The Women’s Question in the New Testament

The witness of Scripture regarding the suitability of women for public ministry leadership is a mixed bag. Though there are interesting role models in the Old Testament (Deborah and Esther come to mind), this discussion will focus on New Testament data. We shall go back to the OT when necessary, to track down a reference or rationale given in the NT. We can organize our data into a grid (this would be a good white-board exercise, if you undertake a group study). The columns would be “pro” and “con,” and the rows would be labeled “Jesus and the gospels,” “Early church history (Acts),” “Paul’s Teaching and Practice,” and “Other NT witnesses.” My completed matrix appears here:

Given the number of positive examples of women in leadership, the overall affirmation of equality before God of the sexes, and the few explicit prohibitions of ordained women, it is at once realized that the women’s question has a lot more movement toward freedom than it does toward restriction. From a cultural analysis method demonstrated by William J. Webb in Slaves, Women & Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), we see in the NT a redemptive movement propelled by seed ideas (e.g. Gal 3:28) and breakout examples (see matrix) that lead me to believe women can respond to the call of God for ordination with a clear conscience. By coming to this conclusion, I in no way jettison a high view of Scripture, and I take all passages into consideration as they present themselves (e.g. genre, historical context). I know full well that 1 Cor 14:33-36 is there, and I stand under it as a woman who does not disrupt worship with loud inquiries to my husband, drunkenness at the Table, or corrupt doctrinal teaching. If in my congregation, a group of young adult basketball players were to start a game in the middle of worship, I would say, “Basketball players are to remain silent in the church!” Does that mean that, forever or elsewhere, basketball players may never pray, preach, or participate in church leadership? No, it means that worshipers are to observe decorum and show respect, and on that occasion basketball players were the ones interrupting the Christian assembly. Same situation there in Corinth, only it was women firing questions at their husbands from the back balcony, during the Gathering, disrupting the proceedings. It was shameful behavior, and Paul called them out. If I were to behave this way in a worship gathering, I would expect the same rebuke. In fact, as a Presbyterian clergywoman who has promised to abide by the polity of the church, I have submitted my life and ministry to the discipline of the denomination. 

In my next post, I will tackle Paul’s instruction in 1 Tim 2, in which he argues from Adam and Eve to prohibit women from teaching.