When the Bible or even Jesus himself referred to “his disciples” women—many women, were included in that designation. They weren’t just part of the crowd or an afterthought. “Pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers.” (Matthew 12:48-50; Mark 3:34) Luke tells us by name just who these disciples were, ”After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others.” (Luke 8:1-3)
The same word is always used for disciples whether male or female. Women are not subset disciples but the first rate, real thing—if, as Jesus said, we continue in his teachings. (John 8:31, 32) Jesus’ teachings—and he continued to teach through the apostles, are the only teachings for Christians to follow—he said his sheep listen to only his voice.(John 10:3) Get to know his word the Bible—especially the New Testament, intimately so you can use it as a filter for all the things that come at you. Go beyond the English (or your language) translations and you’ll be amazed at the differences the Greek makes. It’s not hard to find Greek interlinear New Testaments and not at all hard to read them. This is a good starting point in knowing what Jesus truly said.
Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross.
Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross. They had never known a man like this Man--there never has been such another. A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered or coaxed or patronised; who never made arch jokes about them, never treated them either as "The women, God help us!" or "The ladies, God bless them!"; who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension; who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as he found them and was completely unselfconscious. There is no act, no sermon, no parable in the whole Gospel that borrows its pungency from female perversity; nobody could possibly guess from the words and deed of Jesus that there was anything "funny" about woman's nature.
Dorothy Sayers
Dorothy Sayers
Friday, May 13, 2011
On the Road with Jesus
After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means. (Luke 8:1-3)
Jesus didn’t have a problem with Joanna, a married woman, going on the road with him—he didn’t chide her for leaving her husband alone. And notice, the women who were with him weren’t “doing the cooking and cleaning” as many have said, but they ministered by footing the bill! (Luke 8:3) Besides, Jesus didn’t consider cooking to be “women’s work”, he could cook too! (John 21:9-13)
Jesus didn’t have a problem with Joanna, a married woman, going on the road with him—he didn’t chide her for leaving her husband alone. And notice, the women who were with him weren’t “doing the cooking and cleaning” as many have said, but they ministered by footing the bill! (Luke 8:3) Besides, Jesus didn’t consider cooking to be “women’s work”, he could cook too! (John 21:9-13)
The Twelve
Jesus made no distinction between men and women disciples but what about “the Twelve”? First of all they were set apart from all the other disciples, female or male. But they were all male, so doesn’t that mean that church leadership should be all men? Well, if they are to be our only example then the vast majority of churches are out of compliance unless their leadership is all Jewish and they’re all circumcised, unless several are professional fishermen, they’re all uneducated, one is a cheater, another has repeatedly denied the Lord, and another is a betrayer and thief--and let’s not forget the two hot-headed-me-firster “Sons of Thunder”. We don’t know why Jesus chose men for The Twelve (the Bible doesn’t say but he was likely drawing a comparison to the 12 tribes of Israel) but he chose “the Three” out of those twelve, leaving the other nine behind on several occasions.
All Together
Jesus included the women and treated them well but that didn’t stop with his ascension—no, they were right there in the Upper Room praying constantly. And on the day of Pentecost they were still “all together”. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues then Peter reminded the men who heard them that Joel prophesied that God’s Spirit would be poured out on both men and women and that both would prophesy. (Acts 2)
Labels:
Gifts of the Spirit,
Joel,
Pentecost,
prophesy,
Upper Room
Paul, the Misunderstood
Paul, unlike some have thought, was very close to Jesus, having had several visitations and visions from him, and he wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So we ignore him at our peril. But we have to look at the Greek to see what he really said. He was not, as many have characterized him, a woman-hater, he continually commended women and counted on them as fellow workers for the gospel but he never put them down—or us.
All the People
The vast majority of the time when Paul or the other apostles wrote “men” or “man” the word was anthropos or “all the people”. Many times, the English translations insert “men” when the Greek says simply “ones”. The word translated, as “brothers” is adelphoi, which literally means, “from the same womb” and according to lexicons “can be rightly translated as brothers and sisters. In addition, a word often translated as “son” actually means child—male or female. Paul wrote his letters to the entire church in each place, so everything he said in general applies to women as well.
