What did Jesus say about women leading in church?

At a Glance

What I said: Nothing about who may lead a church, because there were no churches yet. I let Mary of Bethany sit at my feet as a disciple and said she has chosen the good part (Luke 10:42). I sent Mary Magdalene to tell the men I was risen (John 20:17).

What the rest of the Bible says: Deborah judged Israel (Judges 4:4). Huldah was the prophet the king’s men consulted (2 Kings 22:14). Paul commended Phoebe, a diakonos (servant or deacon) of a church, and greeted Junia, notable among the apostles (Romans 16:1, 7). Two letters say women should be silent and not teach men (1 Corinthians 14:34; 1 Timothy 2:12).

When today’s view appeared: Women led and taught in the earliest churches. Over the centuries, church offices were reserved for men. Women began to be ordained again in the 1800s. Churches are still divided.

The short answer: I did not appoint women among the twelve. I did make women my disciples, my supporters, the witnesses of my death, and the first messengers of my rising. Whoever closes the pulpit to women has to explain why I opened the tomb to them first.

A woman sat down at my feet.

I was a guest in the house of two sisters, Martha and Mary, in Bethany. Martha was busy serving. Mary sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word (Luke 10:39).

To sit at a teacher’s feet meant to be his student, his disciple. Paul, later, said he had been raised at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). In my world, that place belonged to men.

Martha complained that her sister had left her to do the work. I said, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her (Luke 10:41–42).

I did not send Mary back to the kitchen. I said her place at my feet would not be taken from her.

The women who followed me

Luke names them. With him were the twelve, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary who was called Magdalene … and Joanna, the wife of Chuzas, Herod’s steward; Susanna; and many others; who served them from their possessions (Luke 8:1–3). They traveled with me, and they paid for the work.

When a woman poured expensive ointment on my head before my death, and the men scolded her, I said: wherever this Good News may be preached throughout the whole world, that which this woman has done will also be spoken of for a memorial of her (Mark 14:9).

When I was crucified, most of the twelve had run. There were also women watching from afar … who, when he was in Galilee, followed him and served him (Mark 15:40–41).

And on the first day of the week, the women came to the tomb. John tells how I appeared first to Mary Magdalene and told her: go to my brothers and tell them (John 20:17). She did. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord (John 20:18). When the women told the apostles, Luke says, These words seemed to them to be nonsense, and they didn’t believe them (Luke 24:11).

The first person I sent with the news of my rising was a woman, sent to tell the men.

The twelve

I did choose twelve men as my inner circle. Those who believe only men should lead the church point to this, and it deserves an honest answer.

The twelve stood for the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28). They were all Jews, and all from Galilee or Judea. No church today thinks only Jewish Galileans may lead it. And when I spoke about leadership, I did not talk about who qualified. I talked about how to lead: whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant (Mark 10:43). Don’t you be called ‘Rabbi,’ for one is your teacher … and all of you are brothers (Matthew 23:8).

What the rest of your Bible says

Women led in my people’s history. Miriam the prophetess led the women in song after the sea (Exodus 15:20), and the prophet Micah counts her among Israel’s leaders: I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam (Micah 6:4). Deborah, a prophetess … judged Israel at that time (Judges 4:4). When the high priest found the book of the law, he and the king’s men went to Huldah the prophetess to ask what it meant (2 Kings 22:14).

On the day of Pentecost, Peter quoted the prophet Joel: Your sons and your daughters will prophesy … on my handmaidens in those days, I will pour out my Spirit, and they will prophesy (Acts 2:17–18).

In the letters, women lead. Paul commends Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the assembly that is at Cenchreae (Romans 16:1); the Greek word is diakonos, the same word used for deacons and for Paul himself.¹ He greets Andronicus and Junia … who are notable among the apostles (Romans 16:7). For centuries some translators and editors turned Junia into a man named Junias, a name that has never been found in any ancient writing or inscription. Even the standard Greek New Testament printed Junias from 1927 until 1998.² Priscilla and her husband took him aside, and explained to him the way of God more accurately, teaching the preacher Apollos (Acts 18:26). Paul names Euodia and Syntyche as women who labored with me in the Good News (Philippians 4:3).

And then there are two passages that say the opposite. Let the wives be quiet in the assemblies … it is shameful for a wife to be talking in the assembly (1 Corinthians 14:34–35). I don’t permit a woman to teach, nor to exercise authority over a man, but to be in quietness (1 Timothy 2:12).

These are the verses on which most of the argument rests. Some scholars think the lines in 1 Corinthians were added by a later copyist, since some manuscripts place them in a different spot, and since Paul in the same letter expects women to pray and prophesy aloud (1 Corinthians 11:5).³ Most scholars think 1 Timothy was written after Paul’s death in his name.⁴ Many Christians who hold the traditional view answer that these passages are scripture whoever wrote them, and that they apply to all churches.

These books do not take the letters as my words. You should know the arguments on both sides all the same.

What came after

In the first centuries women taught, prophesied, hosted churches in their homes, and served as deacons.⁵ Bishops and presbyters were men. Over the centuries the order of women deacons faded, first in the West and later in the East, and by the Middle Ages women were barred from the priesthood and the pulpit, though some, like abbesses, still ruled great communities.

Women began to preach again with the Quakers in the 1600s and the Methodists and Holiness movements in the 1700s and 1800s. In 1853 Antoinette Brown was ordained by a Congregational church in New York, among the first women ordained in America.⁶ Many Pentecostal churches had women preachers from their beginning.

Today the Catholic and Orthodox churches ordain only men as priests. The Southern Baptist Convention’s statement of faith, since 2000, says the office of pastor is limited to men; in June 2025 an amendment to expel churches with women pastors won 61 percent of the vote, short of the two-thirds it needed.⁷ Most mainline Protestant churches, and some evangelical ones, ordain women.

What You’ll Hear Back

“Jesus chose twelve men.”

He did. He also chose twelve Jews. The number was a sign of a renewed Israel, not a job description. If you want to know whom I trusted, look at who stood at the cross and who I sent from the tomb.

“1 Timothy says women may not teach men.”

It does. It is a letter, probably written after Paul’s death, to one church at one time, and the same New Testament shows Priscilla teaching Apollos and Junia, most likely, among the apostles. Your churches must decide which of these passages shows the rule and which shows the exception. Do not tell people the Bible speaks with one voice here. It doesn’t.

“Men and women are equal, but have different roles.”

Many Christians who hold this view mean to honor women. But when I spoke of roles, I said the greatest is the servant, and that no one should lord it over anyone (Mark 10:42–44). A role that keeps half of my followers from ever teaching the other half needs a stronger reason than the number of the twelve.

“This is just feminism coming into the church.”

Mary sat at my feet two thousand years before anyone used that word. Women followed me, funded me, watched me die, and carried the news I was risen. If they are now asking to be heard, they are asking for something they had at the beginning.

Check It Yourself

Look up: Luke 10:38–42 and John 20:11–18.

You will find: a woman at my feet as a disciple, and a woman sent to tell the men.

Then read Romans 16:1–7 and 1 Timothy 2:11–15, and notice that both are in your Bible.

The Short Version

• I let Mary sit at my feet as a disciple, and said her place would not be taken from her.
• Women followed me, paid for the work, stood at the cross, and were the first witnesses of my rising.
• I sent Mary Magdalene to tell the men. They did not believe her.
• Your Bible has women leaders, Deborah, Huldah, Phoebe, Junia, Priscilla, and two passages that tell women to be silent.
• Over the centuries the church closed its offices to women. Many churches have reopened them since the 1800s.