IDENTITY AND THE QUESTION OF INTEGRITY OF WOMEN IN THE JOHANNINE LITERATURE
Women are wonderful creatures of God who are very significant in every culture of the world. However, these wonderful creatures are being overlooked and considered almost nothing in many cultures of the world. In Africa and Nigeria in particular, women are considered just as properties owned by their husbands. For many African Communities, women are seen as just sexual beings. At biblical times, the Jewish Culture was one of the cultures that neglected women so much. In this piece of work, it is discovered that Jesus introduced a new approach to women, and this was interestingly captured in the Johanine writings. In this piece, most or all of the women that were mentioned and discussed by the Apostle John are discussed. It is also discovered that these women lacked identity and faced lots of integrity questions. But their encounter with Jesus changed their status. They became people who were prominent in spreading the gospel. This earned them a status equal to men. This challenge was curbed by Jesus’ new approach as recorded by John from his gospel, epistles and revelation. The research method used here is the biblical expository method where sensitive words from the writings of John are explained. It is evident that in this paper, Jesus introduced a revolutionary approach to the Jewish culture of his day. On this note, the paper suggests that women should be given their proper place in the church and in the society and never be looked down upon. While the paper promotes feminist theology, it does not in any way support feminism.
Keywords: Women, identity, integrity, Jewish, Culture and Disciples
