Leadership by Women in the Old Testament
Leadership by Women
in the Old Testament
Leadership by women is less common than leadership by men, and we
have suggested some reasons for this. We have already noted how, on one
occasion, Sarah led Abraham, and this received God’s approval. Other notable
women who acted as leaders with divine approval were Miriam, Deborah and
Huldah. It is worth examining carefully what the Bible says about each of
these, especially since some of those who disapprove of women acting as leaders
present these women in an adverse light.
Miriam
Hear what
the LORD says:
“... I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
and
redeemed you from the house of bondage;
and I sent
before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.”
(Micah 6:1, 4)
“Sent before you” means “sent to lead you”, and many modern
translations use the word “lead”:
“I sent
Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to lead you.”
(REB, GNB, NIV)
That all three were stated by God to be leaders should be borne in
mind when we look at Exodus.
Miriam is shown as actually leading in only one place, and on that
occasion she is leading the women in a song:
Then
Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and
all the women went out after her with timbrels and dancing. And Miriam sang to
them:
“Sing to the LORD, for he has
triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”
(Exodus
15:20-22)
Points to note about this account are:
(a) Miriam is described as a
prophetess, i.e. one through whom God gave a public message to His people.
There is no suggestion, however, that her activity in Exodus 15 consists of
prophesying—she is leading in a song of thanks.
(b) On this occasion, after
they had been saved from the Egyptians, Miriam led the women in timbrels and
dancing. Exodus 15:1 shows Moses and the people of Israel singing a long psalm
of celebration from which some writers have assumed that “Moses led the psalm,
and gave it out for the men and then Miriam for the women” (Matthew Henry
c.1700). This may have been the case, although the text does not state this; it
is adding to Scripture to assert that Moses gave out the words and Miriam
merely led the women in a refrain.
In Numbers 12 Miriam and Aaron criticised Moses because he had
married a Cushite woman. Verse 2 indicates, however, that this criticism masked
jealousy of Moses’ leadership and quite possibly an attempt to take over from
him:
... and
they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only
through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” (Numbers 12:2)
In His response God stressed the unique position of leadership
which Moses held in His sight:
And he
said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision, I speak with him in a
dream. Not so with my servant Moses; he is entrusted with all my house. With
him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in dark speech....”
(Numbers 12:6-8)
There are three points to note
from this account:
(a) Aaron and Miriam were
punished not for aspiring to be leaders or prophets (for they were these
already) but for attempting to overthrow the leadership of Moses.
(b) Both Aaron and Miriam
were punished by God. It is often assumed that because Miriam alone became
leprous that her sin was greater than Aaron’s; it is then assumed that her sin
lay in that, although a woman, she tried to be a leader.
And the
anger of the LORD was kindled against them, and he departed; and when the cloud
removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow....
And Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, do not punish us because we have done
foolishly and have sinned....” (Number
12:9-11)
Note “the anger ... was kindled against them”, “do not punish us
because we....”
(c) The text gives no
indication as to why Miriam but not Aaron became leprous. Possibly she was the
ringleader on this occasion since her name is mentioned first in verse 1.
Nevertheless, the fault lay in their challenge to Moses’ unique leadership.
There is no suggestion in the text that it was wrong for her to lead because
she was a woman. As we have seen from Micah 6:4, Miriam received God’s approval
as a leader.
Deborah
The Book of Judges records a cycle whereby the people desert God,
suffer oppression, appeal to God for help, and are sent a deliverer.
Whenever
the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with
the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the
judge; for the LORD was moved to pity by
their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. (Judges 2:18)
Amongst those whom God
used to deliver the people was Deborah, and she is outstanding amongst the
deliverers in that none of the judges in the Book of Judges is described as a
prophet. Deborah, however, is a prophetess who judged. The nearest parallel is
Samuel who was a prophet who judged.
Now
Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.
She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill
country of Ephraim; and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment. (Judges
4:4-5)
The English word “judge” obviously described the activity of
settling disputes, something which Moses had undertaken and under pressure of
work had devolved upon others (Exodus 18:22). In general, the judges were men.
Deborah appears to have been an exception, but one approved by God, and the
natural way in which she is introduced suggests no surprise that a woman should
judge. However, in the Book of Judges the word “judge” has a wider meaning than
merely someone who settles disputes. It means ruler, leader, or governor, the
Hebrew word (shopet) apparently
retaining the meaning which it had in the Mari texts and in ancient Canaanite
Ugarit where it is used as a synonym for king. This can be seen in the manner
in which Deborah acts with authority over Barak the military leader:
She sent
and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam ... and said to him, “The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you...” (Judges 4:6)
The same point is indicated in Ruth:
In the
days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land….
