As much as I would call myself a feminist and 100% in favor of women’s rights and activism I have to disagree with most of the points that Margaret Fell makes for the favorable rights, respect, and importance of women in the bible. Some of the examples she uses to indicate the presence and importance of women from passages in the bible are of little value or far fetched. She argues:

That ‘Jesus owned the Love and Grace that appeared in Women, and did not despise it: and by what is recorded in the Scriptures, he received as much Love, Kindness, Compassion, and tender Dealing towards him from Women, as he did from any others.’

“Also, there was many Women which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him, and stood afar off when he was Crucified… Yea even the Women of Jerusalem wept for him, insomuch that he said unto them, Weep not for me. Ye Daughters of Jerusalem but weep for your selves, and for your Children.”

To me this is a pointless argument for women’s importance in Jesus’ life. Of course women are going to be mentioned in the bible because they existed. Lots of other life forms are mentioned in the bible because they existed at the time. Does mentioning camels in the bible mean that camels are very important and respected and sent from God to be mentioned in the bible so that later on in life someone can interpret the bible in a way that says, ‘camels were mentioned in the bible, we should probably give them the right to vote’

In another passage Fell argues that women are as important as men according to the bible because they were blessed ‘out of their Tenderness, and Bowels of Love, who had received Mercy, and Grace, and Forgiveness of Sins, and Vertue, and Healing from him’ because they got to carry the message regarding Jesus’ burial and resurrection to the other people. In the passage that Fell uses to make these claims is :

Jesus said unto them, Be not afraid, go tell my Brethren that they go into Galilee, and there they shall see me. (3)

Jesus used the women to send a message to the people. He did not seek out women to deliver this message to the people, he told them to deliver the message because they were the only ones there and he wanted the message delivered. It had nothing to do with the fact that he wanted this message to be specifically delivered to the rest of the people by women.