Titus2woman listed women throughout the Old and New Covenants who “spoke” in the Assembly/Church or who prophesied. It is my understanding that the Greek word from which we get the English words prophet, prophesy, etc means “one who speaks for another.” In
Exodus 7:1, YHWH told Moses, “I have made thee a god (Hebrew elohim which is plural--but that is a whole ‘nuther subject) to Pharaoh and Aaron they brother shall be thy prophet.” I take this to mean that Aaron would be the spokesman for Moses. In the Greek Bible, the word for “prophet” there is prophetes. In Hebrew it is nabiy (naw-bee) which means and inspired person, one who speaks by inspiration, a prophet, and also has the connotation of bubbling up i.e. the word bubbles up from the Spirit within and flows through the mouth. It is my understanding that to prophesy is to speak for God or to speak from inspiration or to speak the message that bubbles up from the Spirit within and can apply equally to men and women.
A few more women not mentioned by t2w would be:
the daughters of Zelophehad in
Numbers 28 who addressed Moses and the congregation at the door of the tabernacle about inheritance rights. Now, I know this was not preaching or prophesying but it was women addressing Moses and the congregation/assembly. Moses did not demand that they remain silent (like some tried 1500 years later in Corinth --ref
1 Cor 14:34-35 by quoting “scripture”) because he did not know of any “scripture” to do so. Instead he listened to them, and obtained some divine wisdom about inheritances.
Jesus had women who travelled with Him ref
Luke 8:1-3 as He travelled to villages and cities preaching and teaching.
Priscilla and Aquila were mentioned. They were both teachers and taught Apollos (a man). They also are listed by Paul as co-pastors to a home church in
Romans 16:3-5 and
1 Corinthians 16:19. We don’t know for sure who wrote the Book of Hebrews. Among those who have been suggested are: the Apostle Paul; Luke; Barnabas; and Priscilla. If Priscilla wrote that book it is the only one I can think of in our NT authored by a woman.
In
Romans 16:7 the Apostle Paul speaks of Andronicus and Junia and says that they are of note among the apostles. There are differences of opinion on the exact meaning of this verse but it appears that Junia was a lady apostle.
In
Philippians 4:1-3 the Apostle Paul speaks of women “which labored with me in the Gospel.” Looks like Paul followed the example of Jesus and had women traveling and preaching with him.
6. And, of course there is the woman at the well in Samaria in John chapter 4. She had had (past tense, did not have which would be present tense) 5 husbands and was living with someone who was not her husband. Yet Jesus ministered to her. As far as I know this is the first time Jesus admitted to being the Christ/Messiah and it was to a woman. She believed Him. She drank from the well of salvation (
Isaiah 12:2-3) that day. Then she ran into the city and proclaimed that Jesus is the Messiah. Many men were converted because of her proclamation.
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