By Julie Tourangeau

Let’s get straight to it: Jesus never told women to obey men. The verses that have fueled centuries of female submission, spiritual silencing, and even abuse? They didn’t come from his mouth. They came from cultural conditioning — and in some cases, deliberate tampering.

And it’s time we called it out.

What Jesus Actually Taught

In the earliest Gospel accounts — the actual life and teachings of Jesus — we see a revolutionary pattern:

• Jesus spoke directly to women in public, breaking cultural norms (John 4).

• He affirmed women as disciples (Luke 10:38–42).

• He entrusted women with the resurrection message before any man (John 20:17).

• He defended women from patriarchal violence (John 8).

• He allowed a woman to anoint him — an act usually reserved for priests or prophets — and said, “Wherever the gospel is preached, what she has done will also be told in memory of her” (Mark 14:9).

This is not a man interested in maintaining male superiority. This is someone liberating women from centuries of oppression.

So where did all the “wives, submit to your husbands” come from?

The Real Origins of the Submission Verses

Those verses — like Ephesians 5:22, Colossians 3:18, and 1 Timothy 2:11–12 — were written decades after Jesus died, often not by Jesus’ disciples, and likely not even by Paul, to whom they are traditionally attributed.

Let’s break it down:

1. Ephesians 5:22-24 says:

“Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands…”

But the original Greek manuscripts don’t even include a verb in verse 22. That line was grammatically borrowed from the previous verse, which says:

“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Eph. 5:21)

Modern translations inserted “wives, submit…” as a standalone command, separating it from the mutual submission Jesus modeled.

2. 1 Timothy 2:11-12 famously says:

“I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.”

But this letter wasn’t written by Paul. Scholars like Bart Ehrman, Margaret MacDonald, and Raymond Collins have shown that:

• The vocabulary and writing style don’t match Paul’s authentic letters.

• These letters — 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus — are known as the Pastoral Epistles, likely written around 100–130 CE, long after Paul’s death.

• Their goal? To impose Roman household codes and suppress women’s leadership as the church grew in size and tried to align with the dominant culture.

In other words, they reflect institutional control, not divine truth.

Proof of Tampering in the Biblical Texts

Here’s the part that’s hard but liberating to accept: The Bible has been edited — sometimes subtly, sometimes heavily — to reflect patriarchy, not prophecy.

Examples:

• 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 — the “women should be silent in church” line — interrupts Paul’s flow of thought and contradicts his own earlier statements.

Scholars like Gordon Fee argue it was a marginal note later inserted into the text.

• Paul does affirm women leaders elsewhere:

• Phoebe, a deacon (Romans 16:1)

• Junia, a female apostle (Romans 16:7 — mistranslated as male for centuries)

• Priscilla, a teacher of male converts (Acts 18)

Even the early Church Father Origen wrote about women prophesying and teaching — but by the time of later councils, Mary Magdalene’s leadership was erased, and Gnostic texts uplifting the Divine Feminine were banned.

What the Lost Gospels Reveal

Texts like The Gospel of Thomas and The Gospel of the Holy Twelve paint a different picture entirely:

• No verses commanding women to obey men.

• Mary Magdalene is portrayed as Jesus’ closest spiritual companion — the one who “knew the All.”

• In The Gospel of the Holy Twelve, Jesus says:

“In the beginning, God made them male and female, to be co-equal… the one not without the other in the Lord.”

These early mystical gospels were buried, burned, or banned by early church authorities — not because they lacked spiritual truth, but because they threatened patriarchal power.

So What Do We Do With This?

If you’ve been told your role is to submit, be silent, or shrink yourself — hear me:

Jesus never required your obedience to a man. He called you to rise.

He called you to be a co-creator of light. A voice of wisdom. A partner in awakening.

The idea that God created women to serve men is not sacred — it’s systemic gaslighting, buried under centuries of translation bias, Roman politics, and spiritual amnesia.

It’s time to reclaim the real Gospel — the one where love, not domination, is the law.

Let’s Remember This:

• Jesus empowered women.

• Paul affirmed women — until later letters distorted that message.

• The original teachings were about mutuality, not submission.

• The Divine Feminine is not a threat. She is the missing half of the healing.

If this stirred something in you, share it. Talk about it. Ask questions. The veil is lifting — and you were never meant to stay small.

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With truth and fire,

Julie Tourangeau