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Text:God's Word to Women:Lesson 94

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== THE ANOINTING OF WOMEN WITNESSES.

770. There is some difference of opinion as regards whether Jesus said those words, “Ye are witnesses of these things,” as recorded in Luke 24:48, on the evening of the resurrection, an interview at which others besides the Apostles are distinctly mentioned as present, or on a subsequent occasion to the Apostles alone. We merely mention the matter to call attention to the fact that it does not materially affect the argument, though someone might attempt to use it for the purpose. The women themselves stood in a better position to understand the Lord’s wishes than anyone else, either then or now, and we know they believed He wished them to tarry and get that power for witnessing, for they tarried for it. Nay, more, they got that power, which is the strongest possible proof that they were doing precisely what Jesus Christ wished them to do,—had required of them.

771. We have proved that they were able to witness concerning the most important points which would be disputed regarding His resurrection; that they alone had witnessed those many important things concerning His crucifixion; and His mother alone was the repository of certain testimony regarding His being the very Son of God, incarnated in human flesh. In other words, these women were Jesus Christ’s most important witnesses. When He said, “Ye are witnesses of these things,” the God of all truth could but state facts. He did not create or ordain, as witnesses of certain events, those who had not witnessed those events,¾else had He been guilty of a fraud. Rather, those who have imagined that Jesus Christ appointed men only as His witnesses, and have taught others this, have practiced a fraud upon themselves as well as upon others. Jesus said again, as He was about to be taken up into heaven, “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The women believed that the commandment to tarry and receive that power included themselves. One hundred and twenty persons tarried for the power; and among them, the mother of Jesus “with the women” (Acts 1:14-15).

772. Had there been a man present among that company of one hundred and twenty who had doubted whether these women were to become qualified witnesses (or to be veiled, subdued and silenced creatures, because Eve sinned), the last remnant of such a delusion must have been swept away, when “there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and sat upon each one [R. V.] of them: And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:3). But a man can be convinced, and recoil again to his position of past bigotry. If such a thing happened to one present at that assembly, he must have been again shaken to the foundation, out of his prepossessions, when he listened to Peter, sweeping all prejudices before him, saying, in the power, and by the authority of the Holy Spirit: “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: . . . You daughters shall prophesy . . . and on my handmaidens I will pour out, in those days, of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy” (Acts 2:16, 18).

773. These women were now prepared to do in type what the Holy Spirit through the prophet Isaiah (40:9), has commanded women to do, near the close of the Gospel dispensation in full: “Oh thou woman, that bringest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain; Oh thou woman, that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!”[1] They knew the story of the Incarnation, Crucifixion and Resurrection, with a completeness of detail such as none of the Apostles had. It is not likely, however, that they, being women, could speak in the Jewish synagogues of Palestine. The men disciples must have been the spokesmen here. The women could speak to those who came to their home to hear their story. And after all but the twelve Apostles were driven out of Jerusalem (Acts 8:1), the women would find many opportunities in the Gentile world to give their message. At any rate, we may be sure that the women, even at Jerusalem, before they were driven out, had made their message heard in Christian meetings for both sexes in private homes. They have their witness with power and to good effect, and the first Christian Church was in the home of the mother of Mark, who was presumably a widow, Acts 12:12.

774. How do we know that women were active witnesses? Listen to Saul, one of the persecutors of the Christians of these days: “I persecuted this way [Christianity] unto the death, binding both men and WOMEN (Acts 22:4). And listen to this testimony against Saul: “As for Saul, he made great havoc of the Church, entering every house and haling men and WOMEN, committed them to prison” (Acts 8:3). Again, “Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of the way, whether they were men or WOMEN, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1, 2).

775. Now we submit: Had these women been veiled and silenced creatures, who would not presume to teach anyone, who would have persecuted them? Men could not, for lack of proof against their teaching, if they had not taught. At a later date in the history of the Church, it was only necessary to raise the cry, “A Christian!” to get one punished. But in these days of ignorance as to what Christians taught, some sort of proof on that score must have been brought forward to secure conviction. The fact that women were prosecuted, in these very early days, proves that women were giving their testimony,¾witnessing as to what they had seen and heard¾and this witness of theirs was heard by men, who reported the same, and conviction was had thereon. It is not enough to say they were giving this witness to women only, and that other women testified against them. The testimony of women was very lightly esteemed in Jewish courts,¾would not have been accepted, in fact. No, Paul, or Paul’s spies, were in meetings attended by both sexes, and heard women give their testimony in “power” to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and because of this testimony which women gave, women were punished. All must agree to this excepting those willing to sin against their reasoning faculties.

