Biblical Women—Submissive?

Lunceford

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781498274852
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

For many years I have had an interest in the equality of women and men, particularly in the church, where it has been woefully lacking for the most part. More recently Fundamentalist theologians have become increasingly blatant in asserting that the Bible teaches subordination of women to men both inside and outside the church. I have argued that this idea results from an irresponsible proof-texting from the Bible. I am convinced that, when taken as a whole, looking at all passages referring to women, the Bible supports the complete equality of women with men. I have undertaken to demonstrate this fact by looking carefully at the stories of women in the Bible, both named and unnamed, who were not submissive to men and who refused to settle for the role which their society attempted to assign them. I have taken these passages from the Bible and interpreted them within the context into which they are placed, to the degree that this can be determined. My goal was to find every story in the Bible in which a woman stepped out of her societal role and did something only men were supposed to do. I leave to the reader to decide whether or not I have succeeded.

part one

Named Women

1

Sarai/Sarah

According to the Biblical story the wife of Abraham was originally named Sarai (“contentious one”). At the point where God made a covenant with Abraham, her name was changed to Sarah (“princess”) [Gen 17:15]. The Christian Testament author of 1 Peter exhorts his female readers to be submissive to their husbands, invoking as an example Sarah who “obeyed Abraham, calling him kyrios (“lord”) [1 Pet 3:1–6].” Kyrios is roughly the equivalent of the Hebrew baal. However, as Carol Meyers has noted, “the absolute sovereignty of one person over another is expressed (in Hebrew) not by ba’al but by another word, 0adon (“lord”), as in the control of a conqueror over the vanquished or of a master over the slave.”1 Hence both Sarah’s alleged obedience and the title used in addressing Abraham require further examination.

It is true that, at the point where Sarah and Abraham are promised a son in their old age, Sarah refers to Abraham as my baal (“lord”) [Gen 18:12]. In context, however, this title probably means nothing more than “husband.”2 When the translators of the Greek version of the Jewish Scriptures rendered baal as kyrios in this passage, they opened up an even broader set of possibilities of meaning. Kyrios may convey anything from a polite “sir” or “mister” to the idea of God or Jesus Christ as being the supreme authority for one’s life.3 Upon closer examination, therefore, Sarah’s reference to Abraham as baal has no necessary connection with her obedience to him. In fact, as Nunnally-Cox has noted, “There does seem to be a surprising amount of equality between Sarah and Abraham. She appears to say what she wants, when she wants, and Abraham at times responds in almost meek obedience.”4

When we examine the complete Biblical story of Abraham and Sarah, we see rather quickly that the author of 1 Peter has used the reference to Abraham as baal in a very dubious manner. His interpretation is apparently tinged with hero/heroine worship.5 Let us take a closer look at that story.

The Biblical promise to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son in their old age is so well known as not to require comment. When faced with the apparent impossibility of the fulfillment of this promise, Sarah took matters into her own hands by directing Abraham to go in and have sexual relations with her maid Hagar (Gen 16:2). Regardless of how this might appear to us in modern times, Sarah was probably following a custom that was commonplace in her world. Excavations between 1925 and 1931 at Nuzi, an ancient city on the Tigris River in northern Mesopotamia, produced a large find of clay tablets that reflect this custom, along with several others that appear elsewhere in the Bible.6 According to the Biblical story, Nuzi is in the general area from which Abraham came (Gen 11:27–31; 15:7)

From this relationship between Abraham and Hagar a son was born whom they named Ishmael (Gen 16:11). Although some English translations render this in such a way as to leave the impression that Sarah is only requesting Abraham to go in to Hagar (e.g., NASB, KJV, ASV), both the Hebrew and Greek texts suggest otherwise. According to the English text of Genesis 16:2, Abram (Abraham) listened to the voice of Sarah. The word “listened” translates the Hebrew word shema, which is rendered by hypakouō in the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible. As any standard lexicon will show, both the Hebrew and the Greek word are regularly used in the sense of not only hearing, but obeying what is heard.7 This usage is the only one that makes sense in the larger context of Genesis 16:2. To put the matter as simply as possible, Sarah spoke and Abraham obeyed—just as countless husbands have done all down through the centuries. Parales has commented further, “Sarah held great authority within her family unit. In fact, her authority was great enough that at one point God commanded Abraham to obey her (Gen 21:12).

After Hagar bore Ishmael, she began to taunt Sarah for her barrenness (Gen 16:5). Sarah, regretting that she had given Hagar to Abraham, wanted to send away both Hagar and Ishmael. Abraham’s response was to give Sarah permission to do whatever she wished to Hagar, and Sarah drove her and Ishmael away. “Sarah demonstrated that she was no inferior, submissive female.”8

Trible, in her comments on this story, makes the initiative of Sarah more pointed: “No mighty Patriarch Abram, but rather the silent, acquiescent, and minor figure in a drama between two women.”9 Although this may be a slight overstatement, it is probably closer to reality than what we read in 1 Peter.

As we follow the Abraham story, some thirteen years after Ishmael’s birth Sarah gave birth to a son they named Isaac. Predictably, family problems arose very soon because of the two sons. Soon after Isaac’s birth Sarah saw Ishmael, who appears to have been a teenager by this time (Gen 17:25), “mocking” Isaac. Exactly what Ishmael was doing cannot be determined precisely. The word “mocking” translates the Hebrew word shachaq and the Greek word paizō. The Hebrew word, interestingly, is the root word for the name Issac, which means “laughter” (cf. Gen 21:6). The implication may be either laughing with Ishmael or laughing at him. John Skinner has suggested that the sce...