Scriptural arguments and women in ministry
The conversation has never been about whether to take scripture seriously
Gentle reader,
Here’s a pet peeve: the idea that to affirm women in ministry is to ignore scripture.
Those opposed wield this claim as a weapon, suggesting that those of us who affirm women in ministry are obviously ignoring scripture. Equally maddening, I sometimes hear people who affirm women in ministry claim that the church does so because it has decided to set scripture aside or to judge it outdated.
We all have our own convictions about theological method, but no church body I’m aware of has ever affirmed women in ministry while making the argument that to do so is to ignore scripture.
We affirm women in ministry because of scripture.
If you’re new to the conversation about how scripture teaches us to be a church that includes women in ministry, I highly recommend
’s The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible, which is a great introduction to biblical interpretation in general and to questions about women in ministry in particular.
For more in depth readings of some of the biblical texts in question, check out Lucy Peppiatt’s Rediscovering Scripture's Vision for Women: Fresh Perspectives on Disputed Texts and Phillip Barton Payne’s Man and Woman, One in Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul's Letters.
I’ve summarized my reading of the story of scripture as for women in a post here:
To affirm the unchanging truth of Scripture as the Word of God, is not to read Scripture without an interpretative lens. Neither is it to weigh all passages equally or to ignore questions about genre or about where a text falls in the story of salvation (a key point when thinking about the relationship between Old and New Testament texts).
Christ and His Mother Studying the Scriptures, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
When the early church came to the the conclusion that circumcision would not be required of Gentile converts, it did not decide to ignore Scripture. It made that decision as a decision for continuity with the Word of God as revealed to the patriarchs and the matriarchs and the prophets.
Was this a surprising form of continuity? Yes.
Was it a form of continuity no one expected? Yes.
But it was anything but a rejection of Israel’s Scripture, which had been promising, all along, the full inclusion of the Gentiles and the revelation of the law’s purpose in Jesus.
Churches ordain women because they understand that as faithfulness to Scripture and to the God who speaks therein.
Is the biblical witness here complex? Yes. Do some Christians read Scripture as prohibiting the full exercise of women’s gifts for ministry? Yes. But there is a compelling case to be made for the opposite interpretation, for the claim that we ordain women, are for women, encourage women to use their gifts for the fullness of the gospel, precisely because God calls us to do so through both Word and Spirit.
Scripture affirms the ministry of Junia. Scripture reveals that both our sons and our daughters will prophesy. Paul challenges his patriarchal culture in ways that press for the recognition of women as fully human and as daughters of God, and he commends women as his colleagues in ministry.
We can’t ignore the delicious complexity (and countercultural nature!) of the biblical texts. The church’s actual history of debate about this question has never suggested that we must move against scripture.
We need each other. We don’t have to do the hard, beautiful work of reading Scripture alone. We’re blessed to read it in a communion that includes theological diversity, and we’d be fools to try to read it without reference to the larger communion, an interpretive community that stretches across more than two millennia and around the globe.
Depiction of Junia and Andronicus, via Wikimedia Commons
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No theological argument will help us seek faithfulness if it ignores Scripture. No argument will succeed if it relies on simplistic proof texting. We must read the whole, gracious, God-breathed story of the Bible and seek faithfulness to the goodness, truth, and beauty God has revealed there, and I’m convinced that the scriptures open up all the ministries and gifts of God to all people.
Grace & peace,
BFJ
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It is a cheap argument to accuse those who ordain women or women ordained of denying inerrancy or taking Scripture loosely. One can counter that those who don't allow women to speak prophetically, to lead, to "apostle" and to "deacon" ... etc... are the ones denying Scripture! Both arguments lead to stalemates at the best, and the normal course of the conversation to much worse.
Yes. In the church I serve as minister, 9 of our 12 elders are women. Grateful for them.