The Role of Men and Women in the Church Part 7

Roles of Men and Women in the Church

Parallel Passages:

            1 Corinthians 14:33-38

            1 Corinthians 11:1-16

            Prophets and Prophetesses:

                        Anna:  Luke 2

• Acts 2:17-18   17‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
  That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
  Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
  Your young men shall see visions,
  Your old men shall dream dreams.
  18And on My menservants and on My maidservants
  I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
  And they shall prophesy.

• Acts  21:9   On the next day we who were Paul’s companions departed and came to Caesarea, and entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. 9Now this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied.

•  Deborah:  Judges 4:4-ff

                                                1.  No military function

                                                2.  Barak was to lead the army

                                                3.  She admonishes him for wanting her along (lack of male leadership)

                                                4.  To shame him…victory will be at the hand of a woman (Jael)

Jesus & the Early Church in their current cultural context:

            (Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus, by Joachim Jeremias)

            1.  Not permissible for men to talk to women publically:

                        Accordingly, a woman was expected to remain unobserved in public. There is a recorded saying  of one of the oldest scribes we know, Jose b. Johanan of Jerusalem (c. 150 BC): ‘Talk not much with womankind’, to which was added, ‘They said this of a man’s own wife: how much more of his fellow’s wife!’ (M. Ab. i.5). Rules of propriety forbade a man to be alone with a woman (M.Kidd. Iv.12; etc…see John 4:27), to look at a married woman, or even to give her a greeting.  It was disgraceful for a scholar to speak with a woman in the street. “  p. 360

            2.  Not to teach a woman Torah:

                        “Further, she was exempt from study of the Torah; R. Eliezer (c. AD 90), a tireless upholder of the old tradition, says impressively, ‘If a man gives his daughter a knowledge of the Law it is as though he taught her lechery’ (M. Sot. iii.4).  Here is another of this scholar’s sayings: ‘Better to burn the Torah than to teach it to women’, j. Sot. iii.4).

            3.  The testimony of women was not valid in court.

Notable Women in the NT:

• Pricilla:  Acts 18:24-26   Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. 25This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. 

• Mary & Martha, Mary Magdalene, Mary Jesus’ mother, Salome

• Phoebe: Rom. 16:1  I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea,   (a diakonos).

Women’s Ministries in the Church

A Word to Men: