that Mary Magdalene came to the hills of Provence, or that Thomas died in India, is likely to remain outside our grasp. Scientific analysis of relics is invariably inadequate, often confirming only that the bones are of the right gender and period. Advances in testing and archaeology, together with the discovery of yet unknown manuscripts, will continue to refine our historical knowledge of the saints. But much will remain inconclusive. How best, then, to understand these individuals if the reach of science is limited? As with most of the earliest Christians, we must rely largely on legend and historical accounts, acknowledging the power these mythic figures still exert today, some 2,000 years after their deaths.

INDIA
The scar on 19-year-old Anil Kuldeep’s thigh recalls the eight-hour beating he endured for
refusing to renounce his Christian faith when Hindu extremists attacked his village in 2008.
Now at a makeshift camp in Odisha, he wants to return to school but can’t
afford the tuition. Photograph by Lynn Johnson.

THE GREAT MISSIONARY

Many historians believe that Thomas landed on the palm-lined coast of Kerala at a site now called Cranganore. He is reported to have established seven churches in Kerala and to have been martyred 20 years later on the other side of the country, in Mylapore, now a neighborhood in Chennai. At Palayur Church in Guruvayur, Thomas is said to have raised the first cross in India and performed one of his earliest miracles: When he encountered a group of Brahmans throwing water into the air as part of a ritual, he asked why the water fell back to Earth if it was pleasing to their deity. My God, Thomas said, would accept such an offering. He then flung a great spray into the air, and the droplets hung there in the form of glistening white blossoms. Most onlookers converted on the spot; the rest fled.

My guides in Kerala were Columba Stewart and Ignatius Payyappilly, a priest from Kochi in Kerala whose connection to Thomas is personal. He and his mother nearly died during his birth, but his grandmother and mother, the latter slipping in and out of consciousness, prayed fervently to St. Thomas. "And we were spared," Payyappilly told me.

Stewart is the executive director of his abbey's Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, which has been preserving religious manuscripts around the world since 1965. Payyappilly and his small staff spearhead the effort in Kerala, digitizing and preserving thousands of inscribed palm leaves and other manuscripts. Theirs is a race against a humid climate, which destroys manuscripts if they're not properly cared for. Since 2006 the team has accumulated 12 terabytes of digitized data—one million images of manuscripts. The oldest document in their possession, a collection of ecclesiastical laws, dates to 1291. These extraordinary documents are important to Thomas Christians, linking them to the founder of their faith.

In India, Thomas is revered as a bold missionary. In the West, he represents the believer who wrestles with uncertainty. "The classic portrayal of Thomas," Stewart said, "is the doubting Thomas. That's a little inaccurate, because it's not so much that he doubted the resurrection but that he needed a personal encounter with Jesus to make the resurrection real. So you might think of him as the pragmatic Thomas or the forensic Thomas. The guy who's so experiential that he said, 'I need to put my finger in the wounds in his hands and in his side.' And this experience gave him the fuel he needed to do amazing things."

Thomas's moment of incredulity has proved a two-edged sword in the history of Christian thought. On the one hand, some theologians are quick to point out that his doubt is only natural, echoing the uncertainty, if not the deep skepticism, felt by millions in regard to metaphysical matters. How can we know? That Thomas challenged the risen Christ, probed the wounds, and then believed, some say, lends deeper significance to his subsequent faith. On the other hand, his crisis of doubt, shared by none of the other Apostles, is seen by many as a spiritual failure, as a need to know something literally that one simply cannot know. In the Gospel of John, 20:29, Christ himself chastises Thomas, saying, "Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

His skepticism notwithstanding, St. Thomas still stands as the direct link between his converts in Kerala and the founding Christian story on the shores of the Mediterranean, clear across the known world of the first century. Unlike later Christian groups in Asia who were converted by missionaries, Thomas Christians believe their church was founded by one of Christ's closest followers, and this is central to their spiritual identity. "They are an apostolic church," Stewart said, "and that's the ultimate seal of approval for a Christian group."

