Abstract:
This work has the theme "The role of women in early Christianity: a reading of the Fourth Gospel." Bibliographical research was performed on the subject in question. The deepening of the theme enabled an understanding of patriarchal societies of the Mediterranean area, in the first century b.C and a.C., mainly Jewish society, Greco Roman and Egyptian in which the domination of men over women was given in many ways. In Jewish society still weighed purity laws. In Greco Roman society that domination was legitimized by the belief that the gods determined social roles. In this context, born the Jesus movement with a social and religious practice that is contrary to the laws of the patriarchal system. In this movement, as the Johannine literature recorded in the fourth gospel, women played a leading role both in movement and in the organization of the first communities. The fourth gospel keeps the memory of these women analyzed here: Mary, mother of Jesus at the Wedding at Cana anticipates the hour and introduces Jesus in his public ministry. Maria again present at the time of the glorification of Jesus on the cross, receives the new community represented in the figure of the disciple or beloved disciple. The Samaritan woman at the edge of the pit, with whom Jesus establishes a dialogue, against all the customs of the time, it becomes a missionary of the Samaritans. Marta, the Johannine literature keeps the memory of his profession of faith like Peter in the apostolic communities. His sister Maria, is a disciple, has the proper attitude of disciple, that in patriarchal society was reserved only to men. In Johannine community is she who anoints Jesus. Mary Magdalene the first to see the risen Jesus and testifies: "I saw the Lord".
