There are around 188 women named in the Bible, and many more are mentioned but unnamed. Among the most well-known of the named women are Eve, Sarah, Rebekah, Esther, Rahab, Naomi, Ruth, Abigail, Rachel, Salome and Mary, the mother of Jesus. These are mainly women of exemplary faith, and while most of them were Jews, Ruth and Rahab are specifically described as foreigners.
The Bible is sometimes criticized for ignoring women and being biased toward men. However, the New Testament shows how, during a time when the Jews generally had an extremely misogynistic view of how to treat women, Jesus set an example by treating women as people, first and foremost. One critical example of this is the incident in which he was seen talking to and treating the unnamed Samaritan woman at the well, according to Wikipedia. Remarkably, it was to this foreign woman that Jesus confessed that he was the promised Messiah.
Jesus is recorded as having called his mother, Mary, "woman," and some commentators concluded that he was being disrespectful to his own mother. A closer look at the grammar of the original Greek statement as recorded reveals otherwise, according to the National Catholic Register. "Woman" in this context is equivalent to the terms "lady" or "madam" in modern English, implying respect and polite acknowledgement.
