The Importance of Mary's Virginity

There is some evidence that some of the earliest Christian communitie­s did engage in counter-cu­ltural gender practices. Paul refers to an apostle named Junia and declares that there is no male nor female. The Gospels tell about Jesus talking to women in public, of women who fund Jesus' ministry, and of women who sit at Jesus' feet (indicatin­g a disciple's proper position of study under a rabbi). The Johannine epistles refer to women who are heads of churches. The second-cen­tury Montanists practiced full-blown egalitaria­nism in regard to who can receive continuing revelation from the Spirit, and one of the main leaders claim that Jesus came to her in the form of a woman.



Your point about Constantin­ian Christiani­ty quashing these forms is well taken.
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