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Acts

  1. Lesson One
    Overview of Acts (Acts 1–2, 7, 22–28)
    22 Activities
  2. Lesson Two
    A Gospel for Jews and then Gentiles
    23 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  3. Lesson Three
    The Gospel and Restoration
    25 Activities
  4. Lesson Four
    The Apostolic Church
    36 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  5. Lesson Five
    Author and Audience
    25 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  6. Course Wrap-Up
    Course Completion
    1 Activity
    |
    1 Assessment

Participants 35

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Acts The Apostolic Church In Front | Workbook: Men and Women in the Church, Part 2
Lesson 4, Activity 26

In Front | Workbook: Men and Women in the Church, Part 2

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This report of the Roman authorities suggests that early churches contained a disproportionate number of women, based on the apparel found. For women, there are 82 tunics and 47 pairs of shoes listed. For men, there are 16 tunics and 13 pairs of shoes. 

There are roughly four times as many articles of clothing for women than for men. Whatever the reason these garments were kept in this house church—for religious purposes or for charity—it suggests that more women were involved than men. One scholar has noted:

The significance of women in the early centuries was not in their institutional leadership but in their sheer number . . . Perhaps the women’s greatest significance was their energetic involvement as community builders, providers of service, and practitioners of humble evangelism. In all this they inspired the entire Christian movement.

Source: Alan Kreider, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church, 2016, p. 83.