Reading Against Abuse: Unhiding Women’s Value in Jesus’s Parables and Our Churches

Have you ever read a story or watched a movie and realized that someone’s voice was left out, or their role was minimized? The feminist scholar Gerda Lerner used the analogy of a play to describe how women have historically been relegated to supporting roles, behind-the-scenes work, or even just used as props—while the leading roles went to men.^[1] It’s like watching a big Hollywood movie but not realizing that there were countless women working as makeup artists, costume designers, script supervisors, and camera operators to make that movie happen. Without their crucial labour, the whole production would fall apart, yet the audience never sees their faces or hears their voices. That’s what often happens with women’s roles in the Bible, especially in the parables (stories) that Jesus told.^[2] Many times when we read these stories at face value, we miss the important, indispensable roles that women played in those times and communities.

Let me give you an example from one of Jesus’s parables called “The Friend at Midnight” (Luke 11:5–8). In this story, a man knocks on his friend’s door at midnight asking for bread because he has an unexpected visitor. The friend initially refuses but eventually gives in and provides the bread due to the man’s persistence.

When we read this story, we might not think about who actually baked the bread that the man was asking for. In those days, baking bread was almost exclusively a woman’s job, so even though the story doesn’t mention a woman, there had to be a woman involved who had baked the bread earlier that day or evening.

Here’s another example from the famous “Parable of the Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:25–37): We all know the story of the man who was robbed, beaten, and left for dead on the road. A Samaritan traveller stopped to help him, bandaged his wounds, and took him to an inn to recover.

But have you ever wondered who was working at that inn? Who took care of the injured man once the Samaritan had brought him there? It would have been women—innkeepers (commonly a woman’s job in the first century), caregivers, and healers—who did the hard work of nursing the man back to health, even though the story doesn’t mention them.

Many of Jesus’s parables had hidden roles for women that were essential to the stories, even if the women weren’t named or described. Women were bakers, caregivers, innkeepers, travel companions, and more. Without their valuable contributions and presence, these stories wouldn’t make sense or couldn’t have happened.

Realizing this truth made me look at the parables in a whole new way. It made me appreciate the often-overlooked contributions of women in those times. It also made me think about how we sometimes minimize or ignore the voices and roles of certain groups, even today, in our own communities and churches.

Jesus’s teachings were all about showing love, compassion, and respect for everyone—including those who were marginalized or whose voices weren’t being heard. By unhiding^[3] the women in his parables, we can better understand and appreciate his radical message of equality and justice. We need to be careful about using Scripture to justify hurting or oppressing others. Instead, we should interpret the Bible in a way that upholds human dignity and promotes the fair treatment of all people, just as Jesus did.

One issue where Scripture can be so misused is that of gender-based violence (GBV). Unfortunately, GBV is still a huge problem in the world, especially in my home country of South Africa. Violence against women can even happen within our own communities and churches, and because this type of violence silences women and hides their voices, it’s very hard to see where it is happening until it’s too late. One of the reasons this occurs is because of irresponsible ways of reading and interpreting the Bible—ways that minimize or erase women’s voices and experiences. When we read the Bible simplistically and ignore its cultural context, we can easily miss or downplay the vital roles women played in it. This sends the harmful message that women are less important or that their perspectives don’t matter as much. It perpetuates patriarchal beliefs that men should dominate over women.

Sadly, this mindset of diminishing women’s worth has led some people to use the Bible to justify mistreating women through domestic violence, sexual assault, and other forms of abuse. This is the opposite of Jesus’s loving teachings about equality, inclusiveness, dignity, and protecting the vulnerable!

