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The UK Bible Students Website Christian Biblical Studies |
WOMAN IN SOCIETY AND CHURCH
By W. Resume
Sixth Instalment
‘The rights of women,’ what are they?
The right to labor and to pray,
The right to watch while
others sleep,
The right o’er others’ woes to weep;
The right to succor in
distress,
The right while others curse, to bless;
The right to love whom
others scorn,
The right to comfort all that mourn;
The right to shed new
joy on earth,
The right to feel the soul’s high worth,
The right to lead
the soul to God,
Along the path her Saviour trod –
The path of meekness
and of love,
The path of faith that leads above,
The path of patience
under wrong,
The path in which the weak gets strong;
Such women’s rights,
and God will bless
And crown their champion’s with success.
– Mrs. E. Little (pub. Mar. 28, 1849,
Tioga Eagle, Pennsylvania)
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THE FIRST FOUR instalments of this series broadly charted the progress of the women’s
movement in Britain and other western countries, and its success in winning a
range of long-denied social, employment and political rights. The fifth
instalment surveyed woman’s role in the religious sphere; it left hanging the
question, ‘Does she belong in the pulpit?’ This and subsequent episodes will
attempt to answer it from a non-sectarian point of view.
For simplicity, the ascription ‘the Church’ will refer to the
present Christian community at large, regardless of denomination or
congregational affiliation but especially to those believers who attempt to
pursue a Christ-like life and who hold the Bible as their inerrant and literal
guide to faith. Church ‘tradition’ valuable though it may be as an anchor in
times of change cannot be allowed to overrule biblical instruction.
Nonetheless, it is only fair to point out that there are different
interpretations of the biblical texts than those presented here, a precise
exegesis additionally made more difficult by the nuances inherent in each
English translation. Out of many, we have settled on two widely-used
translations: the stalwart King James (Authorised) Version (KJV) and the
New International Version, British-language edition (NIV-UK), with
occasional recourse to the underlying Greek for the New Testament passages. As
context is everything, it will be necessary to quote certain passages at
length, deliberate omissions being marked by ellipses (. .
.)
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THE MINISTRY OF women in the Church is priceless. Outnumbering men in most congregations, women collectively form the backbone of any denomination. Sainthood shows no partiality to gender. Far more than ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’, the female cohort has throughout the Gospel Age rendered noble and self-abnegating service within the general Church. As energetic missionaries, poets, hymnists, writers, evangelists, teachers and scholars, they have been both important and influential in worldwide Christian ministry.
The ages-long tension between woman and man is largely the result of the fall from grace in the Garden of Eden and the tragic, irreversible slide of humanity into sin and imperfection, far removed from the image and likeness of God. Though named for the man, the Adamic curse usually lands with heavier force on the woman, whose complex interactions with family and society render her vulnerable in numerous ways. No wonder, then, that a simmering resentment gave rise to her low-level passive and active hostility towards the male sex, the proximate cause of her difficulties.
To see daylight on this question of woman’s legitimate role in the
Church, one must mentally step out of the vexatious sphere of male-female
relations and look at it from the standpoint of Church arrangements. One cannot
simply import feminist rights and privileges from the social and political
setting into the ecclesiastical. While the male-female relationship in everyday
life ought to be based on justice, within the Church it assumes the
character of an allegory, one in which the woman and the man each play a
different part.
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That little man [who] says women can’t have as much rights as men, cause Christ wasn’t a woman. Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with Him. Sojourner Truth (American Evangelist; speech at Women’s Rights Convention, Ohio, 1851)
ACCORDING TO THE New Testament, Christ and the Church throughout the Gospel Age are represented under the figure of Groom and Bride, one which illustrates the loving, sacrificial relationship between the Redeemer and His Redeemed. The figure is perpetuated if imperfectly in every Christian marriage.
The emancipation of the woman was a sensible and blessed reform, and few would want to turn back the clock on the improvement. But as with many restored liberties, there is the temptation to push a good idea beyond its natural boundaries. Contemporary sexual and social trends, underwritten by government legislation (such as validating the gender-of-choice or homosexual marriage movements), blur legitimate sex distinctions, as though man and woman are Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head – interchangeable in all respects.
It goes without saying or should that the natural world functions
mainly on the principle of opposing sexuality, or difference. And just
as the notion of a fluid or optional sexual identity is catching on in the
secular sphere, so is it in the religious sphere, in this manner: those who
contend that a woman has an equal right with a man to occupy the pulpit
– as, say, an elder, a priest, or a bishop overlook the different
theological obligations imposed on each sex by biblical
doctrine.
