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Women Priests? A
Source of Authority
Prominent among the many changes in society that have taken place in the twentieth century has been the increasing number of women taking on jobs that were previously the sole domain of men. There are women in most of the major professions; women doctors, lawyers, and engineers. Women can be found in important positions in industry and commerce, and running large companies. Women are involved in politics, and a number of countries have a woman as their head of government. With this emphasis on equality of opportunity in so many spheres of life have come calls for the greater involvement of women in the religious world, specifically to take up a place alongside men as priests. This suggestion, though
warmly welcomed in some quarters, has roused strong and
passionate feelings. The adherents of widely differing
views staunchly defend them by stating that theirs is the
only position that can be tolerated. But this only serves
to provide greater confusion. Who is right? Those who say
it is wrong for women to act as priests, or those who say
it is only prejudice that is keeping them out of these
positions? What makes the problem even worse is that
churchmen themselves cannot agree. They all claim to
speak authoritatively, yet they cannot come to a common
view, or even accept a common basis from which a position
can be determined. If there is such disagreement in the
ranks of churchmen, no wonder so many people feel
perplexed and bewildered by the subject and become
disillusioned with religion altogether. Where can the
real answer be found? Is there a voice of authority we
can listen to? Can the Holy Spirit say one thing to one man and something completely different to another? The Bible itself was produced through the agency of the Holy Spirit, for "men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God" (2 Peter 1:21). Can the Spirit which produced the Bible reveal one teaching upon this subject, and yet give a different message to someone who then claims to speak on God's behalf? This would be confusion worse con-founded! Yet "God is not a God of confusion but of peace" (1 Corinthians 14:33). He has declared a simple rule to test the pronouncements of men who say they are speaking for Him. Through the prophet Isaiah, He said, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (8:20, A.V.). Put quite simply, this
means that there is only one authoritative source Qf
information on matters relating to God and salvation. The
Bible, God's revealed Word, is as able to guide His
people today as it was when it was first written.
Furthermore, His message is simple, clear and logical.
Anyone can understand it, so long as the Bible is
approached genuinely with a desire to learn what it
teaches. If God intended the followers of Christ to appoint priests to rule and guide his church, we should expect to find instructions about this in some of the New Testament letters. Specifically, if there needs to be a distinction between believers, as there is between the priesthood and the lay members in most churches, this should have been foreseen and explained by the Apostles. They had the Holy Spirit gifts to use for the purpose of establishing the early believers in the Christian faith and were therefore able to speak and write with authority. But we find no such advice in the Bible. Instead, the Christian church is described as a body, made up of separate individuals each bringing his own unique talents to provide for the well-being of the whole community. No task can be assumed to be pre-eminent, indeed the humblest tasks can have an importance completely out of proportion to their content. God ordained it this way, 'that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another" (1 Corinthians 12:25). There were, of course, to be different jobs for different people, but the prime objective for all is that of service to the whole community of believers to bring honour to God's Name. Even the "head" of the body, the Lord Jesus Christ, said: "I am among you as one who serves" (Luke 22:27), and set an example for all his followers to apply in their own lives. Even though some of the
specific tasks in the community's organisation are
mentioned in the apostles' writings (bishops, deacons,
elders, etc.), there is no indication that the believers
who fill these roles have any right to assume that the
work they do marks them out as different from their
fellows. Every believer has to "work out (his) own
salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12).
He can only do this by a devotion to what God has
revealed, attempting to mould his life in conformity to
these Divine principles. The Apostle Paul expressed God's desire that everybody should benefit from this salvation, made possible through the work of Christ: "First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectable in every way. This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:1-4). God wishes all men to be saved. This does not of course mean that He is unconcerned with women! The word translated "men" twice in this passage really means 'mankind', and encompasses both men and women. God wants all men and women to be saved. Paul had mentioned earlier when writing to the believers in Galatia that the effect of Christ's saving work has no barriers: "In Christ Jesus you are all the sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26-28). In God's sight the country we are born in, the colour of our skin, the sort of job we do, or whether we are male or female, all are unimportant so far as the offer of salvation is concerned. This is what the phrase 'Equal Opportunities' really means! God does not look on the outward appearance but on the heart, as He revealed to Samuel (1 Samuel 16:7). Any individual, regardless of background, can have hope of eternal life through faith and baptism into Christ. Yet, though salvation is
freely available to all, believers are still individuals
with their own particular strengths and weaknesses. It is
not God's objective to suppress these when His offer of
salvation is accepted. Each believer has his own part to
play in the service of God. Men and women, like the
different parts in a body, have different
responsibilities and functions within the congregation.