The Genesis 1 and 2 creation narratives, for instance, have popularly been used to enforce a model of human creation that places women in a subservient role to men. Similarly, a biblical interpretation that perpetuates GBV and patriarchy is the theological understanding, informed by religiously ascribed gender and social norms, that to divorce is a sin and partners should suffer the abuse of their spouses rather than separate from them.^[4] Deeply ingrained cultural and religious expectations within certain communities require that wives obey their husbands and uphold traditional views on marriage. This can significantly delay or prevent survivors from leaving abusive partners even when they are aware of their religious and civil right to divorce. The complex interplay of cultural and religious norms creates significant barriers for victims seeking to escape abusive relationships. In some cases, deeply held religious beliefs not only discourage divorce but also prevent survivors from acknowledging the abuse itself.^[5] Moreover, verses such as 1 Timothy 2:11–14 are used to deprive women of leadership roles within faith communities and churches as well as establish a wife’s subservience to her husband.^[6]

That’s why it’s so crucial to read the Bible responsibly—looking for the often-hidden roles of women and being aware of their central contributions, even if they’re not explicitly stated. An inclusive reading restores the importance of women’s voices and leadership.

We need to create communities, including churches, where women truly feel heard, valued, and safe. Responsible interpretation that unhides women combats the beliefs that enable gender-based violence. It upholds the equal dignity of all people as intended in Jesus’s teachings. When we recognize women’s indispensable presence and roles in the Bible, it becomes much harder to treat them as lesser or expendable in our own lives and communities today and, more importantly, creates safe spaces for women to feel heard and to talk about their own experiences without fear of rejection or judgement. Shining a light on women’s voices through better understanding of Scripture is a powerful way to help prevent gender-based violence from taking root and also a way for church communities to create safe spaces for those who suffer from abuse and often have nowhere else to turn. They need to know that their voices matter and that we, as loving Christians, are also listening and searching for their hidden voices.

So as you read the stories of Jesus, look for the invisible women baking, serving, caring, and sustaining the narratives. Celebrate their immense but often unsung contributions. But also look for the “invisible” women in your church and community, those who give without being seen and those whose voice might be hidden behind a wall of pain or a polite smile. This is a vital step towards making the world a safer and more just place for all women and girls.

[1] Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy (Oxford University Press, 1987), 11–14. See also Linda Gordon et al., “Gerda Lerner (1920–2013): Pioneering Historian and Feminist,” Clio 38 (2014), 254–263.

[2] Although it is true that some parables contain and even feature women—for example, the parable of the Leaven (Luke 13:20–21), the parable of the Lost Coin (Luke 15:8–10), the parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1–8), and the parable of the Ten Maidens (Matthew 25:1–13)—it is important to remember that these parables were still recorded by men, recounting and portraying what they found to be important. So, even in parables where women are present in the narratives, their voices might still be lost, hidden behind the stories that men wrote for them. Here Lerner argues that the experiences of women can never be recovered—however, their presence and importance can!

[3] Unhiding in the parables is a methodology I developed as part of my PhD thesis. More reading on this can be found in the following papers: Charel Daniël du Toit, “A Realistic Reading as a Feminist Tool: The Prodigal Son as a Case Study,” HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 78, no. 4 (2022): 1–7. Charel Daniël du Toit, “The Friend at Midnight: A ‘Realistic’ Reading as a Feminist Tool,” Verbum et Ecclesia 43, no. 1 (2022): a2633. Charel Daniël du Toit, “Unhiding the Voices of Women in the Parable of the Good Samaritan: A Call for Academic Inclusion,” Verbum et Ecclesia 45, no. 1 (2024): a2937. Charel Daniël du Toit, “The Parable of the Two Mothers: An Unhiding Reading of the Parable of the Prodigal Son,” Verbum et Ecclesia 45, no. 1 (2024): a3169.

[4] Wonke Buqa, “Gender-Based Violence in South Africa: A Narrative Reflection,” HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 78, no. 1 (2022): 2.

[5] Sandra Pertek et al., “Gender-Based Violence, Religion and Forced Displacement: Protective and Risk Factors,” Frontiers in Human Dynamics 5 (2023): 1–15.

[6] Penelope Schoeffel et al., “It’s All About Eve: Women’s Attitudes to Gender-Based Violence in Samoa,” in Rape Culture, Gender Violence, and Religion: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. Caroline Blyth et al., Religion and Radicalism (Springer International Publishing, 2018).

Photo by Furkan Elveren.

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