Women in ministry ...

 WOMEN IN MINISTRY ...

Romans chapter 16 chapter starts by acknowledging a female deacon named Phoebe.

"I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the church in Cenchrea. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people, including me" (Romans 16:1-2).

Then Paul acknowledges Priscilla and Aquila in verses 3 and 4. Look closely, and you will see that he makes a statement that wouldn’t even be proper in modern times. Paul put the wife’s name first. Even in modern etiquette this is considered taboo. Yet, the apostle has no qualms about acknowledging Pricilla first and her husband second.

Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them (Romans 16:3-4).


Paul continues and acknowledges Mary, Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis.


[Mary served in ministry:] Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you (Romans 16:6).


Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord. Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord (Romans 16:12).


Considering the caution that Paul used regarding name recognition, it is a powerful statement that he named so many female co-workers in Romans 16. It is unfortunate that Paul has been given such a bad reputation of supposedly suppressing women. I believe that much of the church has misunderstood much of what Paul actually wrote regarding women.

FEMALE APOSTLES AND PROPHETS

By examining Romans 16, we can see that Paul was very much in favor of women in ministry, but as yet, we have not seen high positions of authority given to women in Scripture, so let’s continue our investigation.

And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:28).

We understand from this passage that apostles are the highest position of authority in the church. In fact, Ephesians 2:20 tells us that the apostles and prophets are the foundation of the church. Therefore, if a woman could be an apostle or a prophet, wouldn’t it stand to reason that she could be placed in lower positions of authority such as evangelist, teacher, or pastor? I would believe that stands to reason!

There were four women listed as "prophetesses" in the Bible, three in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament (Note: The title prophetess has no less authority than the male equivalent of prophet, because they come from the same root word.)

The FIRST was Miriam: ...Exodus 15:20 ..."Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing .."


The SECOND is Deborah, who was not only a prophetess but was the leader of Israel:

Judges 4:4 ... "Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time."


The THIRD is Huldah the prophetess:

2 Kings 22:14 ... "Hilkiah the priest…went to speak to the prophetess Huldah."


The FOURTH is our New Testament example, Anna:

Luke 2:36 ... "There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage."


From these four examples we can see that God has no problem having a woman as a prophet, the second highest level of authority in the church. If a woman can be a prophet, then she can be a lower position like a senior pastor, right? But what about an apostle, is there any evidence of a female apostle in the New Testament?


Yes! There is a clear example of a female apostle in the New Testament. In fact she and her husband are both listed together as apostles, and not just ordinary apostles, but they are called “outstanding among the apostles.”

Greet Andronicus and Junias, my relatives who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was (Romans 16:7).

There is no scholarly rebuttal to the fact that Junias was a first century female name. Interestingly, the name Junias, is a derivative of the name Juno, the Roman goddess and wife of Jupiter. As the patroness of marriage, Juno was sought after for the dilation of the cervix for safe child delivery. Junias was without question a female name, so this passage of Scripture is proof of a female apostle.

Average Christianity argues over what position a woman can hold in ministry. Some will allow a woman to teach children, some will let them teach the youth group, some will say she can hold administrative roles, and sometimes maybe she can be an assistant pastor, but typically the role of senior pastor is out of the question.

The concept that a female cannot be in the sacred position of senior pastor is biblically hard to defend. When the word pastor is examined in Scripture there is a major flaw in the argument. If you were to look up the word pastor in a concordance, you would find that it is only used once in all of the New Testament (Eph. 4:11). Even in this one reference, there is no definition or instruction as to who can and cannot be a pastor. Yet culturally we have created definitions that restrict women from access to the most vague of all New Testament leadership gifts.

We have seen that women can reside in the highest places of authority in the church as apostles and prophets. Therefore they rightfully can hold any of the lower gifts or callings throughout the church. However, many churches have banned women from these positions because of three passages in the New Testament.

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1 Corinthians 14:34-35

As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church (1 Corinthians 14:34-35).


The first thing that must be understood about First Corinthians is that it is a response letter to the Corinthians. They wrote to Paul, and he is writing back, “Now for the matters you wrote about…” (1 Cor. 7:1). - This puts the situation into context.


As one would with any response letter, PAUL IS QUOTING FROM THE CORINTHIANS ORIGINAL LETTER. We are not able to see this in our modern English versions, but by looking closely at the original Greek, we can see that certain parts of 1 Corinthians were NOT written by Paul but were quotes from their first letter to him. This is key to explaining First Corinthians 14:34-35.


It is visible in the Greek that First Corinthians 14:34-35 is a quote from the original letter to Paul (New Endnote #5). If Paul taught that it is disgraceful for a woman to even speak in church, then why would he spend time teaching that women should have their heads covered when prophesying in church (see 1 Cor. 11:2-16)? Prophesying is more than speaking; it is speaking for God, so if it is a shame for a woman to speak, wouldn’t it be worse to claim that she is speaking for God?


In verses 26-33, Paul is teaching how a church service should be so that everyone can participate, then in verses 34-35 he quotes from the Corinthian’s letter to him regarding their philosophy of how to run a service. Paul immediately responds in verses 36-40 with a very harsh rebuke to the Corinthian leaders. Apparently he strongly disagreed with their thoughts expressed in verses 34-35.


There is a sensible flow to Paul’s response when we see the quoted section in the middle. Paul even uses the same language in both of his statements, “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace…everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way (1 Cor. 14:33,40) And of course Paul is not contradicting what he said earlier about how a woman should prophesy in church.


With these common misunderstandings, it is easy to understand how many Christian leaders have oppressed women from leadership. Most Christian leaders are just trying to follow the Word to the best of their understanding. If they have not been shown the errors in these teachings, then they are taking these verses at face value and trying to be obedient without malicious intention.

The terrible misconception is that the Bible is sexist. Unfortunately when the Bible is read with only a surface understanding, it appears to say some negative things about women. The reality is that the Bible strongly speaks of freedom and equality between the genders.

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