Catalyzing Conversations on Women & the Church
While tracing the influential roots of an ancient anti-feminine bias, I read a revealing statement by theologian and priest John Wijngaards: "Prejudice against women existed everywhere in the past." Wijngaards describes the pervasiveness of both secular and religious anti-woman prejudices. From what sources do Westerners argue for the inferiority of women and the subordination of women to men?
Today’s Bible readers mostly read English translations, rather than Greek and Hebrew texts. Though we don’t have the original writings, we do have thousands of ancient biblical manuscripts from which translations have been written. The Bible, in its original form, is the inspired word of God.
Translations are just that: translations. And, Bible translations are vital to helping us understand who God is, to see the grand narrative of the Bible’s story, to learn the essentials for living a Christ-honoring life, and for sharing the gospel. Dan Wallace, an esteemed Greek professor reminded me, “All translation is interpretation.” Necessarily then, translations contain many interpretative decisions including word choices and the addition of punctuation, chapter headings, and chapter and paragraph divisions.
In addition, translators must discern the author’s intended meaning—a challenging task considering that the Bible writers lived and ministered in a historical time and cultural context vastly different from a modern-day readers’ time and cultural context. Have you ever, as I have pondered, “Who gets lost in Bible translation?”
I'll never forget when my son Matt stopped me in our kitchen and asked, "Mom, when are we having family dinner night again; we haven't had one in a while?" He and his twenty-months younger brother played basketball on their local high school team, but one attended a Christian school and the other a public school.
With their busy athletic schedules, my son was right. The funny thing is that my husband and I didn't call it "family dinner night," but that is how Matt had understood one of our family values—together time around the table.
Authoritarian, Libertarian, the Left, the Right...political polling data of United States voters reflects a broad spectrum of beliefs. Similarly, yet in a different context, a spectrum of beliefs exists among Christians on what the Bible teaches about women’s pastoral leadership. If you were polled today, how you answer questions about what women can do in the church, i.e. serve as a pastor, deacon, elder, teach men, perform baptisms, as well as in community life and the home represents your theological framework of women.
\"When my daughter was in fifth grade, we visited my home church in Oakland, it was communion Sunday, and the preacher—male—got up and preached the sermon, then after the sermon, 12 men in their dark suits came forward to serve communion. And my daughter—fifth grade—leans over to me and she says, \"Dad, where are the women?\"