(Ruth 1:1)
In 2 Samuel God said of the judges:
In all places where I have moved with all
Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded
to shepherd my people, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”
(1
Chronicles 17:6)
Further information is supplied when the elders wished to have a
king instead of Samuel the judge:
Then all the elders of Israel gathered
together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and
your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to govern us like
all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a
king to govern us.” And Samuel prayed to the LORD.
And the LORD said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the
people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they
have rejected me from being king over them.” (1
Samuel 8:4-7)
KJV says “judge” here
where the RSV says “govern”. The
biblical explanation of “judge” at this time was one who governed, one who
ruled, and one to whom God commanded to “shepherd my people.”
The Biblical text is entirely
approving of Deborah and her leadership. This needs to be stressed because
those who hold that it is against divine principles for a woman to be a leader
attempt to downgrade Deborah. Some of the arguments used are as follows:
(a) The fact that God had to
use a woman shows how low Israel had sunk.
(b) It is claimed that the
lack of male leadership had been the cause of Israel’s problems.
(c) Deborah, it is argued,
had come to the fore by her own power and intrigue.
(d) Deborah, it is argued, was not a leader like Samuel and other
judges because she did not go round on a circuit like Samuel but sat in one
place and people came to her.
(e) Deborah acted only in a private capacity.
(f) Barak, it is argued, is
the real leader.
(g) It is claimed that the
Song of Deborah and Barak in Judges 5:2 indicates that male leadership is God’s
desire.
Each of the above claims is contrary to the Biblical text. Let us
examine each of these claims in turn:
(a) There is nothing in the
Book of Judges which suggests that spiritual life was worse at the time of
Deborah than on previous or later occasions. Judges 4:1 says simply, “and the
people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD”. Deborah, however, was obviously helping to maintain Godly
standards. It would indeed seem that because of her influence, spiritual life
was higher at this time. Compare this with the occasion before Othniel was
raised up as a deliverer:
And the
people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, forgetting the LORD their God, and
serving the Baals and the Asheroth. (Judges 3:7)
Likewise,
compare Deborah’s time with the position before Jephthah became judge:
And the
people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the
gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the
Philistines; and they forsook the LORD and did
not serve him. (Judges
10:6)
Before and after Deborah, it is stressed that the people of Israel
worshipped other gods; such is not stated to be the case while Deborah was
judging.
It can be commented in addition that the claim that God had to use a woman because ‘Israel had
sunk so low’ is a denial of the power of God. God raised up male leaders before
Deborah and after Deborah and it is not appropriate to suggest that God could
not have raised up a male leader instead of Deborah had he wished to choose a
man. Evidently God considered Deborah suitable and acceptable for His purpose.
(b) When the people lacked a
leader for a considerable time, they began to worship other gods:
But
whenever the judge died, they turned back and behaved worse than their fathers,
going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them; they did not drop
any of their practices or their stubborn ways. (Judges
2:19)
It was not lack of a male
leader that caused Israel’s problems but lack of any leader.
(c) There is no evidence that
Deborah had come to the fore by her own power and intrigue, but the fact that
such a claim can be made indicates the bias with which this passage has been
read by those who wish to assert that leadership by women is unacceptable to
God.
(d) Two chapters in the Bible describe Deborah, whereas
the first 25 chapters of 1 Samuel describe Samuel’s activity. To compare
Deborah with Samuel on the basis of such little description is an argument from
silence. How do know that
Deborah did not also go round on a circuit? There are times when
Samuel sat in one place and summoned people to him.
Look at the
descriptions:
Samuel judged Israel all the days of his
life. And he went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah. And
he judged Israel in all these places. Then he would return to Ramah, for his
home was there, and there also he judged Israel. And he built there an altar to
the LORD.
(1 Samuel 7:15-17)
So when Samuel was at
Bethel, Gilgal, or Mizpah, or Ramah, what happened? Here is what the Bible text
says about Samuel:
Then
Samuel said, “Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you.” So they gathered at Mizpah…. And
Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah.