Labels:
adelphoi,
All the People,
anthropos,
brothers and sisters,
child,
Greek language,
man,
mankind,
son
The Head
For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Ephesians 5:23
This one verse has been a pivotal point of controversy in the Church but much of the controversy comes from a misunderstanding of one word—“head”. Paul uses the Greek word “kephale” but we get stuck when we think of the English word head—we think it means “boss”. When I was co-founding chapter of an international Christian women’s group in Texas and going through leadership training, we were told, “We don’t want bosses here, we want leaders.” And as it turns out, the word kephale has no relationship to boss or even leader though Paul could have chosen one that did—but he didn’t; he and the Holy Spirit knew what they were doing! Here is a list of what kephale DOES NOT mean,: headmaster, head of a family, head of state, head of the clan, head of the household, headman, principal or supreme—all of these come from words other than kephale. The word simply means that which sits on one’s shoulders—a physical head with eyes, nose, mouth and ears or it can mean a head of garlic (I don’t think he meant that!) or LIFE.* So when you read Ephesians 5:23 with the definition of “life”, it would say, “For the husband is the life of the wife as Christ is the life of the church” Wow! That makes a difference! It fits the context of the verse is of husbands laying down their lives for their wives, loving and nurturing them—not ruling them.
* www.perseus.tufts.edu: Liddell,Scott; Georg Autenrieth, A Homeric Dictionary;
www.uchicago.edu Woodhouse’s English Greek Dictionary
This one verse has been a pivotal point of controversy in the Church but much of the controversy comes from a misunderstanding of one word—“head”. Paul uses the Greek word “kephale” but we get stuck when we think of the English word head—we think it means “boss”. When I was co-founding chapter of an international Christian women’s group in Texas and going through leadership training, we were told, “We don’t want bosses here, we want leaders.” And as it turns out, the word kephale has no relationship to boss or even leader though Paul could have chosen one that did—but he didn’t; he and the Holy Spirit knew what they were doing! Here is a list of what kephale DOES NOT mean,: headmaster, head of a family, head of state, head of the clan, head of the household, headman, principal or supreme—all of these come from words other than kephale. The word simply means that which sits on one’s shoulders—a physical head with eyes, nose, mouth and ears or it can mean a head of garlic (I don’t think he meant that!) or LIFE.* So when you read Ephesians 5:23 with the definition of “life”, it would say, “For the husband is the life of the wife as Christ is the life of the church” Wow! That makes a difference! It fits the context of the verse is of husbands laying down their lives for their wives, loving and nurturing them—not ruling them.
* www.perseus.tufts.edu: Liddell,Scott; Georg Autenrieth, A Homeric Dictionary;
www.uchicago.edu Woodhouse’s English Greek Dictionary
Submission
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:21-32
The dreaded “S word”--submit. Many preachers are afraid to tackle this subject—afraid of being “the bad guy” and many others tackle with this subject—not caring if they’re “the bad guy”. The Bible does indeed say that wives are to submit to their husbands, but there are a couple things to note. In the Greek, the word submit, doesn’t even appear in Ephesians 5:22 but comes from verse 21 “submit to one another, out of reverence for Christ”—all Christians are to submit to one another. It’s about mutual submission because we love Jesus and we love each other. The Greek word translated as “submit” is hupotasso, which is a military term; when it’s used in a non-military sense as this is, it means to voluntarily come under with the idea of cooperating together to accomplish something*. Paul and Peter always spoke directly to the wives and never told the husbands to make them submit. I’ve come across several women who want nothing to do with God because their fathers yelled at their mothers, “Woman, submit!”
From the beginning, it was not so… Incidentally, the Bible never tells all women to submit to all men just because they’re men. And it NEVER commands women whether Old Covenant or New, to obey their husbands. But Sarah obeyed Abraham… Yes, but she chose that and was commended not commanded. ( However, God commanded Abraham to listen to his wife and do what she said concerning Hagar. (Genesis 21:12)
If you look at the whole section in Ephesians 5 you’ll see that once again, the Bible interprets itself. Paul emphasizes one role of Jesus toward the church as a comparison to marriage, that of a savior who laid down his life. Paul used a metaphor; metaphors don’t compare on every point, only those that the author emphasizes, just as when we refer to Jesus as “the Lion of Judah”, we refer to his strength, power, and leadership, even ferocity. We’re not saying that he has four paws and a tail and sleeps all day draped over tree branches! In the same way, Paul does not mean to compare husbands to Jesus in every way. A husband can never save wives from their sin, he didn’t create them and he’s certainly not God! What Paul does say is that a husband is to give himself up for his wife, loving her as much as he loves himself, to feed and care for her—just as Jesus did and does for the Church (this was a culture that treated women with contempt and as property), even leaving his family behind. Notice that the majority of the instruction is to the husband! It’s about love not rulership!
