17 Bible verses about women and what Scripture actually says about them
Written by Raphael Navarro Schmitt · Reviewed by Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt ·
Short answer
The Bible does not treat woman as a category: it treats women as people with names. Genesis 1:27 says male and female were created in the image of God, and Galatians 3:28 dissolves the distinction in Christ. Between them stand a judge, a queen, merchants, and the first witness of the resurrection.
Searching for verses about women tends to return two things: Proverbs 31 and a list of duties. Neither one covers what is actually in Scripture. The women of the Bible turn up negotiating, judging, funding a travelling ministry and arguing theology with Jesus beside a well.
It is worth noticing how many of them act against the established order and the text approves: Esther breaks palace protocol, Ruth crosses an ethnic border, Lydia keeps pressing until Paul accepts her hospitality. None of those scenes is presented as a picturesque exception.
The list roughly follows the order of the Bible, from the first chapter of Genesis to the letters. Proverbs 31 is deliberately split across four items — the chapter is a poem rather than a performance review, and read straight through it usually turns into one.
All 17 verses, one by one
And God created man to his own image; to the image of God he created him; male and female, he created them.
The image of God is assigned to both in the same sentence, with no gradation. It is the verse that sets the floor for any conversation on the subject — and the floor is high.
Read the chapter4Now there was a prophetess, Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, who judged the people in that time.
5And she was sitting under a palm tree, which was called by her name, between Ramah and Bethel, on Mount Ephraim. And the sons of Israel went up to her for every judgment.
Deborah holds two offices at once — prophetess and judge — and the sons of Israel go up to her for every judgment. The scene is reported without a single explanatory note, as if there were nothing to justify.
Read the chapter16She answered, “Do not be against me, as if I would abandon you and go away; for wherever you will go, I will go, and where you will stay, I also will stay with you. Your people are my people, and your God is my God.
17Whichever land will receive you dying, in the same I will die, and there I will have the place of my burial. May God cause these things to happen to me, and add more also, if anything except death alone should separate you and I.”
Usually read at weddings, and originally spoken by a widowed daughter-in-law to a widowed mother-in-law. The most quoted commitment in the Bible was made between two women with no advantage whatsoever in staying together.
Read the chapterFor, if you remain silent now, the Jews will be delivered through some other opportunity, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for this reason, so that you would be prepared for such a time as this?”
The famous line is a question, not a guarantee. Mordecai does not promise it will work — he says deliverance will come by some other route, and that she can end up outside it.
Read the chapterA wise woman builds up her household. But a foolish one will pull down with her own hands what has been built up.
Building up and pulling down appear as two real possibilities, and both are done with her own hands. The proverb credits a woman with power over where the household goes, not merely with influence over it.
Read the chapterWho shall find a strong woman? Far away, and from the furthest parts, is her price.
The poem opens with a question — who shall find a strong woman? — which already changes the reading. It is not a list of requirements to meet; it is praise for something rare. In Hebrew it was an acrostic, each line beginning with the next letter of the alphabet.
Read the chapter25Strength and elegance are her clothing, and she will laugh in the final days.
26She has opened her mouth to wisdom, and the law of clemency is on her tongue.
Strength and elegance worn as clothing, and a laugh aimed at the days ahead. What she has on is not decorative serenity: it is confidence about what has not happened yet.
Read the chapterCharm is false, and beauty is vain. The woman who fears the Lord, the same shall be praised.
The line that disarms the rest of the chapter. After describing someone who buys land and trades in cloth, the poem says none of that is the criterion — and neither is the face.
Read the chapterThen Mary said: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.” And the Angel departed from her.
The answer comes after a practical question about how any of it would work. Mary is not portrayed as passive: she asks, she understands, and then she consents.
Read the chapter46And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord.
47And my spirit leaps for joy in God my Savior.
48For he has looked with favor on the humility of his handmaid. For behold, from this time, all generations shall call me blessed.