(1 Samuel 7:5-6)
Then
all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah… (1 Samuel 8:4)
Compare this with the short report about Deborah:
… she used to sit
under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of
Ephraim; and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment. (Judges 4:4-5)
Do Samuel and Deborah go out to the people, or do the people come
to them? Here are examples of both of them judging, i.e. ruling, governing. And
the people come to them! And at other occasions Samuel goes to the people. It
is simply an argument from silence in an attempt to downgrade Deborah to
suggest that, because she is reported on this one occasion as sitting in one
place, that therefore she did not do as Samuel did on other occasions.
(e) She is hardly working “in a private capacity” when the text
says: “And she sent and called Barak” (Judges 4:6), Barak being the military
leader of Israel. According to the Biblical information given above (1
Chronicles 17:6, Ruth 1:1, 1
Samuel 8:4-7) Deborah was a ruler,
a governor, a shepherd of God’s people. It would be strange if this could be
described as “in a private capacity”.
(f) Barak was the leader in war but he did not take any action
until summoned by Deborah who gave him God’s command. Barak declined to act
unless accompanied by Deborah. Presumably he acknowledged, rightly, that
Deborah was God’s agent and felt that her presence gave him the support without
which he would be unable to be successful.
(g) It is claimed that
Judges 5:2 indicates that leadership should properly be male not female. This
claim is based on the NIV translation:
When the
princes in Israel take the lead...
Praise the
LORD.
Since princes are masculine it is argued that masculine leaders are given divine approval, in contradistinction
to female leaders.
The translation of this verse in particular, and the Song of Deborah
and Barak in general, is uncertain because they contain many rare words and
unusual grammatical forms. It is therefore unwise to base an argument about
male leadership solely on the way this verse is translated in the NIV. Here is
how other translations put this verse:
Praise ye
the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered
themselves. (Judges 5:2, KJV)
That the
leaders took the lead in Israel,
that the
people offered themselves willingly,
bless the
LORD! (RSV)
That
warriors in Israel unbound their hair,
that the
people came forward with a will,
for this,
bless Yahweh! (Jerusalem Bible)
Praise the
LORD!
The
Israelites were determined to fight;
the people
gladly volunteered. (GNB)
The whole song is celebrating the various groups of people who
responded to the summons put by Deborah to Barak. Deborah herself is regarded
as one of the leaders. Much praise, too, is given to Jael who on her own
initiative killed Sisera, thus completing the rout begun by Barak.
“Most
blessed of women be Jael,
the wife
of Heber the Kenite,
of
tent-dwelling women most blessed.”
(Judges 5:24)
Heber
the Kenite himself seems to have played no part in the battle.
It cannot therefore be argued that the Judges 5 indicates that God
desires male leadership.
Huldah
Huldah was recognised as a prophetess and was consulted by King
Josiah at a crucial point when the book of the Law had been discovered during
repairs to the temple. In effect she was being asked to find out whether the
book was the word of God or not.
And the
king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor
the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant,
saying, “Go, inquire of the LORD for me, and for the
people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been
found....”
So Hilkiah
the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the
prophetess, the wife of Shallum... and they talked with her. And she said to
them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of
Israel....” (2
Kings 22:12-15)
Points of relevance to our study
are:
(a) There seems to be no
question about whether it was appropriate for a woman to be a prophetess. Not
only King Josiah but also the High Priest, Hilkiah, accepted her as a true
prophet.
(b) Although Jeremiah and
probably Zephaniah were likewise prophets of God at this time, Josiah told his
men to go to Huldah.
(c) These events took place
during the series of reforms begun by Josiah when he came to power.
Now in the
eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house.... (2 Chronicles 34:8)
Although Huldah is only mentioned in this one incident, the
reference to her as a prophetess suggests that she was one of the spiritual
advisers in his reforms. Her prophecy accurately signalled the end of the
monarchy of the kings of Judah.
Further Evidence in the
Old Testament of the Approved Influence of Women
Religious teaching was to be passed on by the descendants of
Aaron:
“...you
are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes which the LORD has spoken to them by Moses.” (Leviticus
10:11)
It is not clear how or where they conveyed this teaching, but all
Israel was in addition given this responsibility at home.
“...these
words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall
teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in
your house....” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)
That this teaching was done by the women as well as the men is
clear from Proverbs:
My son,
keep your father’s commandment,
and
forsake not your mother’s teaching. (Proverbs
6:20)
The Mother of King
Lemuel
Proverbs 31:1-9 describes the teaching which King Lemuel was given
by his mother. She warned him against sexual immorality and the misuse of
alcohol. She advised him to protect the rights of the helpless and to be a
righteous judge. There then follows an attractive description of a good wife.