Think about it, when you go to a salon to get your hair cut, you have to voluntarily come under the stylist, you have to sit still and let him or her serve you. Peter didn’t want to allow Jesus to serve him by washing his feet—he didn’t want to hupotasso to Jesus’ loving service. Jesus washed his disciples feet to be an example for us to serve one another.
*Bauer’s Ardnt Gingrich, (Chicago University of Chicago Press) 847
Thayer’s Greek Lexicon (software)
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:21-32
The dreaded “S word”--submit. Many preachers are afraid to tackle this subject—afraid of being “the bad guy” and many others tackle with this subject—not caring if they’re “the bad guy”. The Bible does indeed say that wives are to submit to their husbands, but there are a couple things to note. In the Greek, the word submit, doesn’t even appear in Ephesians 5:22 but comes from verse 21 “submit to one another, out of reverence for Christ”—all Christians are to submit to one another. It’s about mutual submission because we love Jesus and we love each other. The Greek word translated as “submit” is hupotasso, which is a military term; when it’s used in a non-military sense as this is, it means to voluntarily come under with the idea of cooperating together to accomplish something*. Paul and Peter always spoke directly to the wives and never told the husbands to make them submit. I’ve come across several women who want nothing to do with God because their fathers yelled at their mothers, “Woman, submit!”
From the beginning, it was not so… Incidentally, the Bible never tells all women to submit to all men just because they’re men. And it NEVER commands women whether Old Covenant or New, to obey their husbands. But Sarah obeyed Abraham… Yes, but she chose that and was commended not commanded. ( However, God commanded Abraham to listen to his wife and do what she said concerning Hagar. (Genesis 21:12)
If you look at the whole section in Ephesians 5 you’ll see that once again, the Bible interprets itself. Paul emphasizes one role of Jesus toward the church as a comparison to marriage, that of a savior who laid down his life. Paul used a metaphor; metaphors don’t compare on every point, only those that the author emphasizes, just as when we refer to Jesus as “the Lion of Judah”, we refer to his strength, power, and leadership, even ferocity. We’re not saying that he has four paws and a tail and sleeps all day draped over tree branches! In the same way, Paul does not mean to compare husbands to Jesus in every way. A husband can never save wives from their sin, he didn’t create them and he’s certainly not God! What Paul does say is that a husband is to give himself up for his wife, loving her as much as he loves himself, to feed and care for her—just as Jesus did and does for the Church (this was a culture that treated women with contempt and as property), even leaving his family behind. Notice that the majority of the instruction is to the husband! It’s about love not rulership!
Think about it, when you go to a salon to get your hair cut, you have to voluntarily come under the stylist, you have to sit still and let him or her serve you. Peter didn’t want to allow Jesus to serve him by washing his feet—he didn’t want to hupotasso to Jesus’ loving service. Jesus washed his disciples feet to be an example for us to serve one another.
*Bauer’s Ardnt Gingrich, (Chicago University of Chicago Press) 847
Thayer’s Greek Lexicon (software)
Labels:
Ephesians 5,
Greek language,
hupotasso,
metaphor,
obey,
Paul,
serving,
submission,
submit,
women's roles
Priest of the Household
But isn’t the husband the priest of the household? I’ve searched the New Testament through and cannot find even one reference to that. I find that those of us who follow Jesus are all “a holy and royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5; 1 Peter 2:9) and that “there is only one mediator—our high priest, Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5) Not only is it not there but why would only married women need an extra intermediary?* We can all “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence.” (Hebrews 4:16) Where I have found husbands as priests of the household is in Mormonism** , Roman paganism*** and in Nigerian Juju spiritism.****
The earliest Christian reference I’ve found is in one of Charles Spurgeon’s sermons***** but he didn’t say where he got it. People have probably meant well; they seem to have said, hmmm “spiritual head” (it’s not spiritual head, but metaphorical or figurative head—“Buddhism considers husbands to be the spiritual head of the Burmese household because of his spiritual status.”******) that means leader (it means “life”) sooo, they think, an example of a spiritual head in the Bible is…let’s see, a Levitical priest, let’s look up what a Levitical priest does… They completely forget that Hebrews reminds us that the Levitical priesthood is obsolete, that not even Jesus qualifies for it because you have to be born into the right tribe, that Jesus is of the order of Melchizedek—not Aaron. (Hebrews 7:11-18) We’re all priests; Jesus is our high priest, we don’t need an extra layer in between.
