Easter’s First Witnesses: Why Women’s Testimony Shook the Ancient World

The first to learn of the Lord’s Resurrection were “Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles” (Luke 24:10, NKJV). These women, who “came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared” (Luke 24:1), became—in the words of St. John Chrysostom—the “Apostles to the Apostles,” the first to proclaim the Good News: “Christ is risen from the tomb, as He foretold!” Nothing in the Gospels is incidental. God’s choice to appoint women as the first witnesses of the Resurrection reveals profound intentionality.

In the ancient world—both Jewish and pagan—women were second-class citizens. The Jewish historian Josephus, describing contemporary customs, writes: “The testimony of women ought not to be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex” (Jewish Antiquities, Book 4, Chapter 8, Section 15). The Talmudic tractate Shevuot (Oaths), addressing legal procedure, bars women from testifying in court (Shevuot 30a). The Talmud repeatedly underscores women’s inferior status. For instance, they were not to be taught the Law: “It is said, ‘…teach them to your sons’—sons, not daughters” (Berakhot 20b).

Yet this marginalization paled compared to the pagan world. Scripture describes the first woman as a “helper” (Genesis 2:18) and “suitable companion” for man, while Greek myth gives us Pandora, bearer of the infamous box unleashing humanity’s woes.

In Greece, women (unless they were hetairai, courtesans) were wholly subjugated to fathers or husbands, denied autonomy. Aristotle declared: “The male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; the one rules, and the other is ruled” (Politics, Book 1). Rome offered marginally better conditions, yet women still lacked civil rights and formal political influence, requiring male guardians to represent them in court.

Ancient literature brims with contempt for women, portrayed as intellectually and morally deficient.

The fact that women first proclaimed the Resurrection became a taunt among pagan critics. The 2nd-century anti-Christian writer Celsus sneered: “Who saw Him [risen]? A hysterical woman or someone else deluded by sorcery?… He appeared secretly to a single half-mad woman and His own circle of fanatics” (On the True Doctrine). Similarly, the philosopher Porphyry cited an oracle from Apollo to a man desperate to dissuade his wife from Christianity:

Easier to write on the sea’s shifting face,
Easier to soar like birds through empty space,
Than cleanse the tainted mind of womankind.
Let her sink deeper into lies, confined—
Sing dirges to a dead, delusive Lord,
Condemned by wisdom, pierced by Rome’s swift sword.

Even the apostles doubted the women’s testimony: “Their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them” (Luke 24:11). In that era, women were deemed unfit witnesses for so momentous an event.

What Does This Teach Us? Three Key Truths

First, the testimony about the women at the empty tomb is undeniably authentic and early. That women were the first to witness the Resurrection—while the male disciples initially doubted—is not something the early Church would invent. Culturally, this was a scandalous, even embarrassing detail.

As modern biblical scholar Bishop Tom Wright observes:

“Like it or not, women were not regarded as credible witnesses in the ancient world. When Christians later formalized the resurrection testimony (as in Paul’s account in 1 Corinthians 15), they quietly omitted the women, who were apologetically inconvenient. Yet the Gospels insist on their central role as the first eyewitnesses, the first apostles. This cannot be fabricated. If the tradition had begun with male witnesses (as in 1 Corinthians 15), no later editor would insert women. But all four Gospels emphatically do” (The Resurrection of the Son of God).

Wright notes that the women’s testimony predates Paul’s account in 1 Corinthians, which scholars date to 55–57 AD. Thus, the empty tomb tradition existed decades earlier.

Second, God’s choice of women as the first witnesses shames human pride. He elevates those the world dismisses as second-class, echoing Paul’s words:

“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were influential, not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him” (1 Corinthians 1:26–29).

Third, these women sought Jesus not when He performed miracles before adoring crowds, nor when His kingship seemed imminent, but when all appeared lost—when He lay humiliated, destroyed, killed, and buried. They remained faithful as the world saw only defeat. For this steadfast love, they became the first to proclaim His victory over death.

Translated by The Catalogue of Good Deeds
Source: https://pravoslavie.ru/70390.html