Better Together Bible Study - Jesus and Women (Part 2)

Read John 4:3-42 In Jewish culture, men were not supposed to speak in public with women who were not part of their family, let alone by an isolated well in a field. So, on their return, Jesus' disciples were 'astonished' that he had done this (v 27). What is more, Jesus did not engage with this woman about the weather or her children, but about deep theology. He eventually said to her, I who speak to you am he'- the Messiah. On coming to faith, she rushed off to tell the men and women of her village that she had met the Messiah. John says 'because of her testimony' many believed (v. 39).

Questions for discussion

On the basis of this passage discuss the idea that:

1. Jesus wants only men as church leaders and church planters.

2. Women should only minister to women.

The twelve apostles Many other passages could be highlighted, but at this point we must turn to the only evidence ever cited to 'prove' that Jesus upheld the male 'headship' principle, the fact that he chose twelve men and no women to be his apostles. How important is this historical observation? In reply to those who make so much of this, we should consider:

• That Jesus does not teach anything on this matter. He does not say, 'I chose only men because I believe God has given headship to men. Not once does he mention this idea but he says and does much that suggests he did not endorse male headship. As we saw in our study of the picturesque narrative in Genesis chapters 2—3, people can come to opposing conclusions on mute historical details. A sound conclusion needs evidence to back it up. The twelve also were all Jews, another matter that Jesus does not comment on. Why not ask also, why did Jesus not choose at least one Gentile apostle?

• Most see no problem. In that culture where men were usually the leaders, it is not at all surprising that Jesus followed cultural norms.

• More importantly, Luke makes it clear that the twelve's primary work was to bear 'witness' to the life, teaching and resurrection of Christ (Acts 1:21-22). Thus, in their preaching they say, 'We bear witness that these things are true.' In Jewish culture at the time, the witness of a woman did not count. Here we may note that when Paul lists the witnesses to the resurrection, he does not mention the first women witnesses (1 Cor. 15:3-11).

• Notwithstanding this fact, Jesus himself was pleased to appear first to women after his resurrection and send them to tell the frightened and dispirited male apostles that he had risen (Matt. 28:7, Jn 20:16-18). In commissioning the women 'to go' and tell the male apostles, the risen Jesus makes the women, 'apostles to the apostles.’[1]

• After the church had been firmly established, God raised up other apostles who had not witnessed all of Jesus' ministry, such as Paul, Barnabas, Apollos and Timothy. One of these, Junia, was almost certainly a woman (Rom. 16:7 - we say more on this in the next chapter).

• (Out of interest, the twelve are never depicted in the New Testament as congregational pastors or as priests, as the Catholic Church holds.)

Questions for discussion 1. Why is so much made of the fact that the twelve apostles were all men?

2. Jesus often accepted cultural norms. What problems can you see in this?

Luke and women

All the Gospels suggest that Jesus saw men and women standing side by side, equal in dignity and leadership potential, as they were in creation. Luke, writing some thirty years later, goes out of his way to emphasise this, possibly to counter a growing tendency to forget the teaching and example of Jesus on this matter. He mentions by name thirteen women who do not appear or are not named in the other Synoptic Gospels;[2] he gives women a very prominent place in the birth stories;[3] he has three parables that positively mention women not found in the other Gospels[4]; at least nineteen times he pairs men and women[5]; he depicts Mary the mother of Jesus as strong in faith at all times (1:26-56, 8:19-21, Acts 1:14), and he has angels tell women first of all that Jesus has risen (24:1-10). He introduces Anna as a prophet who speaks the word of God faithfully (2:36-38) and he describes the young Mary as a prophet who speaks in the power of the Spirit (cf. 1:46-55).[6] Later in Acts, Luke has the Spirit poured out on men and women believers alike and as a consequence, empowered to speak for God (Acts 2:17-18). Commenting specifically on the male female pairing so common in Luke's two books, the German theologian, Helmut Flender, writing well before the women's liberation movement of the 1970s had taken off says, Luke

'deliberately extended and developed male female paralleling to emphasize that in the new community founded by Christ man and woman stand side by side before God. They are equal in honour and grace, they are endowed with the same gifts, and they have the same responsibilities.’[i]

Finally

Dorothy Sayers in her book, Are Women Human? summed up Jesus' attitude to women in these words.

They (the disciples) had never known a man like this man - there has never been another like him. A prophet and teacher who never nagged them, never flattered or coaxed or patronized; who never made jokes about them, never treated them either as ‘The women, God help us!' or ‘The ladies, God bless them'; who rebuked without querulousness and praised them without condescension; who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine, or jeered at them for being female; who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as he found them and was completely unselfconscious. There is no act, no sermon, no parable in the whole Gospel that borrows its pungency from female perversity; nobody could possibly guess from the words and deeds of Jesus that there was anything 'funny' about woman's nature.'[7]

Questions for discussion

1. From our studies of Jesus' attitude to women, do you think Dorothy Sayers has got it basically right? Would you add or subtract anything from what she says?

2. What do you think Jesus would say to men and women about their relationship in the home, the church and society at large, if he found himself in 21st century Australia?

KG Better Together - Jesus and Women Pt2.pdf

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[1] See Pope John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem, 60 and note 38. He has Rabanus Maurus (c.776 856) as the first to give this title and lists Thomas Aquinas among those who followed him.

[2] See 1:5, 2:36, 3:19, 4:26, 7:11-17, 8:1-2, 10:38-42, 11:27-28, 15:8-10, 18:1-8, 24:19.

[3] He makes no mention of 'the wise men' but he has three 'wise women', Elizabeth, Mary and Anna, as key players in the Christmas story.

[4] 13:20-21, 15:8-10, 18:1-8.

[5] 1:5-45, 1:26 and 2:16, 2:22-28, 4:25-27, 4:31-39, 7:1-17, 7:36-50, 8:1-3, 8:4-17, 10:29-42, 11:31-32, 13:10-17, 13:6

17, 15:4-10, 17:34-35, 18:1-4, 21:1-3, 23:50-56, 24:11. Not all these parallels are of equal importance but their number suggests deliberate editorial intent.

[6] The Magnificat is a prophetic oracle (cf. 1:67). [i] St Luke: Theologian of Redemptive History (Philadelphia, Fortress, 1967) 10.

[7] Are Women Human? (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1971) 47

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Rev Dr Kevin Giles (Th.D.) is a graduate of Moore Theological College, Sydney and has completed post graduate study in England and Germany. He was in parish ministry for forty years in various ways; associate minister, church Planter, university chaplain, rector of a large multi-staff parish, and in "rebirthing' an inner city church. He has published widely on what the Bible says on the church, ministry, women and the Trinity. He writes with a passion to see the renewal of the church.