Early Christian female propheticism : sources and development

Why is prophecy, especially female prophecy, minimized in the contemporary church? To address this inquiry, we consider the qualities and historical precedence of prophecy in the Jewish Scriptures and the New Testament church, the women who op-erated prophetically, the organic nature of Judaism and the early church, and the social, cultural and political dynamics up to the second century of Early Christianity that bounded female propheticism. Although God uses his prophets to speak on his behalf to address social issues, particularly as it relates to justice, the female prophetic form, pres-ence and voice is maligned, marginalized and minimized in the Jewish Scriptures and Early Christianity. For the prophetess, to proclaim God’s voice is heretical and worthy of social and even physical death. From Israel’s exodus from Egyptian bondage to the present day, the motif of deliverance and freedom for the oppressed and marginalized emerges through the prophetic voice. However, the prophetic voice is distinctively male to the exclusion of the female prophetic voice and her leadership. Though the Israelites were freed, the prophetic women of the Jewish Scriptures and Early Christianity have traditionally been bounded by two predominant options: Eve or Mary, that is, the sexual temptress or the self-effacing, submissive mother. Accordingly, female propheticism has been excluded from traditional representations of prophecy and God’s messages to the church are diluted because of the resulting prophetic diaspora.