The Apostle Paul
Photography by Lynn Johnson

THE SOUL OF VENICE

Mark the Evangelist is indelibly associated with pride in place: No historical figure is more clearly linked with Venice than her patron saint. His square is the heart of Venice, his basilica the center of its ancient faith. Mark's symbol—the winged lion, its paw upon the open Gospel—is as ubiquitous in Venice as the gondola. For the Venetians of the ninth century and after, "Viva San Marco!" was the battle cry, and legends of St. Mark are entwined with the earliest roots of the Venetian Republic. And yet, tradition tells us, Mark died a martyr in Alexandria, Egypt. How did he gain such importance in a Western city-state?

In the delicate balance of political one-upmanship in ninth-century Italy, a young power bound for greatness required theistic no less than military legitimacy. As its patron, the city needed not the third-string dragon slayer it had, St. Theodore, but a titan among saints. And so was born a masterstroke of shadow politics unrivaled in medieval history: In 828, presumably on the orders of the doge, two Venetian merchants named Bono da Malamocco and Rustico da Torcello stole the remains of St. Mark from his tomb in Alexandria or, some say, conned it from the possession of local priests. Returning to their ship, the conspirators put the saint's remains in a basket, covering them with pork to discourage official entanglements. When Muslim port authorities stopped the thieves and peered into the basket, they recoiled in disgust, crying "Kanzir! Kanzir!"—"pig" in Arabic—and commanded the Venetians to hurry along. On the voyage home, legend tells us, a tempest blew up off the Greek coast. St. Mark, his remains lashed to the mast, quieted the storm, saving the vessel. However embroidered by legend, this brazen theft of the Evangelist's relics gave the fledgling republic a spiritual cachet matched in all of Latin Christendom only by that of St. Peter's Rome. This extraordinary coup set in motion brilliant successes that brought forth a Venetian superpower.

From the earliest days of the Republic, "St. Mark was the flag of Venice," Gherardo Ortalli, a medievalist at the University of Venice and a leading expert on St. Mark, told me. "I don't think there are other examples of saints who were so important politically. Wherever Venice left her imprint, you find Mark's lion—in Greece, Crete, Cyprus, Alexandria. On the old Venetian gold coin, the ducato, St. Mark offers the flag of Venice to the doge."

And what of the saint's relics? Are the remains entombed in the sarcophagus in St. Mark's Basilica in Venice really his? What of the skull in Alexandria that the Coptic Church claims belongs to the saint? What of the relic, possibly a bone fragment, said to be Mark's, given to Egypt by the Vatican in 1968, in effect as an apology for the ninth-century theft? Are any of these relics, including that tiny piece of bone in the church in Kerala attributed to Thomas, genuine?

"It's not important if they have the real bones or not," Ortalli said, "because in the Middle Ages they had a very different mentality. You could have 50 fingers of a saint. It wasn't a problem."

For scientists, nonbelievers, many believers, and perhaps for the forensic Thomas, 50 fingers of the same saint is a problem. Even the Catholic Church calls in pathologists to examine, date, and preserve relics in the church's possession. Based in Genoa, Ezio Fulcheri is a devout Catholic and trained pathologist who has worked on church relics for decades. He has studied and preserved the remains of many saints, including John of the Cross and Clare of Assisi, a friend of St. Francis's. "Whenever we can find a relic that is clearly not authentic," Fulcheri said, "we acknowledge that. The church does not want false relics to be venerated." But what of those relics, like St. Mark's, that have yet to be tested? Scholars, scientists, and even clerics within the Catholic Church have called, without success, for scientific testing of the remains in Mark's sarcophagus. Clearly the church has little to gain, and quite a bit to lose, by testing bones of such critical importance. In the case of St. Mark, perhaps it's safer not to know—at least for now.

Not all scientists are eager to press too hard on holy relics. Giorgio Filippi, an archaeologist employed by the Vatican, told me he had opposed the recent analysis and dating of Paul's relics in Rome, announced by the pope in 2009. "Curiosity does not justify the research. If the sarcophagus was empty or if you found two men or a woman, what would you hypothesize? Why do you want to open St. Paul's tomb? I didn't want to be present in this operation." The subsequent investigation, through a finger-size hole drilled in the sarcophagus, produced a bone fragment the size of a lentil, grains of red incense, a piece of purple linen with gold sequins, and threads of blue fabric. Independent laboratory analysis, the church claimed, revealed that they dated to the first or second century. Not conclusive, but better news for the faithful than if they had hailed from the fourth century. The first-century date would mean the bones could be those of St. Paul. Until science advances to the point that testing can reveal fine details such as that the person was short, bald, and from Tarsus—Paul's presumed birthplace on the Turkish coast—we're not likely to get much closer to the truth.

