This is so untrue.  I am assuming here that they are talking about the Pagan culture in the time of Jesus.  The Graeco/Roman world was extremely Patriarchal, as has been documented extensively.  The Jews in the time of Jesus were also very Patriarchal in their culture.  On both the Graeco/Roman and Jewish cultures women barely had a voice, and men ran virtually everything.  Not so with Jesus.  Jesus had close relationships with many women, and broke many of the Patriarchal traditions of his day, for example with the woman at the well (John 4) and the woman caught in adultery (John 8).  Similarly, Paul broke many of the Patriarchal traditions in his reaching out to Lydia (Acts 16). Pricilla (Acts 18) and others.  In 1 Timothy 5 we see women in important roles, working for the church as enrolled “widows” and in Romans 16 we see evidence of women deacons.

In fact, as you probably already know, as early as the second century, the Christian Church was already shutting women out of leadership roles, and, by the late Roman period, women lost nearly all voice in the Church.  This was the sad result of Pagan cultural influence on the Church and certainly not on the reverse.  By the sixth century we have Pope Gregory I falsely charging the highly respected Mary of Magdala into a woman of ill repute. Shameful.  However, Jesus was a true revolutionary in his own day in his public praise and respect for women, as is common knowledge to those who know the New Testament and ancient Near East history.  If the Church had continued to listen to the voice of Jesus and of Paul, women would have continued to have a strong voice in the Church.

This charge is completely unsupported by the evidence from the ancient world and from the Bible.  It is the case of a modern reading current conditions onto past history and is evidence of ignorance or blatant bias on the part of the one saying this.

It is true that modern, Western “Pagan” culture tends to be non-Patriarchal, if not even Matriarchal, and that conservative Christians today tend to push back to some extent against this.  Perhaps critics of Christianity have a point if they say present-day Christians from certain groups are overly Patriarchal.  We should be open to this criticism.  But to say that this was the case in the ministry of Jesus and the first century Church is to be simply wrong.

John Oakes