The Position of the Christian Church
A few biblical decrees may shed more light on the subject, thus providing a better basis for an impartial evaluation. In the Mosaic Law, the wife was bethrothed. Explaining this concept, the Encyclopedia Biblica states:
" To bethrothed a wife to oneself meant simply to acquire possession of her by payment of the purchase money; the betrothed is a girl for whom the purchase money has been paid. " ( Encylopedia Biblica, 1902, Vol. 3, p. 2942)
From the legal point of view, the consent of the girl was not necessary for the validation of her marriage. "The girl's consent is unnecessary and the need for it is nowhere in the Law." (Ibid., p.2942)
As to right of divorce, we read in the Encylopedia Biblica: "The woman being man's property, his right to divorce her follows as a matter of course." (Ibid., p.2947) The right to divorce was held only by man. "In the Mosaic Law divorce was a privilege of the husband only..." (Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed., op.cit., p. 782)
The position of the Christian Church until recent centuries seems to have been influenced by both the Mosaic Law and by the streams of thought that were dominant in its contemporary cultures. In their book, Marriage East and West (pp. 80-81), Davis and Vera Mace wrote:
"Let no one suppose, either, that our Christian heritage is free of such slighting judgments. It would be hard to find anywhere a collection
of more degrading references to the female sex than the early Church Fathers provide.
Lecky, the famous historian, speaks
... a woman was represented as the door of hell,
... as the mother of all human ills
... She should be ashamed at the very thought that she is a woman.
... She should live in continual penance on account of the curses she has brought upon the world
... She should be ashamed of her dress, for it is the memorial of her fall
... She should be especially ashamed of her beauty, for it is the most potent instrument of the devil
One of the most scatching of these atacks on woman is that of Tertullian:
Do you know that you are each an Eve?
The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: the guilt must of necessity live too
You are the devil's gateway: you are the unsealer of that forbidden tree
You are the first deserters of the divine law
You are she who persuades him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack
You destroyed so easily God's image, man
On account of your desert - that is death - even the Son of God had to die.
Not only did the Church affirm the inferior status of woman, it deprived her of legal rights she had previously enjoyed.
-Nessa Rj, 16/05/2012
(source: The Status of Woman in Islam by Dr. Jamal Badawi, April 1980)