Just had a discussion at Bible study about whether the Samaritan woman counts as the first woman preacher in the Bible since she evangelized her whole town. Does evangelizing count as preaching, or are we looking more at prophetic ministry?
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In John 4, after Jesus reveals himself as Messiah to her, she literally drops her water jar and runs back to town saying âCome see a man who told me everything I ever did.â The text says many Samaritans believed because of her testimony. Some scholars call this the first Gospel sermon - sheâs proclaiming Christâs identity and inviting people to encounter him.
Jesus had just told the disciples about the harvest being ready, then this woman goes out and does exactly that work. The Greek word for evangelize (euangelizo) means to announce good news, which is what she did. Whether we call it preaching or evangelizing might depend on how formal we want to be about definitions.
Deborah, Huldah, and Miriam all delivered Godâs messages with authority. Huldah especially - when King Josiah needed guidance, his officials went straight to her, not to Jeremiah. But thereâs a difference between receiving direct revelation from God (prophecy) and bearing witness to what youâve experienced (evangelism). The Samaritan woman did both in a way - she recognized Jesus as prophet and Messiah, then testified about it.
Thereâs actually a decent case that Miriam might be first if weâre talking prophetic ministry.
Exodus 15:20 calls her a prophetess, and she led the Israelite women in that victory song after crossing the Red Sea. Some scholars point out that the Song of the Sea is one of the oldest poems in the Hebrew Bible and itâs associated with her. She was co-leading with Moses and Aaron in the wilderness period.
But I see what youâre getting at with the Samaritan woman - sheâs the first recorded person in the Gospels who went out specifically to tell others about Jesus as the Messiah. Thatâs different from prophesying in the Old Testament context. Philipâs daughters prophesied too (Acts 21:9), and Anna spoke about Jesus to everyone in the temple (Luke 2:38).
The distinction between evangelizing and preaching gets⌠fuzzy.
The woman at the well went and told people âI met the Messiah, come see for yourselfâ and they believed. Thatâs evangelism. Whether it counts as âpreachingâ depends on how technical we want to get with our definitions. We might be overthinking it a bit if we have to debate.
Some people try to minimize what women in scripture actually did. Iâve heard arguments that Deborah only judged because no men stepped up, or that Huldah only spoke privately at home. But thatâs not what the text says. Huldah delivered an authoritative word from God to the kingâs officials - the most powerful men in the country came to her for divine guidance. Thatâs public ministry with real authority.
Same with the Samaritan woman. Jesus chose her for this moment. He went out of his way to go through Samaria, waited at the well, had this long theological conversation with her, then she became the first person to bring an entire community to Christ. John doesnât downplay her role.
If weâre being honest, the Bible shows women prophesying, teaching, proclaiming, and evangelizing throughout its pages. Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, Anna, Priscilla teaching Apollos, Philipâs daughters, the women who first proclaimed the resurrection. The pattern is pretty clear.
Iâve been wrestling with this exact question! Hereâs what helped me sort it out (after going down a rabbit hole of Greek word studies because apparently thatâs what I do for fun ):
So âevangelistâ literally comes from the Greek word for delivering the Gospel, the Good News about salvation. When I learned that, it kind of clicked for me. If weâre defining evangelizing as sharing that Good News, then yeah, both the Samaritan woman AND Mary Magdalene were doing exactly that when they ran to tell others about Jesus.
I used to get hung up on all the technical distinctions between preaching, prophesying, evangelizing, etc. (classic overthinker move on my part). But they both proclaimed âIâve encountered the Messiah and you need to hear about this!â And people believed because of their testimony.
So Iâd say the Samaritan woman counts as an evangelist in the truest sense-she delivered the Good News to her town. Whether we call it âpreachingâ might depend on how formally we want to define that term, but she was doing Gospel work.
What does your Bible study group think about Mary Magdalene being the first to announce the resurrection? Thatâs another angle to this discussion.
We sometimes put certain roles on a pedestal when God sees all faithful witness as precious in His eyes. Like the Samaritan woman running to tell her town, or someone quietly serving where no one notices. I guess what matters is whether weâre faithfully using whatever platform we have, not worrying about titles or positions.
I think the Samaritan woman counts as a preacher - she brought her whole town to Christ. And if Priscilla could instruct Apollos in the Way without holding a pastoral office, then evangelizing and preaching arenât confined to one narrow role.
The harvest she brought in speaks louder than any title we could debate.
I think we need to be careful about equating evangelizing with the formal office of preaching. When Paul describes the Corinthian gatherings in 1 Corinthians 14:26, he shows that everyone-men and women-could contribute hymns, teachings, revelations, and interpretations when they came together.
The Samaritan woman definitely shared the gospel with her town, but thatâs more of an informal witness than occupying a preaching office. Depends on whether youâre asking about the first woman to share the gospel publicly or the first in an official teaching role.
When the Samaritan woman ran back to town and told everyone âCome, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?â, she was proclaiming Christ. She didnât just quietly share her faith one-on-one; she made a public declaration that brought her whole community to Jesus.
I think we sometimes get too hung up on the formal âpreaching from a pulpitâ image and miss all the other ways people proclaimed the Gospel in Scripture. The Samaritan womanâs bold, public testimony fits the bill of proclamation, even if it looked different than what we typically picture as preaching. Whether sheâs the first woman preacher is another rabbit hole (hello, Miriam!), but sheâs definitely a powerful example of a woman proclaiming Christ.
Her whole town believed because of her testimony.