49For he who is great has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
The song of a poor teenager who describes herself as someone every generation will call blessed. A few lines further on it turns political — the powerful pulled down, the rich sent away empty.
Read the chapter1And it happened afterwards that he was making a journey through the cities and towns, preaching and evangelizing the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him,
2along with certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, who is called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had departed,
3and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many other women, who were ministering to him from their resources.
The detail that slips past most readings: they were ministering to him from their own resources. The travelling ministry of Jesus was funded by women, and one of them was married to Herod’s steward.
Read the chapter15Jesus said to her: “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you seeking?” Considering that it was the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have moved him, tell me where you have placed him, and I will take him away.”
16Jesus said to her, “Mary!” And turning, she said to him, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher).
The first witness of the resurrection is a woman, in a setting where a woman’s testimony carried little legal weight. And the recognition does not come by argument: it comes when he says her name.
Read the chapter14And a certain woman, named Lydia, a seller of purple in the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened. And the Lord opened her heart to be receptive to what Paul was saying.
15And when she had been baptized, with her household, she pleaded with us, saying: “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, enter into my house and lodge there.” And she convinced us.
Lydia is introduced by her trade before anything else: a seller of purple, an expensive article. The first church in Europe starts in the house of a businesswoman who kept pressing until Paul accepted.
Read the chapter1Now I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is in the ministry of the church, which is at Cenchreae,
2so that you may receive her in the Lord with the worthiness of the saints, and so that you may be of assistance to her in whatever task she will have need of you. For she herself has also assisted many, and myself also.
Paul commends Phoebe using a word this edition renders as being in the ministry of the church; other translations give servant, and others deacon — and that is precisely where the traditions divide over how far the role went. What the text states without dispute is that she assisted many people, Paul included.
Read the chapterThere is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither servant nor free; there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Paul knocks down three divisions at once: ethnic, social and of sex. The context is belonging to Christ, and it is from here that different traditions reason their way to different conclusions about roles in the church.
Read the chaptercalling to mind the same faith, which is in you unfeigned, which also first dwelt in your grandmother, Lois, and in your mother, Eunice, and also, I am certain, in you.
Paul traces Timothy’s faith back through two generations of women in the family, and names them both: Lois and Eunice. It is the New Testament’s most direct portrait of who usually keeps faith alive inside a house.
Read the chapter3For you, there should be no unnecessary adornment of the hair, or surrounding with gold, or the wearing of ornate clothing.
4Instead, you should be a hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptibility of a quiet and meek spirit, rich in the sight of God.
Written at a time when gold and elaborate hair were a public statement of rank. Read today it easily becomes a rule about appearance; in context it is dismantling a social competition, not banning a pair of earrings.
Read the chapter
Frequently asked questions
What does the Bible say about women?
Genesis 1:27 gives man and woman the same image of God, and Galatians 3:28 says the distinction separates nobody in Christ. In the narrative itself, women appear judging, prophesying, trading and testifying — almost always with their own names recorded.
Who were the most important women in the Bible?
There is no official list, but several stand at decisive points: Sarah, Deborah, Ruth, Hannah, Esther, Mary, Mary Magdalene, Lydia and Priscilla. Deborah governed Israel (Judges 4), and Mary Magdalene was the first person to see Jesus risen (John 20).
Is the woman of Proverbs 31 a model to follow?
The chapter is an acrostic poem of praise, not a list of tasks. It ends at Proverbs 31:30 saying that neither charm nor beauty is the criterion. Read as a checklist it produces guilt; read as a poem it produces the effect it was written for, which is honour.
Does the Bible allow women to lead in church?
Catholic and Protestant traditions — and denominations within each of them — reach different conclusions here, leaning on different texts. This page does not settle the question. The subject has its own page on the site, which lays out the passages on both sides of the debate.
A prayer to take with you
Lord, thank you for the women who came before me and taught me how to pray. Give me the courage of the ones who said yes when it cost them, and the firmness of the ones who said no when it was needed. And let me not measure my worth by what I managed to deliver today. Amen.