10-1-6 Women In Old Testament History
There is a difference between prophets and priests in the Old Testament, although at times they worked closely together. The priests were the teachers; they expounded the word of God, as it was revealed in the Law or through the words of the prophets. To prove that women can teach in the church, we must prove that the priests were female. But there is no hint of this. That there were some female prophets in Old Testament times is therefore no reason to think that women were teachers or spiritual leaders of the congregation. The congregation (ecclesia in the Greek Septuagint, translated “church” in the N.T.) was the forerunner of the Christian church (1 Pet.2:9,10 = Ex.19:5,6). The Old Testament prophets received the message from God, and accurately repeated it. God’s word was once spoken through an inspired donkey, which it doubtless did not fully understand (Num.22:30; 2 Pet.2:16). The prophets did not always understand the things they wrote of (1 Pet.1:10-12); therefore they were hardly leaders or teachers by reason of being prophets. The only references to women teaching seem to be in the context of them teaching other women (Ex.15:20,21; Jer.9:20), which is a teaching role they are allowed under the New Covenant (Tit. 2:4). This similarity between women’s teaching role under the Old and New Covenants is not just incidental. It is the expression of the same, consistent Spirit guidance.
The standards of the Mosaic Law were not changed throughout the Old Testament history of Israel. This is surprising, if we are to believe the feminist argument that God changes His directives concerning women’s place in the church over time. Towards the end of Old Testament history, the church’s surrounding world was dominated by Greek culture. We know much about the Greek attitude to women, and it is significant that it stands in sharp contrast to the teaching of the law of Moses, which was still practised by Israel throughout the Greek era. Again, we come to the conclusion that the surrounding culture was not allowed to influence the commands of God, nor the behaviour of the faithful church.
- Plato believed in the equality of the sexes, speaking of “the natural partnership of the sexes”, claiming equality of role for male and female: “Women naturally share in all pursuits” (11). This is exactly the call of feminism today; their insistence on change in the way God’s church is structured is not a new threat to the true worship of God. The very same philosophies of sexual equality were pedalled in the Greek era. But God did not allow His commandments to be abrogated in order to respond to these contemporary views.
- Aristotle argued that homosexual love “alone is capable of satisfying a man’s highest and noblest aspirations, and the love of man and woman...is spoken of as altogether inferior” (12). This is in stark contrast to the Law’s condemnation of homosexuality. There is no hint that God changed His moral principles in accord with contemporary human thought. If God’s commands concerning sexuality are inviolate, why not His commands concerning the relationship between the sexes?
- In practice, the Greek wife was not considered by her husband “in a much higher light than...a faithful domestic slave” (13). This, again, is in sharp contrast to the Mosaic law, whereby a husband was certainly not to treat his wife as a slave. The Proverbs, written during the time of Solomon, describe the faithful husband as standing up in respect to his wife, and praising her (Prov.31:10, 25-28). There was much Greek culture in the Lycus Valley in the first century AD; yet Paul told the church at Ephesus that husbands should “love their wives as their own bodies” (Eph.5:28). Clearly Paul’s commands concerning men and women were not influenced by surrounding culture.
- The Old Testament abounds with accounts of women of distinction- e.g. Esther, Ruth, Deborah, Miriam etc. Yet the classicist James Donaldson points out that in Athens, centre of the Greek world, “Not one Athenian woman ever attained to the slightest distinction” (14). The words of Thucydides sum this up: “If I am to speak of womanly virtues...great also is hers of whom there is least talk among men whether in praise or in blame” (15). Yet the Bible abounds with records of women, which are intended to be meditated upon by male and female believers of all time. Jesus, speaking against a similar Greco-Roman cultural background, said that Mary’s devotion to him would be spoken about world-wide “for a memorial of her” (Mk.14:9). This was therefore a radical departure from the surrounding culture, which suppressed the mention of women.
Notes
(11) Plato, The Republic V,V, 457-466. See too W.W. Tarn, Hellenistic Civilization (Edward Arnold)
(12) W. Hamilton, translator, The Symposium (Penguin Books), p.12
(13) Guhl and Koner, op. cit. , p. 185
(14) James Donaldson, Woman: Her Position and Influence In Ancient Greece and Rome, and Among the Early Christians (Longmans), p.55
(15) Thucydides, II, XLV, 2