But doesn’t the New Testament say there is no difference between class, race and sex?
Galatians 3: 26-28, NIV-UK: ‘You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.’
Ephesians 2: 13, NIV-UK: ‘Now in Christ Jesus you [Gentiles, formerly strangers in Israel] have been brought near through the blood of Christ.’
Colossians 3: 11, NIV-UK: ‘[In the Church] there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and in all.’
The first-century Christians addressed here
came from a variety of social and religious backgrounds many of them formerly
ostracised and having repented of their sins and believed in Jesus as
Saviour, were justified by faith, being incorporated without prejudice into the
‘one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism’ (Ephesians 4: 4,
5, KJV). Those who argue for women pastor-preachers often focus on the
statement made by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 3: 28, that in Christ ‘there is
neither . . . male nor female’, taking this as proof of the equality of
the sexes in the Church. (Ironically, they are also inclined to disparage the
Apostle for his remarks elsewhere regarding the headship of the man in the
Church and the subordination of the woman.)
But there’s no contradiction here. Within the Body of Christ there
isn’t any distinction between male and female for the purposes of salvation.
That is, neither sexual nor ethnic nor national identity have any weight in
the process. However, within the context of worship it is a different
matter: in this regard one needs to pay attention to the symbolism of
the arrangement.
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‘[God] hath put all things under [Jesus’] feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body . . . .’ – Ephesians 1: 22, 23, KJV
[Jesus] is before all things and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church . . . . that in all things he might have the preeminence. – Colossians 1: 17, 18, KJV
THE SCRIPTURES ILLUSTRATE the hierarchy of the Church by the analogy of the human body, its various components valued as more or less attractive according their position and utility in the anatomy. The following quotations from the Apostle Paul simultaneously teach us that (a) each member of the Church is to be regarded as equally valuable, but also that (b) some offices are specialised and restricted, while others are electable.
Ephesians 4 (NIV-UK)
4. There is one body and one Spirit just as you were called to one hope when you were called –
5. one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
6. one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. .
11. It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,
12. to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
13. until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ. . . .
16. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
1 Corinthians 12 (NIV-UK)
12. The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.
13. For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
14.Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.
15. If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be a part of the body.
16. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.
17. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
18. But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
19. If they were all one part, where would the body be?
20. As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’
22. On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,
23. and the parts that we think are less honourable we treat with special honour. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,
24. while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honour to the parts that lacked it,
25. so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
26. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.
27. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
So far the compassionate aspect; the Apostle goes on to enumerate the offices under which the Church general and local is to be organised:
28. And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.
29. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?
30. Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
These words of the Apostle evoke the history of Man’s creation. It is the Creator God ‘who is over all and through all and in all’ and who ‘has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be’. Just as God (through Christ) determined the physical composition of Man, so He alone determines the makeup of this figurative body, the Church.
But just as sceptics, unbelievers and atheists criticise God’s intent in the design of the human body, so some in the modern Church voice their dissatisfaction with God’s arrangements for the spiritual Body and want to change them, usurping positions for which they are neither eligible nor authorised.
According to Ephesians 4: 11 the principal teaching offices of the Church are five in number (descending order):
1. Apostles
2. Prophets
3. Evangelists
4. Pastors
5. Teachers
In 1 Corinthians 12: 28 these are reduced to three:
1. Apostles
2. Prophets
3. Teachers
We need now to ask, Were any of these offices open to the women of the
early Christian Church or since? To attempt an answer, it will be necessary to
set aside bias and the usual reasons advanced as to why a woman ought
not to be in the pulpit ‘she’s prone to flattery’, ‘her voice is not
suitable’, ‘she’s not got the intelligence’, etc. and look instead for
Scriptural evidence that she is just as entitled as the male to preach in the
Church, or that she is not.
Too often the modern debate surrounding women’s ordination seems to
assume that God forgot to give explicit directions on the subject one
way or the other.
To be continued
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Copyright April 2013 by ukbiblestudents.co.uk You may reproduce it in whole or in part, but please let us know if you do so. Pictures (top to bottom): Deborah, the woman who, with Barak, led Israel to victory; the widow donates her last penny to the Temple treasury. Source for pictures (not copyrighted) <http://christianimagesource.com/>