Women Prophets in the Old Testament: Implications for Christian Women in Contemporary Southeastern Nigeria

Abstract

There is a close relationship between the traditional Igbo-African culture and its treatment of women and the traditional Jewish culture and the status of women therein. This article examines the implications that the life, ministry, actions and inactions, of women prophets in the Old Testament hold for Christian women in contemporary Southeastern Nigeria where the Igbos live. Despite the obvious difference in time and clime, it is discovered, among other things, that the life and ministry of these women prophets challenge present-day Igbo Christian women to be much more courageous and self-confident, to raise their moral bars, to speak out all the more, to participate more actively in the political leadership of their region and the nation at large, to be much more committed to the Word of God, to be given, as women of fewer words but of mighty deeds, to a much more prophetic witnessing anywhere they find themselves.