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Is The Bible Bad For Women? Considering Key Texts

Having been around for a little over three decades, I have experienced a fair share of the challenges of womanhood. These range widely from juggling my roles in the home as a wife, mother, and homemaker, to dealing with societal pressure to advance in my career, all the while looking a certain way. I know that I am not alone in this. Worldly wisdom, in the name of feminism, has made the burden on women’s backs heavier, rather than lighter. Women often feel as if they must choose between God’s directives in the Bible and the direction our culture is taking.

We must go back to Eden to understand what our Creator had in mind when he made us.

So where then can we turn to for help? And must we choose? We must go back to the garden of Eden to understand what our Creator had in mind when he created us, both male and female. With this, we will know better our purpose, located within God’s design for women.

God Made Woman in his Image

Genesis 1:26-27 gives a summary of the origin and purpose of the first human beings. “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (italics mine). This happened on the sixth and final day of creation.

Although God made Adam first, he had women in mind and hence made both of them in his image.

Though God made Adam first, it appears that he had both the male and female versions of the human race in mind and hence purposed to make both of them in his image (Genesis 1:26-27). As Gerald Bray writes, “Eve was just as much a child of God as Adam was and was entitled to share in the same privilege of dominion over the created order that was given to him.” This understanding is crucial for all of us today. For there are many voices, conflicting and critical. But by returning to Genesis 1 we learn of women’s God-given significance within the grand scheme of things.

Suitable Helper, but not Secondary

Genesis 2 further elaborates the creation account. Drawing from why God introduces the woman into creation, it shows that she was intended as a necessary ally to the man. God saw that Adam needed a helper to fulfil his purpose (Genesis 1:26). Together, they were to form an alliance for the glory of God, their Creator.

Together, man and woman were to form an alliance for the glory of God.

However, it would not be long before they listen to a strange honey-tongued serpent who talks them into disobeying God by eating the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:1). This brings all types of wrongs and curses whose consequences we still experience to date and will continue to do so until the end of time. Yet, despite the disobedience, God still desired man’s redemption. He would later bring it about through a woman’s offspring, his own Son (Genesis 3:15).

God Calls on Women to be Bible Teachers

In Titus 2:3, Paul helps us get a little more specific about the role of women. He writes, “Older women likewise are to be reverent in behaviour, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.”

The “likewise” is drawn from the previous verses, addressing older men. Interestingly, the role played by older men is not very different. Both are concerned with discipleship and truth. Thus we need not necessarily view men as the ‘workers’ who go out, while women stay behind. Both men and women have roles concerned with the transmission of truth and care for the younger generation of believers.

Both men and women have roles concerned with the transmission of truth and discipleship.

Paul exhorts women, similarly to men, to live in a way that prevents God’s word from being reviled. In other words, Paul wants men and women who fear God to act in a manner that would lead to God’s praise as opposed to Adam and Eve who rejected God’s directions and doubted his goodness.

Embracing God’s Blessing in the Mundane

The above is all good and well. But what about Titus 2:4-5? For, unlike the directions given to older men and women, there is a stark difference between the expectations placed on younger men and women. Many point to verses like these as proof that the Bible is bad for women. “Train the young women to love their husbands and children…working at home.” Sadly, in today’s society, working at home is largely scorned. Yet it seems that these verses limit women’s aspirations for work, consigning them to stay home and have kids.

These verses communicate a higher view of home and family life than many of us will permit today.

The solution to an uncomfortable verse such as this, emphasising an aspect of womanhood that runs radically counter to modern sensibilities, is not to dismiss them with a wave of the hand and some ham-fisted comments about Titus’ historical and cultural context.

As Kathy Keller writes, “Everything that Paul, (or any other biblical author) wrote was to a specific group of people with a specific situation in view” (italics in original). Perhaps our distaste for statements such as Paul’s in Titus 2:4-5 is nothing more than allowing our own situation and cultural moment to trump the Bible. At the very least, these verses communicate a higher view of home and family life than many of us will permit today. But there is more.

The Noble Woman isn’t Homebound

Proverbs 31:10-31 presents one of the most dignified woman in the Bible. Reading through her detailed description, one can’t help but picture a very industrious woman. She works with willing hands (Proverbs 31:13), both at home (Proverbs 31:15) and outside of it (Proverbs 31:24). The things she does transcend culture and time. So the whole matter of context cannot hold water here. She well fits the description of the Titus 2:3-5 woman, because her actions bring to light the God she fears.

The lies of this age trick us into thinking that God’s design for us is anything but a blessing.

The cacophony around progress can be intimidating and confusing. Many deem the Bible repressive and harmful to women. As with most critiques, these are typically imbalanced. All of God’s word is useful, effective to shape us into the kind of women (and men) that God desires. The Bible is life-giving truth, thoroughly good for those who submit to it (Psalm 1:1-3). Worldly voices fool us into believing the word of God is senseless; that we are enough, innately strong, beautiful, and able to rule the world if only we tried a little harder. The lies of this age trick us into thinking that God’s design for us is anything but a blessing.

The consequences of defying God’s good purposes are usually dire. Yet our kind and gracious God, whose steadfast love endures forever, is ever merciful. Through the working of his Spirit, he gently draws all of us back, men and women alike. He reminds us of who we are, and to whom we belong (1 Peter 2:9-12). He teaches us his precepts and gives us understanding (Psalm 119:130). Only by his grace can we live out our God-given purposes. We will not attain that perfectly, at least not in this life, but we can certainly rest in Christ, who obeyed perfectly.

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