Is the Bible Sexist?

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Funnily enough, Toby doesn't use the standard issue language of Christianity nearly as much as Mike and Bob, the lay church members who help run the course. They talk of "encounters", and "opening your heart" and "walking with Jesus", and "surrendering your wills", and all of the other tropes of Anglicanism that I find so hard to extract meaning from. Jesus’s regard for women was much different from that of his contemporaries. Evans terms Jesus’s approach to women as “revolutionary” for his era. 2 But was his treatment of women out of character with Old Testament revelation, or with later New Testament practice? Other chapters in this volume will show that it was not. Disciples Come in Two Sexes, Male and Female

In fact, the scholars said, the Hebrew original can only refer to the pains of labor and the only correct translation gives the verse a female image. My friend told me that it would all be fine if I read the Bible in the company of the Holy Spirit because then I would understand God’s loving intent. Imagine, he said, that your friend Jenny, in the course of a conversation, told you that you were foolish. If you didn’t know her well, if you couldn’t see the gleam in her eye, you might be hurt and offended. But if you knew she was kidding around, you wouldn’t be hurt, you’d enjoy the banter. These are just some of the many examples of the demeaning views of women that persist in our world where Christian influence has not been widespread. 6. Problems in Our Post-Christian Society Speaking to an audience of men and women whose questions made clear their concern over sexism in the Bible, Phyllis Trible said that feminism had enabled people to scrutinize the male dominance of Scripture.It is clear that women played a full and vibrant role in the ministry of Jesus, both as examples within His teaching and as recipients of it. While this may seem absolutely right and proper in our 21st century context, we must remember how radical this was in first century Palestine.

Christopher Rollston is one of the world’s leading paleographers of ancient Near Eastern inscriptions. I have been harshly critical of some of his views, principally regarding unprovenanced inscriptions—inscriptions that have surfaced only from the antiquities market, not from a professional archaeological excavation. They may be forgeries, he argues. Although my criticism of Chris’s position is intense, 1 we remain good friends and regularly share a meal. Chris is also a master carpenter. Above my office door hangs a beautiful polished wooden plaque expertly carved with my name in paleo-Hebrew script—the kind of Hebrew letters used before the Babylonian destruction of the Solomonic (First) Temple in 586 B.C.E.

6. Problems in Our Post-Christian Society

If different meanings to the same words isn’t enough of a challenge, there is the fact that even within a single culture, words have a way of changing. How many kids have rolled their eyes when their parents used some out-of-date expression?

The cross of Christ is the great equalizer. John 3:16 says, “Whoever believes,” and that is an all-inclusive statement that leaves no one out on the basis of position in society, mental capacity, or gender. We also find a passage in Galatians that speaks of our equal opportunity for salvation. “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26-28). There is no sexism at the cross. Unfortunately, because of the relational distance introduced by online communication, “thoughtful engagement” and “comment sections” seldom go hand in hand. At the same time, censorship of comments by those who disagree with points made by authors, whose anger or limited perspective taints their words, or who simply feel the need to express their own opinion on a topic without any meaningful engagement with the article or comment in question can mask an important window into the true state of Christian discourse. As such, Missio Alliance sets forth the following suggestions for those who wish to engage in conversation around our writing: The Rev. Neichelle Guidry Jones washed Ramona Gant’s feet during a Shepreaches gathering at a Hyde Park apartment in Chicago on Thursday. Credit: Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times. Christopher Rollston, “The Marginalization of Women: A Biblical Value We Don’t Like to Talk About,” Huffington Post, August 31, 2012. This belief asserts that while women and men are of equal value, God has assigned them specific gender roles. Specifically, it promotes men’s headship or authority over women, while encouraging women’s submission.I am not offended by the notion that my role as a female has a distinct character that it is qualitatively (as opposed to quantitatively) different to that of a male. I believe that this asymmetrical relationship between men and women holds the potential for a beautiful kind of harmony. All of us North Americans made gaffes. No matter how astute we thought ourselves, there were always stumbles. However, Mary’s story is one of strength, as Jesus healed her from demonic spirits ( Mark 16:9) and she went on to minister to men and women alike, attesting of Jesus’s power and miracles. She is also credited for being the most loyal to Jesus, even when His disciples had given up on His return ( Mark 6:11).

Her palm she has stretched out to the afflicted one, and her hands she has thrust out to the poor one. Lastly, to anyone who reads this and hasn’t had the experience of the church and Christianity treating you with the dignity and honor you deserve as an image bearer of God himself, I am really sorry.

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If you wish to argue for male headship in the home, you might turn to 1 Cor. 11:3 (“Christ is the head of every man, and the husband is the head of his wife”); to Titus 2:5, which says women should be “submissive to their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited”; or to any of the so-called “household codes” (e.g., Ephesians 5:21-6:9; Colossians 3:18-4:1; 1 Peter 2:18-3:7). If you want to argue for female submission, you can draw on 1 Cor. 14:34-35 (“Women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says … it is shameful for a woman to speak in church …”); or 1 Timothy 2:11-12 (“Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent”). The Missio Alliance Writing Collectives exist as a ministry of writing to resource theological practitioners for mission. From our Leading Voices to our regular Writing Team and those invited to publish with us as Community Voices, we are creating a space for thoughtful engagement of critical issues and questions facing the North American Church in God’s mission. This sort of thoughtful engagement is something that we seek to engender not only in our publishing, but in conversations that unfold as a result in the comment section of our articles. Noah and his wife had three sons (Shem, Ham and Japheth—Genesis 5:32) who were each married. All eight were on the ark. We know the names of all the men, but none of the women (Genesis 8:18), not even Noah’s wife. Letha Scanzoni and Nancy Hardesty, All We’re Meant to Be: A Biblical Approach to Women’s Liberation (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1974), p. 56.