Iâm not sure Scripture actually uses the word âpreacherâ for any of the women who shared the gospel. Could we be reading modern church roles back into the text when we call the Samaritan woman a preacher?
Good question.
If weâre talking about evangelism specifically, like sharing the news about the risen Christ, then Mary Magdalene really stands out. She was the first person to encounter Jesus after the resurrection, and she immediately ran to tell the disciples. Thatâs evangelism, proclaiming the Good News about Christâs victory over death.
The Samaritan woman is meaningful (John 4 is such a powerful passage!), but thereâs a chronological thing to consider.
She testified about Jesus during His earthly ministry, while Mary Magdalene was entrusted with the resurrection message itself, which is the heart of the gospel we proclaim. As for evangelism vs. preaching vs. prophetic ministry, I think they overlap but arenât identical? Evangelism is that proclamation of the gospel message, while preaching might involve more teaching and exposition. Prophetic ministry brings Godâs specific word for specific situations.
Both women were used by God to spread the message. But if weâre narrowing it down to âfirst woman evangelistâ in the resurrection gospel sense, Mary Magdalene gets my vote.
I have to be honest about what Iâve found in Scripture. When I look at the passages about church order-particularly what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14, I see clear boundaries around women teaching or preaching in the gathered assembly.
The Samaritan womanâs testimony is beautiful, donât get me wrong. She shared what Christ had done in her life, and people came to meet Him because of it. But I think we have to be careful not to mix up personal testimony and evangelism with the office and authority of preaching in the church. Thereâs something different happening when someone shares their encounter with Jesus versus standing in a pulpit to teach Scripture and shepherd Godâs people.
Itâs uncomfortable territory, I know. Iâve sat with these passages for a long time, trying to square my cultural instincts with what the text actually says.
The more I study, the more I see that the New Testament reserves the preaching and teaching office for qualified men.
When I sit with 1 Timothy 2, I find myself confronted with Paulâs instructions about womenâs silence in the gathered assembly. Itâs made me wonder if we need to distinguish between what happened in the spontaneous, Spirit-led moments outside the formal church setting versus what was prescribed for corporate worship.
The Samaritan womanâs testimony feels different to me now-she was running through her town, sharing what sheâd encountered with Jesus. That wasnât a Sunday gathering. It wasnât her standing before the ekklesia. And maybe that distinction matters more than I initially wanted it to.
I donât have this all figured out. Part of me wants to celebrate her boldness without qualification. But another part of me has to sit with the tension that Scripture itself seems to create boundaries around certain roles in the formal assembly. Perhaps âpreachingâ in the biblical sense carried a specific authority and context thatâs different from witness?
Iâm still thinking through what it means that women bore the first resurrection testimony yet were instructed toward silence in church gatherings.
Donât forget about Deborah the judge and prophetess! She led all of Israel!
Plus Anna who prophesied about baby Jesus in the temple!
Iâve been wrestling with this question myself, and our definitions really shape what we see in Scripture.
In the Old Testament, I keep coming back to Sarah. I know sheâs not typically listed among the prophetesses, but thereâs something deep about what happened when God renamed her. It wasnât just a name change-it was a commissioning, an elevation to represent the Most High alongside Abraham. That transformation from Sarai to Sarah marked her as set apart, carrying divine purpose and authority in a way her peers didnât.
If Sarah received that kind of divine appointment and actually shaped the direction of Abrahamâs calling, doesnât that point to a prophetic function, even if we donât usually frame it that way?
So when it comes to your Samaritan woman question-Iâm not sure we should be trying to separate âevangelizingâ from âpreachingâ from âprophetic ministry.â The Samaritan woman spoke Godâs truth with His authority to her town. But there might be earlier examples than we typically acknowledge, if weâre willing to expand our understanding of what these ministries actually looked like in practice.
Thatâs a fair point about being careful not to impose our categories onto Scripture. I remember when I first started sharing my faith in college, I was terrified to even call myself an âevangelistâ because I didnât have any official title or training. Iâd just tell people about what Jesus had done in my life - how Heâd met me in my depression and given me hope I didnât know was possible.
One day my campus minister said something that stuck with me: âYouâre doing the work regardless of what we call it.â
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When I go through Scripture looking for examples of women in formal preaching roles - the kind of authoritative teaching ministry we see with the apostles and elders - I honestly havenât found any. Iâve looked through the Old Testament prophets, the Gospels, the early church in Acts, the epistles, and the office of preacher/teacher was held by men.
That said, the Samaritan womanâs testimony is powerful and shouldnât be diminished. She shared what she experienced with Christ, and her whole town came to hear Him. But was that âpreachingâ in the biblical sense, or was it evangelistic witness? Iâm wondering if weâre conflating different types of ministry here.
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Women in the early church did all kinds of things: leading house churches, doing missionary work, whatever was needed. There wasnât really a set way for women to evangelize. I donât think preaching has to involve prophetic ministry.
The Samaritan woman is probably the best example. After she met Jesus, she went straight back to her town and told everyone about him. Many people ended up believing because of what she shared. Thatâs basically evangelism, even if it wasnât formal preaching.
John 4:39: âMany of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the womanâs testimony,â He told me everything I ever did.'â
Yeah, what she did wasnât formal preaching in a traditional sense, but she was doing evangelism. She brought people to Christ. She had a significant impact. Her testimony brought her whole town out to hear Jesus, and many believed because of her.
That seems like more than just a casual conversation about religion.