“I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae, so that you may welcome her in the Lord as is fitting for the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor of many and of myself as well.”
Romans 16:1-2 NRSV
Last post we talked about a few of those often misquoted or misapplied passages that have limited women’s capacity to lead in Church settings and silenced them in their homes. We discovered that these submission passages are not applied as they were intended through comparison to other texts and biblical history.
Todays post we will talk about some of the women God called into leadership in the scriptures and some additional passages that directly challenge the exclusively complimentarian view of women in ministry leadership… especially as it relates to Pastoral and Deacon roles or preaching the gospel.
Lets start with Deborah. We can read about her in Judges 4… for the sake of time I’ll keep it to a short excerpt:
“At that time Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the Israelites came up to her for judgment. She sent and summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you, ‘Go, take position at Mount Tabor, bringing ten thousand from the tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun.”
Deborah was a prophetess, she had authority sanctioned clearly by God, she was not a silent bystander, she was married and after her victory she was spoken of highly in the next chapter. Clearly God had no issues with Deborah as a leader in Israel!
We talked briefly of Priscilla… this powerful evangelist. I know I’m going to ruffle some feathers here but after some digging in this subject I believe there is reasonable evidence to support that Priscilla wrote the book of Hebrews. Many attribute Hebrews to Paul however Paul always signed his letters at the front, yet Hebrews has a distinctive style that would certainly have been influenced by Paul. Since there was no writer attributed a number of Bible scholars believe Priscilla could be the Author. There is so much to get into here about this but there’s a great book on it by Ruth Hoppin called “Priscilla’s letter” that goes over the evidence in a very structured and detailed manner. It is at the very least a compelling case. Priscilla was a powerful Bible teacher together with her husband Aquila. As discussed in earlier posts it is noteworthy that she was mentioned before Aquila in that culturally that would have placed greater significance on her name over her husbands. This is not a knock on her husband but rather simply a fact that it was likely Priscilla that was either more knowledgeable or a stronger teacher than Aquila. While this is partly speculation it bears noting that again through repetition the Bible places her name before his several times.
From Priscilla we move to Joanna, wife of Chuza who was a steward to Herod Antipus. In Luke 8 we read this:
“Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.” NRSV
Joanna, along with Mary Magdalene and Suzanna were all healed of evil spirits and then travelled with Jesus and the disciples… “providing for them out of their resources”. Another translation says “provided from our of their own means”. This means that women were financially bankrolling Jesus and the disciples.
Let that sink in… doesn’t sound like Jesus was telling them they needed to be quiet. They were a part of the group. They were organizing and providing financial support for the ministry.
From Priscilla we move towards a little known spiritual leader named Junia. She is hardly mentioned in the Bible… here is the Roman’s passage:
“Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives who were in prison with me; they are prominent among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.”
Romans 16:7 NRSV
Paul says that Junia and what is believed to be her husband were “prominent among the apostles”. Highly respected!! Paul isn’t saying that Junia needed to be silent… it is the opposite.
Next we look at Pheobe. This woman led a house church in her home. Roman’s says this:
“I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae, so that you may welcome her in the Lord as is fitting for the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor of many and of myself as well.”
Romans 16:1-2 NRSV
Paul mentions Euodia and Syntyche in Philippians:
“I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.”
Philippians 4:2-3 NRSV
Then there is Nympha, mentioned in Colossians here:
“Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters in Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.”
Colossians 4:15 NRSV
Doesn’t sound like Nympha is quietly staying in the background. She is active in the Church and highly respected by Paul.
We are not done yet…
Miriam is listed as a leader with Moses and Aaron in Micah 6
The first people Christ shows himself to after he rose from the dead were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and other women who were with them. The risen Christ chose to announce his resurrection first to Women! What a fantastic redemption promise that God made to Eve fulfilled there in Luke 24.
Lydia, a very successful business woman who sold cloth accepted Christ and started a house Church in Phillipi. Paul baptized her whole family. She was clearly not quiet as we read in Acts 16
Let’s let go of our presuppositional bias in this area. Pauls teachings have deep value today and can be fully trusted… as all scripture can be. That said, we must read the word in context and be sure that that chapter and verse is consistently backed up by other texts. If it does not line up… then there must be an explanation that requires a little more than a chapter review. That’s our signal to dig deeper to really understand the text.
I have more trust in the inerrancy of the scriptures today than I ever have because I’ve learned to trust them as I’ve relearned how to study this amazing book.
God is faithful… he is God of all mankind, both men and women. He loves them equally. He is not bound by our narrow view of hierarchy. What he deeply cares about is relationship with you! Is your heart submitted to Him? If it is you will seek to align yourself, your morality and your mission will be to honour the risen Lord… and most importantly, have you placed your trust in Him as your Saviour and Lord?
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