If you’re not married or your husband’s not “into that stuff” you may be thinking, “What does this have to do with me?” Plenty! First of all, all Christians are one body “fitly joined together” and when one part of the body hurts—it all hurts. In addition, many unmarried women hope, plan, expect to be married one day and tend to make themselves expert at reminding married women that their husbands are to be the “priests of the household”, etc. But maybe more to the point is that many church leaders have the mistaken idea that marriage is the model for the church rather than Paul using metaphor to compare marriage to one aspect of relationship between Jesus and the church—that of his laying down his life. They say ah, male headship in marriage means, since we’re the “family of God”, that the church should have male headship. Oops, the church has only one head and that’s Jesus!
*See J. Lee Grady, 10 Lies the Church Tells Women, (Creation House) 76
**www.lds.mormon.com/second_anointing.shtml concept 7; www.ldsendowment.org/secondanointing.html ;
PBS special The Mormons, aired February 4, 2010
*** Everett Ferguson Backgrounds of Early Christianity (Eerdmans) 158 from H.H. Scullard Festivals of& Ceremonies of the Roman Republic
****Ruthanne Garlock, Fire in His Bones (biography Benson Idahosa) 13
*****Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon’s Sermons on New Testament Women 149
******Pauline King, Countries of the World, (Gareth Stevens Publishing) 22
The earliest Christian reference I’ve found is in one of Charles Spurgeon’s sermons***** but he didn’t say where he got it. People have probably meant well; they seem to have said, hmmm “spiritual head” (it’s not spiritual head, but metaphorical or figurative head—“Buddhism considers husbands to be the spiritual head of the Burmese household because of his spiritual status.”******) that means leader (it means “life”) sooo, they think, an example of a spiritual head in the Bible is…let’s see, a Levitical priest, let’s look up what a Levitical priest does… They completely forget that Hebrews reminds us that the Levitical priesthood is obsolete, that not even Jesus qualifies for it because you have to be born into the right tribe, that Jesus is of the order of Melchizedek—not Aaron. (Hebrews 7:11-18) We’re all priests; Jesus is our high priest, we don’t need an extra layer in between.
If you’re not married or your husband’s not “into that stuff” you may be thinking, “What does this have to do with me?” Plenty! First of all, all Christians are one body “fitly joined together” and when one part of the body hurts—it all hurts. In addition, many unmarried women hope, plan, expect to be married one day and tend to make themselves expert at reminding married women that their husbands are to be the “priests of the household”, etc. But maybe more to the point is that many church leaders have the mistaken idea that marriage is the model for the church rather than Paul using metaphor to compare marriage to one aspect of relationship between Jesus and the church—that of his laying down his life. They say ah, male headship in marriage means, since we’re the “family of God”, that the church should have male headship. Oops, the church has only one head and that’s Jesus!
*See J. Lee Grady, 10 Lies the Church Tells Women, (Creation House) 76
**www.lds.mormon.com/second_anointing.shtml concept 7; www.ldsendowment.org/secondanointing.html ;
PBS special The Mormons, aired February 4, 2010
*** Everett Ferguson Backgrounds of Early Christianity (Eerdmans) 158 from H.H. Scullard Festivals of& Ceremonies of the Roman Republic
****Ruthanne Garlock, Fire in His Bones (biography Benson Idahosa) 13
*****Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon’s Sermons on New Testament Women 149
******Pauline King, Countries of the World, (Gareth Stevens Publishing) 22
Women & Church Leadership: Deacons
Women are to be working to spread the Kingdom of heaven, exercising their God-given gifts to encourage the Church—just as the men. Paul commended Christian women as his “fellow workers in the gospel (Philippians 4:3), just as he did the men, they were “ministers” just as the men. The Greek word diakonos strangely gets translated minister or deacon when it applies to men but servant when it applies to women. Phoebe was a diakonos and it’s quite possible that she personally carried Paul’s letter to the Romans. (Romans 16:1, 2) Junia, a relative of Paul’s was named as an apostle. (Romans 16:7) Priscilla taught Apollos, “the way of God more adequately.”(Acts 18:24-26)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)