Mark's bones aside, I asked Ortalli if the pious of Venice pray to their patron saint.

"It's better to pray to the Virgin or to Christ," he said. "St. Mark is more complicated. Apart from the basilica, it is difficult to find a place to light a candle to St. Mark. He is many things, but you don't go to St. Mark with a candle." In Catholic and Orthodox churches believers often light candles to accompany prayers to the saints, mounting them before favored icons or statues. "St. Mark is part of [a Venetian's] identity," Ortalli continued. "It's something in your bones—you have two feet, and you have St. Mark. When older people are drunk on the street late at night, they often sing, 'Viva Venezia, viva San Marco, viva le glorie del nostro leon.' Venice was constructed with a soul in which St. Mark is the center."

When the Venetian Republic was finally dissolved under Napoleon, the cry of mourning and defiance on the streets was not "Viva la libertà" or "Viva la repubblica" but "Viva San Marco."

ITALY
The reverent touch of countless pilgrims has worn smooth the toes of the Apostle Peter's bronze
likeness in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The Bible portrays Peter as a leader among the
Twelve Apostles; Catholics call him the first pope. Photography by Lynn Johnson.

THE PASSIONATE MYSTIC

East of Aix-en-Provence, in the face of a broad, forested massif overlooking a high plain, lies the cave of Sainte-Baume. Here, according to Roman Catholic tradition, Mary Magdalene spent the last 30 years of her life. From the parking lot, a steep hike through the forest brings you to the cave and a small, adjoining monastery. On a clear June morning the cave's interior was noticeably colder than the air outside. In the candlelight a stone altar glowed in the center of the grotto, and statues of Mary Magdalene were visible in the cave's irregular corners. Two relics of the saint—a lock of hair and the presumed end of a tibia, dark with age, lay in a gilded reliquary.

I later spoke with Candida Moss, professor of New Testament and Christian origins at the University of Notre Dame. Moss has a particular interest in early martyrs; I asked if work had been done on the psychology of relics. "People have looked at relics as part of a grieving process," she said. "When my mother died, they offered each of us a piece of her hair to keep, and we all did. So I think anyone who has ever mourned would understand why you would fixate on things associated with someone you loved. Even more so in small Christian communities. The appeal was of a person in your midst, with whom you could have direct contact after his or her death."

In the cave of Sainte-Baume I sat in a rear pew during Mass, joined by a handful of pilgrims and a large group of cheerful French middle schoolers, arms crossed against the cold. Later, Fathers Thomas Michelet and François Le Hégaret led vespers. Sitting near me was Angela Rinaldi, a former pilgrim and a resident of the area since 2001. Rinaldi first came to the site with her companion at that time, a modern shaman drawn to Sainte-Baume not for its Catholic significance but for its reputation among shamans and New Age practitioners. Local tradition holds that the cave long ago served as a shrine for pagan fertility rites and endures as a pilgrimage site for those seeking feminine spirituality. The Catholic faith of Rinaldi's childhood eventually reasserted itself, and she began to help out at the small bookshop.

I asked how her perception of Mary had shifted while she'd been at Sainte-Baume. "In the beginning," she said, "I compared myself a lot to her … My life before was a constant seeking for something different, for something else. For a great love—not just love coming from another person but a love which can only come, I believe, from a spiritual dimension.

"There is some sort of force everywhere in this forest—not just in the cave. It has nothing to do with the representation of Mary Magdalene in the Gospel. It's an energy which makes you stand up afterward." She paused. "I don't know how to explain it," she said, laughing. "There is a silence in the cave which is full of life."

The cave has been cared for by the Dominican Order since 1295. Earlier in the day I visited with Michelet and Le Hégaret over lunch in the monastery's simple, beautifully antique dining room. Through its open leaded windows, from the monastery's great height upon the cliff face, the forest and the plain below could be seen for miles during breaks in the fog.

