Biblical Views: Motherhood and the Early Christian Community

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Should all women become mothers? In today’s society, many assume that they should—either out of their own desires or because of social norms (or a combination thereof). Ancient Romans would certainly agree, as does 1 Timothy 2:15, which reads, “Yet, she [woman] will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.”

But, for the early Christian Church, this was not the whole picture of motherhood, as demonstrated by Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 7:26, 1 Corinthians 7:31: “I think that, in view of the impending crisis, it is well for you to remain as you are. … For the present form of the world is passing away.” Paul’s response has traditionally been interpreted as suggesting that if Jesus were returning soon, why should anyone marry and have children? Raising children requires a lot of time and effort, which could be better spent working solely on behalf of the kingdom of God rather than building up individual kingdoms—or households. This view is also supported by the apocryphal Christian work the Acts of Thecla: “Blessed are the bodies of the virgins, for they will be well-pleasing to God, and they will not lose the reward of their chastity” (3.6).

The question of motherhood among early Christians was one with huge implications, not just for the Christian women (and men) whose lives were immediately affected, but also for Christianity in the larger Roman world. Rejecting the “blessedness” of motherhood for the kingdom come was threatening to an empire that prided itself on establishing peace for the whole world (the Pax Romana). The Romans certainly weren’t looking for another kingdom to replace their own, and, for their empire to survive and thrive, it needed children. Thus, in the Acts of Thecla when the Roman citizen and new Christian Thecla disavows marriage—and, therefore, motherhood—to follow Christ, she is violently persecuted, twice.

In the Roman world, good girls became mothers. Of course, to be able to wed and become a “woman” (the Greek word gyne means both “woman” and “wife”), one needed to be free and of enough means. Becoming a mother, bearing living children (ideally, sons) for her husband and for the stability of his household was essential to being a good wife. In fact, many ancient philosophers and medical authors believed that motherhood was a woman’s sole purpose in creation.

Among the blunter ancient commentators was the second-century physician, Galen, who wrote: “Indeed, you ought not to think that our Creator would make half of the whole race imperfect and, as it were, mutilated, unless there was to be some great advantage in such a mutilation” (Usefulness of Parts 1.300). Throughout the Roman world, it was assumed that men were more perfect than women. Rather than debating this opinion, Galen explains it by tying female worth to motherhood. When women submit fully to their husbands, they become useful by conceiving, gestating, birthing, and (ideally) nursing children. This was as close as they could come to being more perfect, that is, more like men.

If women and girls suddenly stopped becoming mothers, the purpose for women and, more important, the means for human propagation (a sort of “immortality” for humankind) disappear! That, as Thecla well knew, is certainly threatening.

However, looking back at the quotations above, New Testament Christians do not seem to agree about the importance of motherhood. While 1 Timothy restates the Roman ideal, baptizing it in Christian language, 1 Corinthians and some of Jesus’s sayings in the Gospels openly push against it.

How are we to understand these conflicting opinions? First, we need to recognize that New Testament writings all have contexts. And these contexts are quite different from our own and even from each other, as early Christian communities each lived in a unique environment and had different backgrounds. In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes to the church that he had founded at Corinth in Greece, while in 1 Timothy he addresses a later community, possibly at Ephesus, the capital city of the Roman province of Asia. Finally, the Acts of Thecla testifies to a Christian community beyond the Bible with a story about a saint of the early Church.

We should not expect these various writings to say the same things any more than we would expect one another to speak the same words or hold the same views at all times.

Yet, even in this mix of scriptural perspectives, there is agreement, even if not on the issue of motherhood. The consensus among early Christians is on the primary importance of God’s kingdom—his “household”—over human kingdoms and 078households, including imperial Rome. All of the above writings, for example, reflect Jesus’s teaching captured in Luke 11:27–28. There, a woman from the crowd cries to Jesus, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed,” to which he replies, “Blessed, rather, are the ones who hear the word of God and keep it.” In other words, blessed are those—all of those—who submit to God. For some, that might mean becoming parents. For others, like Paul and Thecla, that might not.

Thecla’s reported choice came with a much higher cost because of the cultural emphasis on motherhood in the Roman world. She was viewed as a serious threat to a society that expected women to bear children. Yet, ultimately, her devotion to a countercultural conviction inspired many and helped challenge the attitude of an empire.

Should all women become mothers? In today’s society, many assume that they should—either out of their own desires or because of social norms (or a combination thereof). Ancient Romans would certainly agree, as does 1 Timothy 2:15, which reads, “Yet, she [woman] will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.” But, for the early Christian Church, this was not the whole picture of motherhood, as demonstrated by Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 7:26, 1 Corinthians 7:31: “I think that, in view of the impending crisis, it is well for you to […]