Women And Leadership In The Bible

HE SHALL RULE OVER YOU

Sin leads to conflict between couples

HE SHALL RULE OVER YOU – MAN’S HEADSHIP AND AUTHORITY OVER WOMAN STEMS FROM DESIGN NOT THE FALL

NOT A GENDER ISSUE

This is by no means a gender issue. There are women who agree totally with what the apostle Paul says about women in ministry and there are men who believe that women should have equal status as men in the home and in church.

2 Main Views

There are two main camps in biblical scholarship that offer different perspectives on women in ministry. The Egalitarians and the Complementarians.

Complementarians say Genesis 2  and 3 show that a husband has a leadership and headship role over his wife.

Egalitarians refute this. They deny that Genesis 2 tells us anything about the husband holding any sort of authority over his wife. They maintain that this only happens in Genesis 3 after the fall of mankind. They hold the view that husbands and wives are to be equals in the home, at work and in church.

Genesis 1: Humans made in God’s image and given dominion over creation.

In Genesis 1 verses 26 to 28 we see the relationship between humankind and creation. God created man and woman in His image and gave both equal value and dignity as His children. The man and the woman were also given equal dominion over all of creation. Both camps agree on this score.

What can we learn from Genesis I?

According to highly influential egalitarian advocate Mary Conway who is a  bible scholar and author of “Discovering Biblical Equality”,  both man and woman have equal value in God’s eyes and therefore share equal dominion over all of creation. Complementarians agree with this perspective. The disagreement comes when Conway goes so far as to say the implications of Genesis one are that there are no role distinctions between men and women. This is patently false. A thorough and proper examination of genesis two gives sufficient evidence of God’s intention for the husband to be the leader of his wife.

Genesis 2

Whilst the focus of Genesis 1 is the connection between humans and creation, Genesis 2 is all about the relationship between man and woman or husband and wife.

What are the key lessons from Genesis 2?

This chapter shows us where the authority of a husband over his wife originates from. That it was not the fall that brought headship and authority to a husband, but God designed it so.

Philip Payne an egalitarian Christian, who authored the book, “Man and Woman, One in Christ” argues that man’s leadership is part of the fall and should be opposed and reversed. He further asserts that Man being the one that leaves the father and mother to be joined to his wife indicates that the husband and wife are on an equal footing, with neither having authority over the other. He urges us to take note also that the Man is leaving Father and Mother’s authority not just the father, implying that husband and wife are equal. In my view this does not negate the main contention of Genesis two which is that man’s headship over his wife is God ordained. The husband leaving the father and mother simply shows that he is no longer under the care of his parents because he now must start a new relationship with his wife and this now must take priority over his parents. If a man’s allegiance to his parents is greater than his allegiance to his wife, then something is wrong.

What biblical support do we have pointing at God’s order, plan and design to make man the head, leader and authority over his wife?

v God created Adam first. He could have created both at the same time

v Then He put Adam to sleep and created Eve out of Adam

v God brought the animals to Adam for naming.

v Then he brought Eve to Adam to name her also.  

v Later, Adam had to teach Eve about the names and traits of those animals.

v 1 Corinthians 11 v 9 Woman was made for man not the other way around

v Accountability : Eve was deceived yet God demands explanation from Adam. The buck stops with Adam

Naming Entails Authority

Egalitarians completely repudiate the idea that any of the above bulleted points have any implications for man’s authority over woman. To them, man and woman have equal status in Genesis 1 and 2 but this changes in Genesis 3 because of the fall.

Let me give an example. Because I have authority over my children and my dog, I can name them, but of course I also must take responsibility for them. Imagine if, after you named your child, someone like her preschool teacher overruled you and gave your daughter a different name because they didn’t like what you called her; You would obviously ask that teacher by what authority they are renaming your child.

Genesis 3 The Fall

The curse is pronounced by God after the fall. The order of God at creation brought blessings. If Adam was head and leader and Eve were his helper, there would be untold blessings for humanity on all the earth. But mankind’s rebellion turned things upside down. Notice what Genesis 3 v 16 says:

¹⁶ Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.^[a]”

This does not seem to be a healthy situation. Woman wants to control her husband, but it seems like he will rule over her in a rather negative way.

More Clear evidence that God intended for man to lead.

The curses from God are different

• ·        Eve’s curse is confined to women only see Gen 3 v 16

• ·        Adam’s curse affects all of humanity and the whole earth Gen 3 v 17-19 ;

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; ¹⁸ thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹ By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return".

The implication of the foregoing verses are huge. A greater scope of representation lay with Adam. Combine that with new testament teaching of Adam's weight of responsibility for the fall and you see a strong case for greater responsibility in representation with Adam instead of Eve. This implies authority to speak for both of them and all of humanity which Eve does not seem to have.

Primogeniture

This term means a first born has preeminence over everyone else who comes after him and he would get a double share of the inheritance. This automatically connotes authority in Jewish tradition. See Deuteronomy 21 v 17 and Genesis 27 v 19 when Jacob cheats Esau of the first born blessing.

Genesis 3 Post Fall

Pre fall, the relationship between Adam and Eve / husband and wife would’ve been congenial, friendly, easy flowing mutually beneficial, loving and free of conflict.

After the fall, the relationship between husband and wife and men and women in general , becomes tense, cold and full of suspicion (think of the secular women's liberation movement) . Furthermore, the relationship is now characterized by rape, wife beating, animosity, abuse, disrespect and selfishness. It would also be conflict laden. The wife seeks to control him, but he rules over her.

The role of woman as a homemaker is being scoffed at by our modern culture, yet it is such an important and blessed institution when applied the way God intended.

Submission

Submission as a concept from God was a great idea. It carried a blessing. However, because of the fall the relationship between husband and wife will experience more conflict and in that context submission becomes difficult.

CONCLUSION

The context of Genesis is about husband and wife, This is the ideal. The husband leads and the wife is the helper, by God’s design. Genesis three presents us with sin and its consequences. Eve’s desire will be to control Adam. This interpretation also fits the tone of the passage which is a judgement oracle. Is it good for her to want to control him? And is it good for him to rule over her under this climate of humanity’s fallen nature? Genesis 3:16 is not a healthy situation. This is what Egalitarian scholars lean on after wrongly concluding that Genesis 2 has no authority difference between Adam and Eve. They will say we shouldn’t propagate what happened in the fall. True. This is a post fall situation, and we do not want to repeat it everywhere. I agree with that too. All of us should agree that before the fall there was peace, a congenial environment, trust, harmony and unity. But with the fall came strife, mistrust, verbal and physical abuse, animosity, selfishness and rape. This means that as long as conflict exists the husband will rule over his wife, and she will yield to him reluctantly. To reverse the results of the fall both husband and wife must implement Ephesians 5 v 22 to 33. Egalitarians must not come against roles, but against the abuse of those roles. The deficiency does not lie in the system that God ordained, it lies in fallen man’s implementation.