She is hard working, looks after the family’s needs, has the trust of her
husband and has considerable independence of action:
She opens
her mouth with wisdom,
and the
teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks
well to the ways of her household,
and does
not eat the bread of idleness.
Her
children rise up and call her blessed;
her
husband also, and he praises her:
“Many
women have done excellently,
but you
surpass them all.”
Charm is
deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a
woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her
of the fruit of her hands,
and let
her works praise her in the gates. (Proverbs
31:26-29)
Wise children and a wise husband will look to the teaching of a
wife such as this. There is no clear, hard-and-fast distinction between men and
women in the teaching done in the home.
Abigail
While the husband was obviously regarded as head of the family, in
patriarchal times and in the Law, the independence the wife was able to
exercise should not be underrated. There were times when the wife had to act
against the wishes of the husband, one well-known instance being that of
Abigail and Nabal.
The woman
[Abigail] was of good understanding and beautiful, but the man [Nabal] was
churlish and ill-behaved. (1
Samuel 25:3)
Abigail ignored her boorish husband, saved him and his men from
slaughter and saved David from bloodguilt. Whereas Nabal scorned David, Abigail
recognised that David was doing God’s work and she respected David’s future
position as king.
“...the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is
fighting the battles of the LORD; and evil shall not
be found in you so long as you live.” (1
Samuel 25:28)
David was grateful to her,
“Blessed
be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from
bloodguilt and from avenging myself with my own hand! .... Go up in peace to
your house; see, I have hearkened to your voice, and I have granted your
petition.” (1
Samuel 25:33-35)
David
was correct to hearken to a woman’s voice.
The Wise Woman of the City of Abel of Beth-ma’acah
One of those who rebelled against the rule of King David was “a
worthless fellow, whose name was Sheba”. He was pursued by David’s commander,
Joab, into the city of Abel of Beth-ma’acah. The city was put under siege:
Then a
wise woman called from the city, “Hear! Hear! Tell Joab, ‘Come here, that I may
speak to you.’ ” ... “Listen to the words of your maidservant.” ...“I am one of
those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel; you seek to destroy a city
which is a mother in Israel; why will you swallow up the heritage of the LORD?” (2 Samuel
20:16-19)
After negotiation over Sheba’s life, it was agreed that the siege
would be lifted if Sheba were killed:
Then the
woman went to all the people in her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba
the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab. So he blew the trumpet, and they
dispersed from the city, every man to his home. And Joab returned to Jerusalem
to the king. (2
Samuel 20:22)
The city was saved because Joab and the people listened to the
words of a wise woman.
A Wife’s Wise Advice to a Frightened
Husband
In Judges 13, Samson’s parents are visited by an angel. When
Manoah, Samson’s father, realises this, he is afraid:
And Manoah
said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” But his wife
said to him, “If the LORD had meant to kill
us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a cereal offering at our
hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as
these.” (Judges
13:22-23)
Manoah is fearful, while his wife is calm and sensible and offers
rational advice. She is not dismissed, either in the account or by her husband,
on the grounds that advice from a woman should not be heeded. And events prove
her right.
Women of Evil Influence
Just as there were men of evil influence, so there were women,
whether women in power like Jezebel or Athaliah or the prostitutes against whom
warnings are given in Proverbs:
... I have
perceived among the youths,
a young
man without sense ...
And lo, a
woman meets him,
dressed as
a harlot...
With much
seductive speech she persuades him...
All at
once he follows her... (Proverbs
7:7-22)
More
often than not, however, women are the victims of men’s power, such as Tamar (2
Samuel 13) who suffered premeditated rape, or the women who were concubines
(Judges 19). All such behaviour was contrary to God’s intentions for mankind
“from the beginning”.
Conclusions on Leadership and Influence by Women
in the Old Testament
Because of the particular requirements for priesthood, most males
and all females were excluded from being priests.
Domestic circumstances would frequently have made it difficult for
women to be leaders, and in a male-orientated society this would probably be
sufficient reason as to why there are only a few women leaders.
Leadership by women was the exception rather than the rule. This, however, makes their
acceptance all the more notable. Miriam and Deborah were acknowledged as
leaders without any surprise being expressed.
It is not correct to argue, as some do, that the occasions when
women were leaders was when spiritual life was at a particularly low ebb. In
Judges the evidence is that spiritual life was better when Deborah was judge;
similarly Huldah was a prophetess during the spiritual reforms of Josiah, one
of the few good kings.
