REFLECTIONS FOR A SUNDAY MORNING
The Problem of Women in the Church

It is often said by wordly commentators that Paul the Apostle was a misogynist, a hater of women, although in many Church circles this is perhaps softened to authoritarianism concerning `Women in the Church'. Within the Church circles of this persuasion reference is made to it in at least two passages of Scripture; 1 Corinthians 11:3 and Ephesians 5:23. However in both cases these two Scriptures refer to order and authority; in the Corinthian passage it is in the sense of order in the congregation - a corrective Epistle written `To the Church in Corinth' - whereas the Ephesian passage, although written concerning the natural order of things, is more personal, written `To the Saints in Ephesus'. The Ephesian passage (verse 23), although pertinent to husbands and wives, does change in the theme of submission into all areas of community life - children and fathers, slaves and masters. In the Congregation of Believers, Paul (chapter 4), reveals the natural order of leadership in the Church, which in the context of the Corinthians and Ephesians is vested in the male.

Both passages draw, or imply, that the Apostolic Instruction comes from Paul's understanding of Genesis chapters 1 and 2: (1:27)

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He
created him; male and female he created them. "

In chapter 2 this is further extended: (v21-24)

" So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man; and He brought her to the man. The man said:

` This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called `woman' for she was taken out of man. '

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. "

This was the `Pre-Fall' natural order of authority which Paul was instructing the Church to demonstrate in their congregational and personal lives, for, as he says in the Corinthian passage: (1 Corinthians 11:8-9)

" For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. For this reason and because of the angels . . . . "

There is no sense of misogyny or authoritarianism in these Scriptures; it is intended that in the Believing Congregations and in the individual members' personal lives there should be a restoration of God's order `because of the angels'. There may well have been rebellion and disobedience in `The Garden in Eden', but in `The Garden of the Redeemed' all must be restored `because of the angels'! Now we would enter into `The Garden of the Redeemed' - the saints, both male and female, meeting in lawful assembly in the Lord Jesus, and there we shall confront `The Problem of Women in the Church'. There are two more passages of Scripture we need to look at, both dealing with the contentious problem of a woman's position within the Believing Congregations meeting in the Name of the Lord Jesus. The first passage comes from Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, which is a corrective Letter dealing with the unruly behaviour of the saints when meeting together. For these Reflections we would concentrate on chapter 14 where from verse 6 it particularly deals with `orderly worship'. Verse 33 finishes with: `As in all the congregations of the saints' and concerns unruly behaviour in speaking. Then in verse 34 Paul answers a point raised by the Corinthians who say women should remain silent in Church . . `As the Law says'.

In searching the whole 613 commands of the Law of Moses you will find no reference to the silence of women in the congregation. However you will find it in the Talmudic `Law' -one instance says, `It is a shame for a woman to let her voice be heard amongst men' (Talmud, Tractate, Kiddushin). But note: In the Scriptures there is an unusual Greek literary device between verses 35 and 36 called a Disjunctive Article, used to indicate that the preceeding statement was ` ridiculous'. Therefore Paul was really saying (verse 36): `(Ridiculous), did the Word of God originate with you, or are you the only people to whom it is revealed'? Paul was therefore not encouraging silence for women in the Chuch but was rebutting it - and so the words of `man' slip into `Life in the Spirit' in the Church'. Just as `the Jews' in an earlier age added to Torah, and ended up applying it to teaching of Talmud, the oral deliberations of the Elders, so the Church Fathers in a later age `stirred into Scripture' their own cultural `Talmudic' deliberations. Without doubt we may read the deliberations of `the Elders of the Church' for inspiration but not for application in the Spiritual life of the Believers, which must be centered on the Lordship of Christ, the Word of God. Here in the passage in the Corinthian Letter Paul was rebutting Talmudic tradition, not enforcing Apostolic authority, for according to `Talmudic Law' women were forbidden to speak in the synagogues.

We turn now to the second passage of Scripture pertinent to this Reflection which is recorded in Paul's First Letter to Timothy, where in chapter 2 verse 12 we read: `I do not permit women to teach'. First it should be noted that the Greek word transalated in most Bibles as `women' (Gune) can be used for either women or wife. Indeed in Strong's Greek Dictionary it says the use is `specifically a wife'. As always the context of the passage of Scripture must determine its understanding, and in the case of the Scripture we are looking at Paul is giving instruction concerning modesty in the congregation and in general life. Therefore the Scripture we are concerned with should be read more correctly as: `I do not permit a wife to teach her husband'. Earlier in verse 11 the instruction states: `Let the women learn in silence', which should more correctly be translated as `quietness' (or as Strong's puts it, `a desistance from bustle or language).

As we have seen, from a sensible reading of Genesis 1:26-27 it can be seen that Adam and Eve, created in God's image, were functionally equal, but her disobedience caused Eve to be subjected to her husband's rule and authority. This resulted in a change from the original relationship into subjection by the wife to the husband's authority, which was the rule for all who followed on. Clearly this `subjection' is limited to those in a marriage relationship, not extended to men and women in a general sense - and this comment should be understood in what we laid down in the earlier passages of Corinthians and Ephesians regarding `the Fall' order. We Christians live in a fallen world and so we too are caught up in this earlier act of disobedience, but in the `Age to come' where there is neither male nor female, neither husband nor wife, we are all the Bride of Christ.

This recreation of the original `functioning equals' can now be fully expressed when Believers meet in general assembly or in the privacy of their homes, but with the restraint urged upon wives to do so in quietness of spirit and not giving way to the flesh nature caused by the `Edenic Rebellion' which can still manifest in our lives until the `fulness of Christ' is formed in us. Such understanding can therefore be seen in all the Pauline Epistles; it is not a call for the subjection of women but rather a call for women to `respect your husbands' and a call for husbands to `love your wives' - an equality in relationships. As we have said there is unfortunately as much `Talmudic Teaching' (man's extension of the Word) in Christian circles as there is in Judaism! In conclusion this Reflection on 1 Corinthians 14 and I Timothy 2 takes us back some 30 years when we were first asked to write a `Letter to the Elders' - which was finally entitled `The Problem of Women in the Church . . . . is Men' - and it was not well received! As Paul writes in Ephesians: (3:14-19)

" For this reason I kneel before the Father, from Whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts thorugh faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fulness of God. "

And so as we meet in lawful assembly as the Church of the Lord Jesus, all the Redeemed people of God may:

" . . teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the Name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. " (Colossians 3:16-17)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~



You may E-mail us at: derek@northernstyletrust.com or Telephone (01493) 444494 (UK)
Our Web Address: www.northernstyletrust.com