Writing from our 21st century world, I hesitantly suggest that we may need to be careful about reading our own notions of gender equality back into a Biblical world where it still had a way to go. We mustn’t try to make the Bible say more than it does: the books (OT and NT) were all written in a patriarchal world, and the inclusion of women was always unusual, often radical. Jesus, our greatest example, led the way in valuing and respecting women, but he was not in the business of female emancipation: he was bringing liberty to *everyone*, including the outcasts, the despised ones on the margins of society - who in his Jewish world included the women.
It’s really important to highlight Jesus’ attitude to women, and to read and understand the letters of the New Testament in the light of that teaching. But maybe we’re asking too much if we expect to find 21st century liberated attitudes and practices in the scriptures as written? Yes, they have been misinterpreted and twisted to reinforce patriarchy, and that needs to be challenged and corrected, but they are still 1st century texts. Paul and others were stretching the social norms of their time, and practices within the church were liberated compared to the societies of the day (Jewish, Greek, Roman).
Nevertheless, at a time when persecution of Christians quickly became the norm, they would also have been concerned not to make the churches look unnecessarily threatening to society: freeing all Christian slaves was not an option, for example. So it wouldn’t be surprising if advice on e.g. marriage, head coverings or church management are perhaps not as explicitly egalitarian as we would wish. In the context of the time they were as radical as they could be, and the direction of travel for the inclusion of women was absolutely clear. We have been blessed in being able to build on that and develop it further.
Some people think that we should only do what we can find examples of in the Bible: if it isn’t mentioned there we can’t do it; conversely, if it was done then, we have to the same now! But don’t we look to the Bible for the principles, which we then apply to our own context? The principles for supporting the ministry of women are there loud and clear, and there are examples too (Phoebe, Junia, Priscilla and more); in other passages, ‘elders’ seem to have been assumed to be male: but of course that isn’t a reason for only having male elders today! We build on the principle of egalitarianism, even if it wasn’t fully realised in the 1st century - God’s Spirit moves us forwards.
But there’s no need to try to find full egalitarianism in practice everywhere in the NT: it may weaken the argument if we stretch it too far.
I’m not sure if I’ve expressed this in the right way, but hope you can get what I mean, and I would welcome your thoughts. Am I imagining a problem that doesn’t exist?
