By Trevor Major
Around 1 BC, a lovely fellow by the name of Hilarion writes a letter to his pregnant wife Alis:
I ask and beg you to take good care of our baby son, and as soon as I receive payment I shall send it up to you. If you are delivered of a child, if it is a boy keep it, if a girl discard it.
This is a reference to the very common practice of exposure in ancient Greece and Rome. Like Hilarion, fathers were more inclined to order the exposure of girls (and sickly boys). This was not always fatal. Some were picked up and sold to be raised as slaves, beggars, prostitutes and gladiators. A fortunate few might have been adopted into other families.
Ancient writers took special note of practices in other cultures. Aristotle brings particular attention to the fact that Jews rear all their children. Josephus makes exactly the same point four centuries later when he defends the Jewish way of life against its pagan critics.
In this tiny snapshot of ancient life we see a truly staggering difference between the prevailing pagan worldview and the Biblical worldview. The Hebrew Scriptures show a deep respect for family and children. Adam and Eve are instructed to be “fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28). The Mosaic Law specifies penalties for babies who are harmed by violence (Ex. 21:22-25). Josiah is marked out as a good king for cracking down on child sacrifice (2 Ki. 23:10).
Naturally, as Jews converted to Christianity, they brought these Biblical values into the early church. It is hard to imagine that they would countenance the practice of exposure among their Gentile brethren. The New Testament builds on this respect for children. Jesus has compassion on children (Mt. 19:13-15). Fathers are instructed to not provoke their children (Eph. 6:1). And most of all, perhaps, the nativity accounts of Jesus show that life begins at conception, and never depends for its value on the judgment of men—neither betrothed Joseph nor King Herod.
These attitudes must have had a profound effect on pagan women who came into contact with Christianity. As a man, I can hardly put myself in their position. Even so, it must have been heart breaking for a woman to carry a child to term and give birth, only to be told that her beautiful baby is to be discarded because she is (like her mother) only a female.
Christians not only had a different view of children, they had a different view of men. There was no double standard on sexual behavior: men were just as accountable as women (Heb. 13:4). Divorce was limited and rare (Matt. 19:9). Although husbands were the head of the family, they were expected to love their wives as Christ loved the church (Eph. 5:25), and to treat their wives as fellow heirs of the grace of life (1 Pet. 3:7).
Early Christianity was pro-life and, in a very real sense, pro-women. Sadly, the benefits for women declined over time, for two important reasons. First, church interests became increasingly entangled in state interests. As the imperial church came to mirror society, it lost its distinctive appeal to society’s most vulnerable groups, such as women. And second, theologians began to develop views on marriage and women that flatly contradicted Biblical teaching (cf. 1 Tim. 4:1-3). Priests, forbidden from marriage, would simply avail themselves of concubines which, by the way, were a vestige of pagan Rome.
Some might argue that the modern state now protects the interests of women and children, and offers so much more than the ancient church ever could. Even if the average Christian woman was better off than her pagan neighbor, she would have to submit to her husband at home and to male authority figures within the church. This continues to get under the skin of feminists, which is why they will always stump for political parties that lean in the direction of statism or central planning.
Feminists have all but won the culture war on this front. “I am woman, hear me roar.” And yet, when we look at the price of victory—men avoiding marriage, abortion, divorce, homosexuality, population decline, sex selection, legalized prostitution, sexual promiscuity, rampant STDs, cohabitation (the new version of concubinage), etc.—we have to wonder whether the feminism has simply won back the pagan world. And are we all—and most especially, are women and children—really better off for that?
