Moses / Jesus / Women: Does the New Testament Offer a Feminist Message?

Cross Currents, Winter, 1999 by Esther Fuchs

Like Zelophehad's daughters, who plead their case on behalf of their dead father, Mary and Martha intercede with Jesus on behalf of their dead brother. In both cases, the hero helps a dead man -- in one case, to perpetuate the patrilineal continuity, and in the other case to resurrect the deceased. It is therefore not inappropriate to ask: When the male hero helps women in need, whose interests are being served? Does the assistance bring about a radical change in the patriarchal scheme of things? We can hardly attribute feminist motives to either Moses or Jesus. The case may be made that Moses does promulgate a meaningful law on behalf of brotherless daughters and their rights to inherit, whereas Jesus does not use the case of Mary and Martha to bring about any meaningful change in law or lore. In the final analysis, the narratives about the assisted women enhance the heroic status of the male protagonist.

The heroes' concern for women in need results in both cases in genuine and far-reaching expressions of gratitude. Mary shows her gratefulness by anointing Jesus' feet with precious oil and by wiping them off with her hair. This is perhaps the most extreme dramatization of female prostration. "Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair" (John 12:3). There is no comparable gesture in the Moses cycle on the part of any woman. Zipporah, Reuel's daughter, is given to him in marriage, but there is no description of female prostration.

According to John 20:1-18, Mary Magdalene is the first to witness the empty tomb. She consequently reports the missing body to Peter and the beloved disciple, who go to the tomb to look. The beloved disciple is reported to have seen and believed. Mary Magdalene by contrast does not understand. When she finally sees the risen Jesus, she does not recognize him. He asks her: "Who are you looking for?" (John 20:15). Mary at first assumes that the speaker is the gardener, then realizes that he is the resurrected Jesus (John 20:16). Having repudiated her embrace, Jesus instructs her to report what she has witnessed. She heeds this command.

Mary Magdalene is analogous in some respects to Zipporah. Both develop from the lowly status of a woman in need to the status of helper and mate. Zipporah appears for the first time in Exodus 2:16-22. She is one of Reuel's seven daughters who come down to water the flock. When some shepherds drive them off from the well, Moses comes to their rescue and waters their flock. As they return home, their father chides them for having failed to invite the man who helped them: "And Moses was content to dwell with the man; and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. And she bore a son and he called his name Gershom; for he said, 'I have been a stranger (ger) in a strange land'" (Exod 2:21-22). Exodus 4:20 presents Zipporah as a nameless object, a passive wife who follows in her husband's footsteps: "And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt...." But a few verses later the silent, passive wife emerges as a heroine in her own right. "And it came to pass on the way , at the lodging place, that YHWH met him and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said: 'Surely a bridegroom of blood you are to me'" (Exod 4:24-25).