Annie Besant

“ One of the favorite claims put forward on behalf of the Bible by believers in its inspiration is that the position of woman in society has been greatly improved by its acceptance. "See women among the heathen, how degraded, how hard-worked, how enslaved!" say Christians. "Contrast her treatment among them with the liberty and respect enjoyed by women in happy Christian lands." ”

“ Paul's contempt for the desire of a woman for knowledge has been fully shared by those who believe in him as an apostle of Christ. The education of women has been shamefully neglected until our own time, and—still marking that woman's advancement accompanies scepticism—it was the secular University of London which first held out to women the educational honors which had been jealously preserved as the privilege of man. ”

“ Jesus and Paul exalt celibacy to the detriment of marriage, and only accept the latter as a concession to human weakness. When Jesus blamed the licentiousness of the Mosaic code—God-inspired as it was—the disciples naïvely answered with the simple unconsciousness of Jews that any duty could be owed to women: "If the case of the man be so with his wife [if he may not put her away at pleasure] it is not good to marry." ”

“ Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man" (1 Cor. xi., 8, 9) . "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. ”

“ If the position of women in the higher ranks of society in England be compared with the position of women among the Australian savages, there is no doubt that the former enjoy an enormous superiority, but this superiority is the result of civilisation not of religion, of culture not of creed. It is noteworthy that the comparison is always made between the women in highly civilised Christian communities, and in savage heathen ones. ”

“ Until lately, the Bible theory that a woman was her husband's chattel was also carried out by law, and she forfeited on marriage all she possessed and became incapable of holding property. The more civilised view of woman as an individual has, however, now in matters of property become incorporated into the law, and the wife is no longer in the position of a minor. ”

“ The validity of a Hebrew marriage later depended on the social status of the husband. If the husband were a slave, and his master gave him a wife, then the marriage was broken when the man went free at the end of his term of servitude; "the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he [the husband and father] shall go out by himself" (Ex. xxi., 4) . If the husband were a freeman he could determine the marriage at his pleasure: "When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes . ”

“ The influence of this Bible teaching may be very plainly recognised in the laws of this Christian land. Thus a father can sue for damages for the seduction of his daughter while a minor, and a husband can obtain damages from the seducer of his wife; in each case the money award recognises the damage done to the man's property. Again, a man can obtain a divorce from his unfaithful wife, but no such relief is granted to the wife whose husband has been disloyal to her, unless physical cruelty or desertion be added to the adultery. ”

“ To those women who did marry, a condition of the most complete and utter subordination was assigned. "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church: and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the Church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything" (Eph. v., 22—24) . Great as the difference between God and man is the difference between man and woman. Paul speaks elsewhere with equal clearness: "I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ ”

“ The assertion that the improvement in woman's social position in modern times is due to civilisation and not to religion may be proved by examining the position assigned to women in the Bible, and by tracing the results of Biblical teaching on the community. ”

“ Polygamy appears to be also recognised in the New Testament, for the restriction to one wife is only made by Paul to apply to bishops and deacons (1 Tim. iii., 2, 12) , and the rational implication is that non-clerical Christians might increase their marital households. Whether Christian marriage may be polygamous or not, there can be no doubt, as we shall see later, of the entire subjection imposed on Christian wives. The Bible idea of marriage never rises above marriage as servitude. ”

“ This position of woman is strictly biblical, and the enfranchisements of man from superstition and of woman from serfdom walk hand-in-hand.
The keynote of the part assigned to woman in the Bible is in the second and third chapters of Genesis. Eve is created as an after-thought out of one of Adam's ribs—having a mere bone for origin; she falls under the serpent's temptation, and then herself becomes the tempter of her husband, thus bringing into the world sin and death. Paul alleged her creation and fall as reasons for her subordination to man. "The man is not of the woman ”

“ Putting on one side the question whether an Indian squaw has, on the whole, a much harder life than a married factory "hand", who toils all day at the factory, and returns home at night to clean the house, wash, mend and make the children's clothes, cook the supper, etc, it should be remarked that in the suggested comparison the question of civilisation is entirely omitted. ”

“ All allusion to women in comparatively civilised heathen States is omitted, and we hear nothing of the venerated priestesses of the older civilisations, nothing of the women of Greece and of Rome. Subordinate as was the position of the latter in relation to their husbands and fathers, they stood far higher than women among the Hebrews. ”

“ But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain let them marry ”