There is no suggestion in the Old Testament that leadership by
women is in itself wrong or unacceptable.
The criterion as to whether particular leadership or influence by
a particular woman is approved by God is whether it is done in accord with His
will. This is the same criterion that is applied to men. It is a matter of how
the leader led, not the gender of the leader.
There is no divine principle by which men are always to lead. Male
leadership was often the outcome of society, and was approved by God for that
time. However, the approval given to the significant leadership by women
suggests that God was equally approving of women leaders.
In Between the Old Testament and the New Testament
The Old Testament shows men and women sometimes behaving well,
sometimes badly. It does not scorn women in a misogynist (“woman-hating”)
manner. Misogynist views are, however, expressed in some of the books written
between the two Testaments, including what is known as the Apocrypha. There are
three ways we can observe this:
(1) Jewish stories
Jewish stories elaborated on the account in Genesis 1-2, but in an
anti-woman manner:
When God
was on the point of making Eve, He said: “I will not make her from the head of
man, lest she carry her head high in arrogant pride; not from the eye, lest she
be wanton-eyed; not from the ear, lest she be an eavesdropper; not from the
neck, lest she be insolent; not from the mouth, lest she be a tattler; not from
the heart, lest she be inclined to envy; not from the hand, lest she be a
meddler; not from the foot, lest she be a gadabout. I will form her from a
chaste portion of the body,” and to every limb and organ as He formed it, God
said, “Be chaste! Be chaste!” Nevertheless, in spite of the great caution used,
woman has all the faults God tried to obviate. The daughters of Zion were
haughty and walked with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes; Sarah was an
eavesdropper in her own tent, when the angel spoke with Abraham; Miriam was a
talebearer, accusing Moses; Rachel was envious of her sister Leah; Eve put out
her hand to take the forbidden fruit, and Dinah was a gadabout.
(Louis
Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews,
translated from the German by Henrietta Szold, volume 1, Philadelphia: Jewish
Publication Society, 1937), pp. 64-69.)
The intention of these stories may be to warn against evil
conduct, but they can easily be seen as a general statement that women behave
badly. Even more so when men and women are compared adversely:
The voice
of women is shrill, not so the voice of men; when soft viands are cooked, no
sound is heard, but let a bone be put in a pot, and at once it crackles. A man
is easily placated, not so a woman; a few drops of water suffice to soften a
clod of earth; a bone stays hard, and if it were to soak in water for days. (Ibid)
(2) Adam was praised, Eve
was
condemned
The apocryphal book called Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus
ben Sirach, has much wise advice, but it also contrasts Adam and Eve so as to
praise Adam and condemn Eve:
From a
woman sin had its beginning,
and
because of her we all die. (Ecclesiasticus 25:4)
but of Adam it says:
Shem and
Seth were honoured among men,
And Adam
above every living being in the creation. (49:16)
Contrast this with
Paul’s comments that “... by a man came death, by a man has come also the
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be
made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).
(3) Esther is downplayed in
the
Apocrypha
The book of Esther was translated into Greek, perhaps in 78 BC.
Additions were made to portray Esther in a manner more suited to the
understanding of Judaism in the first century BC Hellenistic world. Esther’s
beauty is emphasised, and her brains and skill downplayed. She is depicted in
the apocryphal version as a pious but passive girl. Josephus, in his retelling
of Esther, downplays her active role even more.
Jesus and Paul
Being brought up in a Jewish environment, Jesus and Paul would
have been aware of these attitudes in Jewish tradition. Significantly, unlike
church writers in later centuries, they never used these in their assessment of
women. Reference to Genesis is straightforward, not fanciful, and not in a
manner to put women down.
A phrase sometimes
quoted is: “The exception proves the rule.” In popular understanding, this is
taken to mean that if you find one exception, it proves that a particular rule
is normally true. There
are two problems with this explanation. Firstly, “The exception proves the
rule” is a proverb, not Bible teaching. Secondly, the phrase seems to
be a shorter version of a Latin legal maxim from the 17th century,
which (translated from Latin) reads: “Exception
confirms the rule in the cases not excepted”. In other words, a
rule applies except where it does not apply! However, there is no divine rule
given in the Bible that leaders must always be masculine. God chooses leaders
as He wishes. There is no rule stated in Scripture that judging, ruling and
teaching are a male preserve.