our biblical series on women in leadership
February 27, 2010
here are all the posts, now in one place, that tia lynn (beautiaful) wrote for us examining what scripture says about women’s roles in ministry and leadership. she really did a phenomenal job. i think it is interesting to note that she mentioned when she first started examining the issue of women in leadership she set out to prove that women were not to be pastors or teachers over men. after carefully looking at all of what scripture says on this issue she was convinced otherwise. i encourage you to read the whole series––preferable in order as the OT is quite important––if you haven’t already, and i trust that you will be challenged and exhorted. (fyi: there are links at the bottom of each page to the next article.)
adam and eve: the first egalitarians?
deborah: a fundamentalist’s worst nightmare!
miriam: the first worship leader
daughters who claim their inheritance
at least it’s not a woman preaching, right?
woman at the well: the first evangelist?
when literalists ain’t so literal
are women allowed to teach men?
women: more easily deceived than men?
forbidding women teachers or false teachers?
February 27, 2010 at 9:23 pm
I am very much looking forward to reading these posts. I really enjoy this blog site. Thank you!
July 9, 2010 at 4:08 am
This serries is excelent – I love that you start with the context of what women did do in the history of Isreal. Ever thought about putting it together in a book? I’d bye it.
August 1, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Hi all,
One of my biggest concerns on the whole gender debate is the hermenuetical approach we take to it. After all, why do we think we can nail down the immediate culture (Artemis in Ephesus for example)and then apply that to the text.
It seems like we should be doing the reverse- being confident in the scriptures first and foremost. Don’t here me wrong, it is good to understand the culture of the document, but my concern lies in the fact that so many scholars are so confident they know the culture in order to interpret the Bible. What if their interpretation of the historical culture is not quite correct? I think we are treading on dangerous hermeneutical ground. Where does the work of the Spirit come into it?
The way i see it, scholars nail down the culture (supposedly), then bring that culture to the Bible, and then say it was all the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to keep themselves sounding conservative and evangelical. I always wonder, what would be the response if we showed a passage like 1 Tim 2 to someone who is not imbroiled in this debate? Would they come to the egalitarian conclusion?
I’m worried for the egalitarian movement, since there are so many ‘hidden’ meanings only recoverable by very few experts in Koine Greek and history. Of course the greater issue is that so many scholars come to the opposite conclusion, so which scholars can we really trust anyway?
Just food for thought! I dare say we are falling into the trap of our enlightenment forebears, thinking our hermeneutical approach is the ‘inspired’ one. Let’s re-assess our confidence in our hermeneutics.
P.S I wonder why the patristic fathers never understood these passages the way egalitarians do? You would assume being so close to the culture and writing they would have got it?