Árdís - 01.01.1953, Side 40

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ÁRDÍ S
Women of the New Testament
Delivered. at the Twenty-Ninth Annual Convention
of the Lutheran Women’s League,
Geysir, Man., June 12th, 1953.
By INGIBJORG S. BJARNASON
Madam Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:
I was pleased and happy to be asked to address the Lutheran
Women’s League Convention. After much thought and many rejec-
tions, the topic I have chosen for this discourse is Women of the
New Testament.
“O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou
wilt.”—Matt. 15:28.
We all recognize these heartening words, and know who
uttered them, and to whom they were spoken. But what do we know
further about the woman of Canaan? Or about the many other
women mentioned in the gospel. Much has been written about the
women of the Old Testament but very little about those of the
New Testament.
Who among us doesn’t know the story of Ruth and her un-
forgettable words to Naomi, “Intreat me not to leave thee or to
return from following after thee, for whither thou goest, I will
go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge, thy people shall be my
people and thy God my God.”
The story of Hannah, also is well known. Hannah who pledged
her unborn son to God and who when the time came did not
waver in her resolve to give Samuel into the service of her Lord.
The Old Testament is full of deeds of courageous women, brave
wives, self-sacrificing mothers, women who had problems com-
parable to those of today, continued struggle against poverty, want,
illness, high cost of living, lack of convenience and a total lack
of security; women whose place in the community was little better
than that of menials or slaves; women whose status was both
humiliating and degrading. In all the ancient eastern countries
the lot of women was, with rare exceptions, a piteous one, par-
ticularly their marital status. For example, in Babylon a man