As can be seen by the voluminous amount of literature on the subject of women in the New Testament, this is a difficult and contentious issue. There are many views on the subject of whether the New Testament, and in particular the letters of Paul, represented misogyny. There are many things to be taken into consideration when discussing the issue. It is important to note the customs of the time, as what is considered sexist today, might then have been normal, and in some cases progressive for the time. It is as well to be wary about judging the past, in particular the so distant past as the First Century AD, by the standards of today. For this reason it is essential to look at the background of the authors of the New Testament, insofar as it is possible to identify them, and of the communities and churches to which they were addressed. What is, of course, an important thing to bear in mind is that the early church was trying to gain new converts, and to prevent persecution by the Roman Empire as far as possible and was not attempting to change the accepted social order. St. Paul in particular was not writing for posterity but to individual churches in reply to their letters. It is not, then, clear that the writing in the New Testament was unbiased by the needs of the time, nor a coherent theology for the entire church and posterity. There may be a difference also between what the authors actually meant, and what later commentators interpreted. Translation has always been a difficulty, as original meanings may often be lost, or changed because of the natural differences between Greek and English. It is prudent, then, to bear these things in mind when looking at the portrayal of women in the New Testament, and in trying to see whether the writers of it were guilty of misogyny.
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