To appreciate the nature of women's patronage

To appreciate the nature of women's patronage, to catch the nuances, we need to be sensitive to the social signals, networks, and hierarchical relationships inherent in ancient Mediterranean society. Whereas we would think that one who supplies material assistance to another is in a subordinate position, there it was the opposite: the one who received had to recognize subordination. With honor came the expectation of authority. There is no evidence that in ordinary patronage relationships this was any different for women than for men.

While real legal and ideological differences remained, it is doubtful whether in the everyday practice of patronal relationships much difference could have been perceived between the practice of patronage among men and women, except for voting and holding elective office, and even there, other aspects of the political process are very similar. Likewise, in early Christianity there was little difference between the patronage of men and women, but the patronage function was an essential ingredient in the life of house churches. Ultimately, the patronal power began to be absorbed into the hands of the bishop. But in that case, both women and nonclerical men found that it was a different world.

 

Carolyn Osiek and Margaret Y. MacDonald ; with Janet H. Tulloch, A Woman's Place : House Churches in Earliest Christianity, Minneapolis, MN : Fortress Press, 2006,219

 

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