St. John Chrysostom on Women’s Status

Homily 26 on 1 Corinthians has a lot of interesting stuff in it.

Chrysostom points out that only the heretics say that women are inferior to men, or that the Son is lesser than the Father. He points out that even if St. Paul says that the man is the head of the woman, he also says that the Father is the head of Christ.

So if the Son is exactly the same in substance as the Father, and is naturally co-equal with the Father and one with the Father… it’s love and respect that makes the Son treat the Father as His ruler. The Son isn’t groveling. The Son isn’t in chains. (All this is me, not Chrysostom.)

And if that is true of the Son, then obviously the relationship of a woman to her husband should also not be one of groveling and chains. The Son sits at the Father’s right hand, enthroned.

Anyhoo, more after work.