Issue 11, Aug 2008
We continue this month our discussion of the role of women in the church, focusing particularly upon why the church for two thousand years did not permit women to be pastors and bishops. As promised last month, we turn now to the question of why Paul and the other apostles forbad women to teach publicly. Why was the public ministry, the office of pastor, reserved for the male sex? We look at this particularly against the background of what is taught in many Lutheran circles in our day, namely that baptism makes us all equally prepared for public ministry. Baptism is viewed as a kind of ordination, giving men and women equal rights to occupy the public office.
In
1 Corinthians 14 Paul claims that the headship of a man must be emphasized. This is a revealed truth that must be lifted up. It is God's Word. The passage in question reads as follows:
"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.
"Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached? If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord's command.If he ignores this, he himself will be ignored." (vv.34-38).
We know our human nature in the qualities of maleness and femaleness. These are binary modes of being human. There are two sexes and no such thing as an abstract human nature exists. Being a male is a mystery. Being a female is a mystery. Both maleness and femaleness must be discovered and revealed. The genders are not the same and consequently there is something to being a man and something to being a woman that demands an ordering in the church assembled for worship and service.
In the Bible men and women are both equally human. Both share in the image of God. In turn, male and female are both to support and care for those of the opposite sex. Men and women share common feelings. They love, laugh, cry, hurt and hate. They have common interests. Men and women may both love beautiful creations, enjoy tasteful foods together and so forth. But in all of this a man remains a man and a woman remains a woman.
In our day, especially in the discussions about women's ordination, there is confusion. There is even a tendency to do away with these distinctions between male and female or cancel them out altogether. In this critics follow the example of ancient false teachers who denied that even Christ Himself took on human flesh. They were called Docetists--from the Greek noun meaning "seem to be." They believed that human flesh was a lower form of life, that matter was in fact evil. Therefore Christ would surely not have assumed human nature. He only appeared to do so.
Modern critics are docetic in the sense that they suggest that the distinctions between men and women have been erased by the "order of redemption." That is to say, in Christ we are all one, there is neither male nor female (
Galatians 3:26-28). Our baptism into Christ has eliminated all distinctions, including gender.
The problem is that we are nowhere told in the Bible that the distinctive identities for men and women in their relation to each other has changed. Such identities were assigned by God at creation and remain so today. This is commonly known as the "order of creation."
Let's look carefully at what Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 14 about the role of women. When he says that women are not allowed to speak he uses the Greek word lalein, a technical term for what we call preaching or public teaching. This is supported by other biblical passages:
"While he (Jesus) was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, 'My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live,'" Matthew 9:18 (Jesus was preaching/teaching -lalein. The ruler merely spoke - Greek legein.).
"While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him, Matthew 12:46 (again Jesus was teaching, but his mother and brothers stood outside ready to instruct him instead -lalein in both cases. Jesus was unwilling to accept such teaching from his family, emphasizing the importance of all hearing the Word of God that He alone was preaching. To hear that Word is what truly makes people members of Jesus' family).
"No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began," 1 Corinthians 2:7 (again the word lalein).
"Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? We have been speaking in the sight of God as those in Christ; and everything we do, dear friends, is for your strengthening," 2 Corinthians 12:19 (once again lalein -what Paul did as he spoke in the sight of God to strengthen their faith).
In Genesis 1:27 we read that “God created the man (Hebrew: adam) in His own image, in the image of God He created him (singular), male (Hebrew: zakar) and female (neqebah) He created them.”
Here is our first clear indication of how central to the biblical vision the distinction of gender actually is. Of course “adam” can refer to our common humanity, but are we humans first and male or female in a secondary way? Not at all.
The Hebrew text at the word him has an athnach, a mark inserted by the ancient scribes that creates a pause in the narrative, a “that is.” So we might render the text: “In the image of God He created him and by this we mean male and female . . .” Thus, from the very beginning, it is evident that maleness and femaleness constitute concrete aspects of humanity. There is no humanity, no personhood, apart from male or female humanity or personhood.
Likewise in spiritual matters there is no spiritual monism. There is no melding together of the sexes. We remain male and female. Our sex roles are not a bondage from which we are freed by virtue of our baptism. How else can the fundamental differences between genders be expressed?
Galatians 3:28 does not obliterate the continuing distinction of the “order of creation” within the “order of redemption.” Notice that in the very next verse Paul introduces the terminology of human sexuality, calling believers the seed (Greek: sperma) of Abraham, heirs of the promise. A patriarchal story (Abraham) is used to clarify and explain the Gospel of Christ.
Notice further that the Scriptures speak of God and those who represent him in both testaments through masculine imagery: Adam, Abraham, Moses, the kings, David, first-born son, Passover lamb, scapegoat.
Similarly the people of God and their relation to God are portrayed by means of feminine imagery. We cannot speak in the same way about Jesus’ Jewishness. Being a Jew is not what makes one distinctly human, but being a male or a female is and Jesus was a male.
Does the masculinity of Jesus have anything to say to us about the ordination of women?
The Confessions (Ap.VII.28; AC XXVIII,21f; Ap.VII.47; XII.40-41) do teach that the pastor represents the person of Christ. In the words of the minister one hears the words of Christ.
But what is this meaning of Christ’s masculine humanity? Some would suggest that His maleness has no significance whatsoever. The biblical position is that it has great significance. I'll take up that question in next months discussion of this topic.
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