The many contemporary movements and publications dealing with the place and function of women in society and the Church must be encouraging to the committed Christian . The Christian senses that God's consummate act of creation, man and woman, cannot and must not be separated into varying grades of superiority and inferiority. Although each New Testament author has his own point of view, and his own way of presenting his argument, an amazingly unified message appears: in the order of faith women often appear to be the first to come to that commitment, and their faith is often used in contrast to the littleness of the faith of others. From this analysis, the author argues that, in the New Testament, women have a chronological and qualitative primacy in the order of faith.