776. The conquests made by the Pentecostal Christians were marvellous. On the first day, 3,000 were converted; a little later, 5,000 more, and so they progressed. Most of the first converts lived about Jerusalem, and many of them must have witnessed, as unbelievers, some of those events, which, at first, the women disciples alone knew. Now they could give their testimony too. Perhaps of this number of new converts were Stephen and Philip. To the testimony of the former, God added “great wonders and miracles” (Acts 6:8), and from the time these began to appear, to attest the genuineness of the first witnesses, the earlier testimony as to particular incidents in the life of Christ would become less important because well known.

777. The necessity for the testimony of the women, in the region of Jerusalem, soon passed. Their testimony in other cities, like Damascus, to which Paul starts in pursuit of them, was given; then in more distant places. Finally, that persecuting fury of Satan, which is always visited upon women with special malignity, was the occasion of a Divine interposition, and we have the Apostle Paul, under Nero, at a much later date, because of the special attacks upon the virtue of women Christians, and upon the reputation of the churches as to chastity, advising as a matter of prudence, something of a separation of the sexes, and a quieter part for women (see Lessons 40, 41).

==Footnotes==
[1] See par. 209, and our leaflet, “Woman Preachers.”

==See Also==
[[God's Word to Women]] |
[[God's Word to Women Table of Contents]] |
[[Foreword to the 1943 Edition]] |
[[Foreword to the 2005 Edition]] |
[[Author's Note]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 1 | Lesson 1]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 2 | Lesson 2]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 3 | Lesson 3]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 4 | Lesson 4]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 5 | Lesson 5]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 6 | Lesson 6]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 7 | Lesson 7]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 8 | Lesson 8]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 9 | Lesson 9]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 10 | Lesson 10]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 11 | Lesson 11]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 12 | Lesson 12]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 13 | Lesson 13]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 14 | Lesson 14]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 15 | Lesson 15]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 16 | Lesson 16]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 17 | Lesson 17]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 18 | Lesson 18]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 19 | Lesson 19]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 20 | Lesson 20]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 21 | Lesson 21]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 22 | Lesson 22]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 23 | Lesson 23]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 24 | Lesson 24]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 25 | Lesson 25]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 26 | Lesson 26]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 27 | Lesson 27]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 28 | Lesson 28]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 29 | Lesson 29]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 30 | Lesson 30]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 31 | Lesson 31]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 32 | Lesson 32]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 33 | Lesson 33]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 34 | Lesson 34]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 35 | Lesson 35]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 36 | Lesson 36]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 37 | Lesson 37]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 38 | Lesson 38]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 39 | Lesson 39]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 40 | Lesson 40]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 41 | Lesson 41]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 42 | Lesson 42]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 43 | Lesson 43]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 44 | Lesson 44]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 45 | Lesson 45]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 46 | Lesson 46]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 47 | Lesson 47]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 48 | Lesson 48]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 49 | Lesson 49]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 50 | Lesson 50]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 51 | Lesson 51]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 52 | Lesson 52]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 53 | Lesson 53]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 54 | Lesson 54]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 55 | Lesson 55]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 56 | Lesson 56]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 57 | Lesson 57]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 58 | Lesson 58]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 59 | Lesson 59]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 60 | Lesson 60]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 61 | Lesson 61]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 62 | Lesson 62]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 63 | Lesson 63]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 64 | Lesson 64]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 65 | Lesson 65]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 66 | Lesson 66]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 67 | Lesson 67]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 68 | Lesson 68]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 69 | Lesson 69]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 70 | Lesson 70]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 71 | Lesson 71]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 72 | Lesson 72]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 73 | Lesson 73]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 74 | Lesson 74]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 75 | Lesson 75]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 76 | Lesson 76]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 77 | Lesson 77]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 78 | Lesson 78]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 79 | Lesson 79]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 80 | Lesson 80]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 81 | Lesson 81]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 82 | Lesson 82]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 83 | Lesson 83]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 84 | Lesson 84]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 85 | Lesson 85]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 86 | Lesson 86]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 87 | Lesson 87]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 88 | Lesson 88]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 89 | Lesson 89]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 90 | Lesson 90]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 91 | Lesson 91]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 92 | Lesson 92]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 93 | Lesson 93]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 94 | Lesson 94]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 95 | Lesson 95]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 96 | Lesson 96]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 97 | Lesson 97]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 98 | Lesson 98]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 99 | Lesson 99]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 100 | Lesson 100]] |
[[Index of Scripture Texts]] |
[[Dictionary]]
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