These do not limit the freedom of opportunity for
salvation -- that position has already been fully
accepted -- but they do help to explain why men and women
need saving, and how it will be accomplished. These
different roles, it must be stressed, carry no idea of
difference of spiritual status. The woman's role is not
inferior to the man's, but it is different. "I desire then that in every place (i.e. wherever there is a group of believers) the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarrelling" (1 Timothy 2:8). Here the word "men" means just what it says; the males are to lead the prayers. It is worth noting that no further special qualifications are indicated. Not "some men" attempting to distinguish them from others who cannot do this work, but "men" in general are to fulfil this function. The woman's position is different. Her role in communal worship is more submissive: "Women should adorn themselves modestly and sensibly in seemly apparel, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire but by good deeds, as befits women who profess religion. Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent" (verses 9-12). This does not mean that
women have nothing to do among the community of
believers, nor that they are somehow "second class"
believers. We have already seen that there is no
distinction so far as salvation is concerned, and we
shall discover later that Paul anticipates this reaction
to God's commands and deals with it. But his comment
about women keeping silence is often quoted as an
inflammatory attack on the female sex. Paul, so his
critics say, was being chauvinistic. They claim that such
language is not fitting for our enlightened age where, in
common with men, women expect totally equal treatment and
opportunities. If the Apostle had left
his comments at that point there would have been a
command, without supporting reasons for the different
roles of men and women in the organisation of the
communal life of believers. He therefore continued to
explain that men are to lead communal worship and women
are to remain quiet in the congregation, "for Adam
was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived,
but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor (1
Timothy 2:13,14). By this simple statement he was
reminding his readers of what happened in the garden of
Eden at the dawn of man's history, and relating it to
Christian worship. What is there about the Genesis record
of Adam and Eve that can help us explain how believers
should organise themselves today? "she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate" (3:6). Eve sought personal advantage, and did not heed the message God gave by her husband. When God spoke to her afterwards, He said: "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you" (3:16). Eve was to suffer greatly for her folly. She was doomed to death and would always live in the shadow of the grave. Additionally, she and all womanhood would have pain in childbirth, bringing forth new life, but knowing in sorrow that each child that is born is bound to die of sickness, accident, or old age. Finally, because she had not listened to Adam, she was to be subject to him. All this sounds as if Adam, who also broke God's command by eating from the tree, got off scot-free. Nothing could be further from the truth. They each had responsibilities before God, and they both failed under that test. To Adam God said: "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree . . . cursed is the ground . . . in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (verses 17-19). The Apostle Paul obviously
had this incident firmly in his mind when he wrote to
Timothy. It forms the background to all his advice
regarding how Christian congregations are to be organised.
If we look again at some of the things he wrote, they
will now be seen in a clearer light: "I desire then
that . . . the men should pray . . . that women
should adorn themselves modestly and sensibly . . . Let a
woman learn in silence with all submissiveness...
I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over
men: she is to keep silent" (1 Timothy 2:8-12). We noted earlier that the apparent unfairness of all this was recognised by Paul. He appreciated that the arrangement looks as if it is penalising women, possibly even creating a barrier to their eventual salvation. He therefore completed this section of his letter to Timothy by saying: "Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty" (verse 15). What a strange thing to say! It sounds as if only those women who are mothers will be saved; or, possibly, that only believing women will be certain to survive the rigours of childbirth! Without appreciating the background in Genesis there would be no other obvious explanation for this verse. But we have seen that childbearing was one of the things affected for all women as a result of Eve's disobedience. Paul was referring to this, and answering the criticism he knew would be levelled against his teaching about the woman's role in the church. The record in Genesis emphasises the separate but complementary roles of man and woman. The man has a special responsibility to show spiritual leadership. The woman's role is more in the sphere of the family. Providing she is maintaining a faithful spiritual life, then through the exercise of her divinely appointed role she is ensuring her own salvation -- as well as assisting her family to apply the same principles as guides in their lives. He was declaring in a
straightforward way that the provision God was making for
the future organisation of the believers was essential if
the effects of Adam and Eve's disobedience in the garden
of Eden are finally to be removed from their descendants.
Men and women meet together to worship God and to thank
Him for the gift of His Son, and the salvation made
possible in him. By taking up the divinely appointed
roles they declare that, like their first parents, they
are disobedient and as deserving as they were of the
punishment God introduced. By their demeanour before Him,
however, they are also declaring that they believe He
will ultimately redeem them from death, and from all the
other consequences of the first sin. In the Corinthian church, these things were being done, and they were organised as Paul had directed, but the reason for them was not fully understood: "I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I have delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is her husband, and the head of Christ is God" (1 Corinthians 11:2,3). Christ is the head of the
body -- his church. Human relationships within the church
are therefore specially ordered to provide a constant
reminder of God's gracious provision of a saviour for
mankind from his sin, and of how that sin first occurred
when the authority of God was forsaken. Men and women
have their special part to play in declaring their belief
in these things. Not to organise themselves as God has
appointed is effectively to deny the truth of what it is
all designed to teach. "Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonours his head, but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled dishonours her head. For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. That is why a woman ought to have a veil (Greek, authority) on her head" (1 Corinthians 11:4,5,7,10). It all seems a very strange provision until we realise (and as the Greek of verse 10 indicates) that it is an expression of how to respond to God's ultimate authority, the authority that was forsaken by Adam and Eve in Eden. The man, representing Christ, is to appear before God bare-headed. To do otherwise would discredit his "head", which is Christ. By contrast, the woman is to appear with her head covered. Her "head" is the man (see verse 3). If she was to appear uncovered she would not be exposing only herself to disgrace, but also the male believers. The only way both men and women can show that they are under the authority of God and Christ is to comply with this command -- the man appearing bareheaded, and the woman with her head covered, when they approach before God to worship Him. If these teachings are
understood, how can the suggestion that women should take
more of a leading role in communal worship be sustained?
To do so would deny the whole process of salvation
graciously provided by God for fallen mankind. At his return, the work of Christ will be seen in all the earth. Those redeemed by his sacrifice and judged to be his faithful servants will share with him in bringing the world into a full knowledge of God's ways: "They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years" (Revelation 20:6). The apostle Peter spoke in the same way of what lies in store for those who "love his (Christ's) appearing". They are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" (1 Peter 2:9). What a wonderful promise! Let us therefore, whether Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, honour God's commands and through Christ "continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name" and recognise His supreme authority (Hebrews 13:15). MICHAEL ASHTON Most Bible quotations are taken from the Revised Standard Version. Reproduced by courtesy of the Christadelphian Magazine and Publishing Association by whom all rights are reserved. |
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