Eve, Sarah, Rachel, Rahab, Ruth, Deborah, Jael, Abagail, Lydia, Mary Magdalene, Phoebe, Priscilla, Junia, to name a few of the women of the Bible.
Question: How can the church today be so divided over the role of women when the Bible is full of stories of influential women who carried out key roles in the history of the human race, the nation of the Jews, and the early church?
Eve, the mother of the human race, Sarah, the mother of the Jewish race, Rahab, who hid the spies and became part of the lineage of Jesus; Ruth, a Moabite who became the great grandmother of David; Deborah, who was judge over Israel when the judges were the sole authority over the nation; Jael, who secured a major military victory; Abagail who risked her life to stop David from making a costly mistake; Phoebe, a deacon, who carried the letter of Romans ahead of Paul to Rome; and Junia, whom Paul calls an apostle.
Now does this sound like the historical and biblical tradition out of which Paul would say that women everywhere should be silent in the churches and not hold positions of leadership? When you look at it this way, it becomes pretty obvious that those statements of Paul were specific situations in a couple of churches where the women were acting out and needed to be reprimanded. They cannot be statements that apply to all churches anywhere, in any age. Such an interpretation would be inconsistent with the God of the scriptures who used women to carry out His will.
This became clear to me when studying the last chapter of Romans and finding out that Paul sent the letter of Romans ahead of him with Phoebe meaning the likely chance that Phoebe would have read the letter to the house churches and taught portions of it and answered questions concerning the truths therein.
And then I found this in verse 7 of that final chapter, “Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews, who were in prison with me. They are highly respected among the apostles and became followers of Christ before I did.” Junia is a feminine name making her an apostle along with her husband, Andronicus.
It didn’t matter whether these women were recognized. They were simply following their heart after God. Just like women do today.
Amen and Amen! One note related to a cringeworthy diction slip in our divided “progressive” age where such things are magnified to the loss of the message…God did not “use” women, He “empowered” women (as did Jesus) to accomplish His purposes for the good of humanity.
This is a good example of the sad reality of taking Scripture out of context.
When people focus only on a few words such as, “Women should be silent during Church meetings” (1 Cor. 14) or “Women should learn quietly and submissively… not [letting] them teach men or have authority over them” (1 Tim. 2)… and subsequently proclaim this as God’s absolute standard for women in the Church always and forever, then those people might as well set up shop in the village of the Pharisees, false teachers, hypocrites, and antichrists.
It’s one thing to misinterpret and humbly allow ourselves to be corrected.
It’s another thing to stop studying to see why God, through His Word and authors, would make such statements.
For example, the above quotes addressed situations specifically concerning the Corinthian and Ephesian Churches where cultural standards and societal norms were different from other regions; and are almost unthinkable today – at least in most of western society.
Still, though, that form of suppression and oppression is evident throughout the world at large and, unfortunately, in many Churches.
We all know of the attitudes toward women in certain other religions and it seems, at times, that certain sects (cults?) of Christianity embrace that same desire for control or style of conduct.
What those sects don’t seem to want to understand is that, in his letters, Paul was not establishing inviolable rules regarding women’s roles nor stating them to be the standard for all Churches for all time.
Instead, he was trying to address divisions in those specific Churches and promote unity as well as orderliness in Church gatherings for that period and place in history.
As the Church increased in its influence over that culture – rather than vice versa – then freedom, equality, and unity in Christ would become the joyful and productive result for men, women, Jew, Gentile, rich and poor alike.
With limited resources and education, it can be easy to comprehend how common Christians of the Middle Ages (or even fifty years ago!) could misinterpret certain passages of Scripture.
So, for better or worse, they relied on Priests and Academics to teach them.
And, certainly, there were liars and con artists among them.
Today, we really have no excuses not to exert a little more effort and research the Truth for ourselves.
Yet, there are plentiful liars, con artists, and Elmer Gantry’s out there.
And distractions.
As believers, one of our jobs today – especially in this world-at-your-fingertips era – is to become the Bereans of our age, emulating that Church by searching the the Scriptures to see if what we are being taught is, indeed, the Truth.
But how many of us actually take up this fairly easy challenge each day?
We might do our Sunday thing.
Maybe click on a pop-up that swears absolute proof to the location of Noah’s Ark or the exact date Jesus will return.
We might even open a page if our analog Bible for old-times sake.
Oooh, lukewarm is so so comfortable…
“Wake up! Strengthen what little remains…”
~ Revelation 3:3
Shalom, Peace…
Well done, Bob. Love those Bereans!