Sorry it’s been a couple of weeks since my last blog! I’ve had a new grandson! I think that’s a good enough excuse!

Let’s continue….

Patriarchy

Patriarchy has been a part of society for thousands of years and I can’t put everything down that Beth talks about in the book so I’ll jot down the basics that lead us to the question,

 ‘what if patriarchy was a product of the fall and not God’s original design?’ (Pg 25)

 In 1839 a young English scholar discovered the remains of the great Assyrian cities of Nimrud and Nineveh. It housed fragments of one the oldest stories in human existence, the story of the warrior King Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh was half god because of his goddess mother and half mortal because of his earthly father, so the ancient text tells us that Gilgamesh was the fifth king of the First Dynasty of Uruk around 2750BC.

What Beth points out about this ancient story is the continuation of humanity and how emotions of love and loss are exactly the same as they are today. We love and grief just the same.  The reality of patriarchy is also present in this story. Again, time won’t allow me to go into it, suffice it to say although women played not an insignificant role during this time in ancient history but it was seen as always guided by the male characters.

So, in one sense, this could put history on the side of complementarianism, meaning, woman was created to compliment the man and have a role defined around home, children and family. But Beth, and hosts of others, she isn’t alone in this, want to suggest that what if the history that we look back on isn’t, in fact, what God designed, but a product of the fall?

I find this fascinating!

John has often used the analogy of a golf ball to describe something like this. If you miss the trajectory by just a few centimetres, it is easily fixed. If you miss it by miles, it goes way off and is very hard to correct. Have some taken their beliefs that the women should be a home maker and I embolden ‘should’ because that is many women’s choice and I have had my years doing this and loved it! Well, most of the time!  Actually, I think it’s the harder choice – staying at home with young children or being a CEO? Staying at home is by far the harder ‘career’ choice, in my opinion. Personally, I’ve never believed that that should be the role of all women. I repeat, what would happen to our world if every woman stayed at home? I can’t see how some justify this at all.

What is being challenged in this book then is the forced notion that the place of the woman is the home and that a woman shouldn’t preach, teach or work outside of the home – like I said, I’ve never believed that.

So, let’s ask the question again, where did this idea of patriarchy come from? And has it just continued because the writers of history (who are almost always male), only looked back as far as Gilgamesh and not creation?

I’m sure all of you who are reading this are very aware of the creation of man. God said let us make man in our own image. Male and female he created them.  There wasn’t any talk of man ruling over woman until after the fall. I’ve never registered these verses as post-fall despite the times I’ve read it.

 

This comes in Genesis 3:16

To the woman 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.”

 

Patriarchy wasn’t what God wanted; Patriarchy was a result of human sin and Patriarchy is created by people, not ordained by God (pg 29)

 

Before the fall, Adam and Eve were both in submission to God’s authority. After the fall, women would now turn first to their husbands and their husbands, in place of God, would rule over them. (pg 30)

 

The debate between egalitarians (those who argue for biblical equality between men and women) and complementarians (those who argue for biblical gender hierarchy that subordinates women to men) is in gridlock (pg 32)

Complementarians would say that male headship existed before the fall and the egalitarians state that it only came after. (pg 32)

For the author we are looking at, she says it wasn’t just the biblical text that convinced her on the belief of egalitarians, but historical evidence too and she thinks that this evidence can take the conversation forward.

Beth Moore also sees the disconnect between biblical womanhood and the real lives of women in the Bible. She pleads that we should grapple with the entire text from Matthew 1 to Revelation 22 on every matter concerning women. To grapple with Paul’s words in 1 Tim and 1 Cor 14 alongside other words he wrote and make sense of the many women he served alongside…(Pg 36)

Patriarchy exists in the Bible because the Bible was written in a patriarchal world. Historically speaking there is nothing surprising about the many patriarchal bible stories, but what is surprising are the stories that undermine rather than support hierarchy – e.g. Deborah, Huldah – these pair are even a challenge for John Piper (pg 36)

And then we read the verses that are most difficult to explain like Galatians 3:26-28 which says there is no longer male and female….. etc. This is what is radical! And what makes Christianity so different from the rest of humanity! This is what sets both men and women free.  (Pg 37)

Sarah Bessy in her book, ‘Jesus feminist’, says, Patriarchy is not God’s dream for humanity’

The world of Galatians 3 seems more like the world of Jesus. Patriarchy may be a part of Christian history, but that doesn’t make it Christian. It just shows us the historical (and very human) roots of biblical womanhood. (Pg 37)

I’ve just taken a pause, because this is not an easy thing to write about and I wonder if I can continue! It’s certainly stretching me which isn’t a bad thing!

So, for the close, here’s something to think about:

It’s a challenge from Beth. ‘When we rightly understand that biblical passages discussing slavery must be framed within their historical context and that, through the lens of this context we can better see slavery as an ungodly system that stands contrary to the gospel of Christ, how can we not then apply the same standards to biblical texts about women?’ (Page 34)

And, breathe!

See you next time!

D x