"In the process of becoming an established religion— Christianity, which became the world’s ruling religion in the fourth century— practices that allowed for women’s leadership were silenced in favor of an institution that conformed to the gender concepts and hierarchies of its day. Jewish women in the Jesus movement (and perhaps also in very early Christianity) had more freedom and leadership roles than women in the established Christianity that followed. The New Testament serves as testimony to this development" (Amy-Jill Levine; Marc Zvi Brettler. The Jewish Annotated New Testament (p. 614). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition).
Ironically, something similar-but-different happened within Christadelphianism. Namely, ninteenth century Christadelphian women seemed to have had more freedom than they would in many ecclesias today.
Robert Roberts ensured that:
1. women could vote in the decision making meetings of the ecclesia - contrary to Victorian society where women could not vote (Robert Roberts: The Ecclesial Guide, 1883);
2. head coverings were not seen as a matter of fellowship, nor deemed an important enough topic to argue about ("Female Head-dress", The Christadelphian, April 1895, p140);
3. women on arranging committees had his endorsement (even though there is no mention of women standing for office in The Ecclesial Guide written 13 years earlier, Robert Roberts expresses a more nuanced and affirming view in: A Voyage to Australia, pages 141-142, Saturday 29 February 1896).
It seems to me that women in the Suffolk Street (unamended) ecclesias had more liberty to give Bible presentations to mixed audiences than in central fellowship - especially in Christadelphian Mutual Improvement Societies (see The Fraternal Visitor, Vol XX, No 236, May 1905, page 145). When reunion took place in the 1950s, this liberty was seemingly quashed.
Summary
As Christianity progressed in the early centuries, women had leadership roles with-held from them. So too today, many Christadelphian women are more constricted than they were 150 years ago - but this now runs counter to Western culture, and forms a man-made barrier to preaching the gospel.
If only the early Christadelphians had scrutinized what the Bible said about women as closely as what it said (or didn't say) about the trinity and the devil. Just as these false doctrines gained traction in the third and fourth centuries, so too did the false teaching about women's silence in the church.
For more on this topic see, and the key Bible passages that appear to talk about women's silence: https://launchbury.blog/biblical/christ-and-gender/
Sources
1. https://moreperfectly.blogspot.com/2021/01/attitudes-to-women-in-christadelphian.html
2. https://moreperfectly.blogspot.com/2019/12/robert-roberts-on-head-coverings.html