"After the Virgin Mary," Michelet said, "Mary Magdalene is the most important woman in the New Testament. And yet we speak of her very little. It's too bad, as many could be touched by this woman, who was a sinner and who was chosen by Christ as the first witness of his resurrection. He didn't choose an Apostle or the Virgin Mary. He chose Mary Magdalene. Why? Perhaps because she was the first to ask forgiveness. It was not yet the hour of Peter," he said, referring to Peter's rise to fame as a miracle worker and the founder of the Catholic Church. "It was the hour of Mary Magdalene."

The significance of this moment in the New Testament when she first witnessed the risen Christ has been debated for centuries. In the Gospel of John, three days after Christ's burial Mary Magdalene went first to the sepulchre, "while it was still dark," and found that the stone covering it had been moved. She ran to find the disciples, who returned with her and saw that the tomb was empty. "Then the disciples went away again to their own homes," reads the scripture. "But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping." She stayed, as she had remained at the foot of the cross. When she peered again into the sepulchre, she saw two angels where the body of Christ had rested. "Woman, why are you weeping?" they asked her. "Because they have taken away my Lord," she said, "and I do not know where they have laid him." And then, the Gospel says, the risen Christ appeared to her.

Such tenacity would have served her well if she did indeed spend three decades in the cold and damp of the Provence cave. "This is known as a place of penitence," Le Hégaret said. "In winter it's austere. Very few people come up to the cave. The road is frozen for weeks. There is a great simplicity here." He chuckled. "There is a proverb among the brothers of Provence: At Sainte-Baume either you go crazy, or you become a saint." With Christian Vacquié, the warden responsible for the ancient forest at Sainte-Baume, I visited a much smaller cave in the same massif that had contained the remains of Neanderthals from 150,000 years ago. This cave and others nearby have a distinctly female-reproductive organ shape, leading some to believe that they were fertility-cult sites in prehistoric times. One can imagine barren Neanderthals performing fertility rituals many tens of thousands of years before the arrival of Mary Magdalene.

Protected by the state and cherished for its rich biological diversity, the forest itself has long been held sacred. "There was once a priest at the grotto," Vacquié told me with a grin, "who said that while he was Mary Magdalene's majordomo, I was her gardener." The forest and local caves are still believed to have a strong connection to fecundity, and women have come here for millennia to pray for children. To this day some women even rub their abdomens against the statues of Mary Magdalene as they pray. This physicality is not encouraged by the church, Le Hégaret told me, but it's difficult to prevent. On the walls of the cave are notes and plaques of gratitude in many languages. "Thank you Saint Mary Magdalene for healing my daughter," reads one in French dated October 1860. Another reads simply, "Merci pour Marion."

ISRAEL
Many of the nearly 3.5 million tourists who flocked to Israel in 2010 went to visit places linked with
Christ's life, such as the Sea of Galilee. Its shores are where the Gospels say Jesus met the four
fishermen—Peter, Andrew, James the Greater, and John—who became his first disciples and the
nucleus of his Twelve Apostles. Photography by Lynn Johnson.

The Dominicans manage a hostel on the plain at the foot of the massif, the Hôtellerie de la Sainte-Baume, receiving pilgrims, students, scholars, and other travelers. There I spoke with Marie-Ollivier Guillou, a novitiate and former sailor who served four years as a priest on French submarines, including Le Terrible, before being transferred here two years ago. "For me," he said, "Mary Magdalene is the saint of love. She was a very courageous woman. She was one of the few who stayed at the Crucifixion. Most of the others ran for their lives, but Mary Magdalene stayed at the foot of the cross, ready to die for Christ. In this sense she is the model for the religious life."

Near the end of my time at Sainte-Baume I went back into the cave and climbed the short flight of steps to the rise of stone on which legend says Mary Magdalene slept; it's the only spot in the cave that remains dry. The last of the other visitors had left; fog rolled through the open doorway. Standing in the shadows, I reached through the grating and pressed my hand against the stone. The grotto was perfectly silent, save for the faintest occasional drip in the cistern, the same ancient spring that would have supplied the saint with fresh water.

When I had suggested to Thomas Michelet that Mary Magdalene may never have come to Provence, he replied in a matter-of-fact tone, "There was a priest who lived here at the cave for decades. He said that while it's impossible to know if Mary Magdalene truly came here in the first century, that certainty was of less importance. She's here now."

Andrew Todhunter is at work on a book about St. Mark and early Venice. Frequent contributor Lynn Johnson traveled to six countries for this story.

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Nat Geo: The Apostles, Part 2

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