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Gene Edwards is a beloved storyteller and has blazed new trails on the topic of the deeper Christian life. He is a prolific author of twenty-five books including The Chronicles of Heaven, A Tale of Three Kings, The Divine Romance, The First-Century Diaries and The Secret of the Christian Life. He holds a B.A. in English literature and history from East Texas State University and an M.Div from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. For many years, Gene was a pastor and evangelist; and he continues to travel widely, teaching seminars on the deeper Christian life. He is also a part of the house church movement. Gene lives in Florida with his wife Helen.

The following is Chapter 1 of The Christian Woman. . . Set Free.  In the "Author's Confession" at the beginning of the book, Dr. Edwards states that as a leader in the house church movement, he "realized rather slowly that women could also lead just as well as men."

Chapter 1 includes a section of quotations beginning with Greek philosophers, proceeding through the church fathers, and continuing to the present day. Few people are aware that the influence of Greek philosophy on Christian theology is profound. GWTW highly recommends The Christian Woman Set Free as an introduction to biblical equality.  The Christian Woman... Set Free can be purchased at  www.seedsowers.com 

 

From Part One of The Christian Woman Set Free  by Gene Edwards

Who Started the Mistreatment of Women

Praise be to God that he has not created me a Gentile, a woman, or a hog.
—Hebrew Prayer


The courage of a man is shown in his ability to command.  The courage of a woman is found in obeying. 
—Aristotle


By all means get married.  If you get a good wife, you will be happy.  If you get a bad wife, you will become a philosopher. 
—Socrates


Women are those who fell prey to their irrational, emotional side, and are therefore incapable of reason and making rational choices .  .  .  moreover as irrational beings, women may not always know what they really want, and so it is the man’s domain to decide for them.
—Plato


We have courtesans for our sex and pleasure.  We have young slave prostitutes for our physical use and we have wives to bring up legitimate children. 
—Demosthenes


Do not admire your wife’s beauty .  .  .  from the time women are fourteen years old they think of nothing and aim at nothing except going to bed with men. 
—Epictetus


Even the most virtuous of women is a witch.
—Oral Jewish Law


Woman is a temple built over a sewer.  It is contrary to the order of nature and of the law for women to speak in a gathering.
—Saint Jerome


Because of you we are punished by death .  .  .  because of you, women, the Son of God had to die. 
—Tertullian


Men should not listen to a woman even if she says admirable things or if she says saintly things.  They are of little consequence since they come from the mouth of a woman. 
—Origen


A man may marry again if he has divorced his sinful wife because he is not restricted in his right as is the woman, because he is her head. 
—Ambrose


By herself woman is not of the image of God.  The man, on the other hand, alone, is the image of God. 
—Augustine


For a man to go to a woman for advice is like going to the lowest kind of animal to seek advice.
—Chrysostom


Woman is defective and misbegotten.
—Aquinas


The wickedness of women is greater than all other wickedness.  A dragon is more curable than the familiarity of a woman.  Avoid them like poisonous animals. 
—Pope Innocence III


There is no gown or garment that worse becomes a woman than when she would be wise.
—Martin Luther


All women are born that they may acknowledge themselves as inferior to the male.
—Calvin


To make women learned and to make a fox tame work out to the same end.  Educating a woman or a fox simply makes them more cunning. 
—King James


The quotes which you have just read may cause a reaction in you; nevertheless, these words did not move me to write this book.  But the quote on the next page did! In fact, having heard the next statement, I went home and started this book!
—Gene Edwards


You would not let an eleven-year-old child stand up in a meeting and talk.  Then why should you allow a woman to speak in a meeting?

—A statement made in a Christian conference in the twenty-first century

The Christian Woman...Set Free

CHAPTER ONE
A Time Past Due

This is not so much a book as it is a declaration of war. 

You are about to be introduced to over two thousand years of abuse of womanhood throughout the Western world.  You are also about to see seventeen hundred years of the subjugation of Christian womanhood throughout church history.  This book you hold in your hand exists for the purpose of lifting women from that second-class citizenship. 

Some of the historical facts in this book will shock you.  By the time you read the last chapter, I trust you will be free from perceiving any sense of second-class citizenship as coming from the Scriptures or from the early church. 

If you happen to be a fellow male, it is my prayer that you will rise to take your place in seeing an end to this stigma which places women in a position inferior to men. 

Jesus Christ does not discriminate against women.  In all the annals of human history, He was the greatest of all women liberators, even breathtakingly so. 

Then there is Paul. 

To some, he is a male chauvinist and maybe even a woman hater.  But you will discover that Paul, like his Lord, was also a liberator of women. 

If this be true, and it is, then there must be some serious mistranslation of I Corinthians Eleven and Fourteen, as well as Ephesians Five, and I Timothy Two.  Stand in horror that these mistranslations have been carried from century to century, beginning in A. D. 405, until this very day. 

A final word about this book. 

There are men who tell women they must wear doilies on their heads and never speak in the church.  Sirs, when you finish this book you will either renounce these views or stand in embarrassment to discover you are keeping company with some of the worst voices of men who ever spoke ill of women throughout all the annals of Western civilization. 

Now, take my hand.  We will travel to the land where man's very low view of women began. 
Come with me to a grove of trees in Athens , Greece . 


 


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