Women's Evangelistic Corps 

Of all the daring things which Jesus did in connection with his earth career, the most amazing was his sudden announcement on the evening of January 16 of 29 CE: “On the morrow, we will set apart ten women for the ministering work of the kingdom.” These ten women were: Susanna, the daughter of the former chazan of the Nazareth synagogue; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, the steward of Herod Antipas; Elizabeth, the daughter of a wealthy Jew of Tiberias and Sepphoris; Martha, the elder sister of Andrew and Peter; Rachel, the sister-in-law of Jude, the Master’s brother in the flesh; Nasanta, the daughter of Elman, the Syrian physician; Milcha, a cousin of the Apostle Thomas; Ruth, the eldest daughter of Matthew Levi; Celta, the daughter of a Roman centurion; and Agaman, a widow of Damascus.

Subsequently, Jesus added two other women to this group — Mary Magdalene and Rebecca, the daughter of Joseph of Arimathea. These women had all listened to the instruction given to the young evangelists, but it had never occurred to either of them that Jesus would dare to commission them to teach the gospel of the kingdom and to minister to the sick.

In the times of Jesus, a respectable Jewish woman was kept confined at home, hidden from view. Jewish women received no education and were married as soon as they reached child-bearing age, usually around 12 or 13. Public affairs were the domain of men only. A woman was not allowed to address her husband in public, much less, to speak to another man. Travel by women, except for such conventional purposes as visiting family and attending certain religious feasts, was considered deviant behavior, usually with sexually illicit overtones.

Jesus' act to commission the Woman's Evangelistic Corps as traveling teachers and ministers was a decided shock even to the twelve apostles. They were literally stunned when he proposed formally to commission these ten women as religious teachers and even to permit their traveling with them. The whole country was stirred up by this proceeding and the enemies of Jesus made great capital out of this move. However, women believers in the good news stood firmly behind their chosen sisters and expressed unequivocal approval of this tardy recognition of women's place in religious life.

These women were interested in Jesus’ teaching and became believers in the gospel of the kingdom. Now that Jesus had called them to teach the good news, they were emboldened to confer with the Master or with the apostles. In one generation, Jesus lifted women out of the disrespectful oblivion and the slavish drudgery of the ages.

When visiting the sick, these women ministered very closely to their afflicted sisters. In Magdala, these women evangelists freely visited the houses of prostitution and preached the glad tidings directly to all the inmates there. Mary Magdalene had ended up in one of Magdala's brothels as a result of a series of misfortunes and the attitude of society toward women who make such mistakes of judgment. Martha and Rachel explained to Mary that the kingdom's doors were open to anyone, and she was won for the kingdom. Mary was baptized by Peter the next day.

Mary Magdalene, together with Rebecca, was set apart for service at Jotapata, about four weeks subsequent to her conversion. She became the most effective teacher of the gospel among this group of twelve women evangelists. Mary and Rebecca, with the others of this group, went on through the remainder of Jesus’ life on earth, laboring faithfully and effectively for the enlightenment and uplifting of their downtrodden sisters. They were present at the foot of the cross when Jesus was crucified and none of the brave women of the Women’s Corps ever denied or betrayed him. Mary Magdalene was also among the women who went to anoint Jesus’s body on Easter Sunday morning.

Not only was Jesus heroic in his proclamation of the equality of women, but these women were equally heroic in their courage and loyalty to the Master, thereby providing us with an entirely new revelation of the truth of Jesus' gospel of the kingdom, in which, "there is neither rich nor poor, free nor bond, male nor female, all are equally sons and daughters of God."