4.        POSITIVE ROLES OF WOMEN IN THE BIBLE

                            Bonni-Belle Pickard


Introduction: 
    Reading the Bible today, as a woman searching for what it means to be a woman "in God's image," is hard work.  It's like scraping down an old piece of furniture for refinishing. In the process, one has to chip away layers and layers of old paint, dirt, and accumulation of use and misuse, to discover the "real wood" underneath.  In a similar way, centuries of male-biased narration, transmission, interpretation, translation, and commentary have all but eliminated the feminine in our scriptures.  Indeed, for the vast majority of the centuries, men have been the only ones with the education, the leisure time, the skills, or the "permission" to do the essential work of passing on the scriptures.  While we value their contributions, it is time for women to do some "scraping down" of layers of male-biased understandings and misunderstandings and to proclaim and reclaim what women hear from the Word of God.
    This Bible study seeks to provide an overview of the "positive roles of women" as found in the Old and New Testaments.  For too long, women have been restricted to a narrow (though essential) list of roles that were considered acceptable for them to fill.  Often the criteria given for enforcing those roles were that the roles were `biblical.'  As we shall see, those `traditional' roles ARE biblical, but so are a host of others, often hidden from society's knowledge by oversight or manipulation.  As women created "in the image of God," it is our responsibility to be all we were meant to be by the One who created us.  And so we begin our search of scripture, scraping down the old and exposing the "real wood."
Traditional Roles: 
    The traditional roles of a woman/female--mother, wife, daughter--are all amply mentioned in scripture.  Indeed during much of the time period from which scripture was written, these were basically the only roles afforded women who were legally `possessions' of their fathers, husbands, or sons. The `worth' of the woman lay in her ability to contribute to sustaining the male line; as such, the highest honor came to the woman who produced sons.  The well-known Genesis stories of Sarah, Rachel, Leah, and Rebecca underlie this importance, especially when the narrator tells of God `blessing' the previously childless wombs with sons.
    For women who had only these roles to fulfill, however, scripture recounts amazing stories that keep pulling away from the `possession' fabric of patriarchy.  We find stories of wives who defied husbands (even kings!) when they understood God's will to be in conflict with the male actions.  Abigail (2 Sam. 25) and Bath-Sheba (I Kg. 1,2), too, had the courage to stand up against royal rule when their womanly wisdom required it.  And in the book of Esther, we find both Vashti and Esther defying the decree of their husband/king to affirm the integrity of themselves and their people.  Even the servant girl of King Namaan had an important role to play in leading the way to her master's healing! (2 Kgs. 5: 2-3).
    In the Exodus stories, we find women in the roles of nursemaids or mid-wives using whatever powers they had to circumvent disastrous male politics.  Pharoah had thought the way to exterminate the Hebrews was through killing the Hebrew baby boys.  But it was in the courageous acts of defiance of the Hebrew women (Jochebed, Ex. 6) and (Shiprah and Puah, Ex.1) against Pharoah's decrees that the nation of Israel was sustained.



Political and Legal Roles: 
    But what about the `other' women in the Bible?  Perhaps Deborah's story as judge, ruler and military advisor has been heard (Jdg. 4, 5), but what of other women in the political, legal, and even military spheres?  In I Sam. 28, a `woman of Endor' advised King Saul of his impending death, and Huldah advised King Josiah in 2 Kgs. 22 of the true meaning of forgotten scripture scrolls found in the temple, when the male priests could not!  Abigail negotiated a peace treaty with King David (I Sam. 25) that saved many lives, and Jael (Jdg. 4) singlehandedly killed the general of enemy forces in her own tent!  And in the lawsuit that resulted in the oldest decided case `that is still cited as an authority,' (Edith Dean, All Women of the Bible) the five daughters of Zelophehad contested and won property rights to their deceased father's land (Num. 27).

Commerce and Wealth:  
    It is actually only since the Industrial Revolution that women have not been expected to be "in business" outside the home.  Indeed, before that, the wise woman knew how to use her talents to bring in income for the household in many spheres.  Don't forget that the Queen of Sheba's wealth (I Kgs. 10) rivaled that of King Solomon's!  The well-known "wise woman" of Proverbs 31 certainly knew business and commercial transaction, and Lydia (Acts 16) was a successful business woman (as well as the first christian convert in Europe), as was Priscilla (Acts 18, Rom 16, I Cor. 16, 2 Tim. 4) who, with her husband, was a tent-maker as well as teacher of theology, preacher, and missionary.

Theology: 
    As women searching scripture, we become women doing theology.  As we look at the example of Jesus, we see that Jesus, in stark variance with the religious practices of his time, considered theology a very important task for women.  We realize that Mary of Bethany (Lk. 10,  Jn. 11, 12), seated at Jesus' feet in the traditional (male) posture of learning from a teacher, was actually "doing theology," and as such was commended by Jesus.  We hear Jesus in deep theological dialogue with the Syro-Phoenician woman (Mt. 15, Mk. 7), the Samaritan woman (Jn. 4), and Martha (Jn. 11:20-27); we hear them questioning him, and ultimately recognizing the truth of his messiahship.

Proclamation and Prophesy: 
    We find the person of Mary Magdalene, who was healed of seven demons, who left everything to follow Jesus in his ministry, who was last to see him on the cross and first to see him risen. It was to Mary that Jesus' words then came: "Go and tell my brothers."
    There are other women who took on liturgical roles to "go and tell," their stories are there for those willing to do some serious "scraping."  Miriam (Ex. 15, Num. 12, 20, 26 ) a prophet and leader along with her brothers, Moses and Aaron, led in worship, song, and liturgical dance.  Anna (Lk. 2) prophesied the word of the Lord and proclaimed the infant Jesus as the Christ; Philip's seven daughters (Acts 21) were known prophets in the early church. 

Church Leadership: 
    Other women whose important roles in the early church have been all but erased through the centuries are Phoebe (Rom. 16), a deacon in the church commended by Paul, and several whose work probably included hosting house churches, such as Mary, the mother of John Mark  (Acts 12), Lydia (Acts 16), Euodias and Syntyche, (Phil. 4), Chloe (I Cor. 1), Rufus' mother (Rom. 16), Junia (who even had her name changed to the masculine by later translators! - Rom 16).  Other female church workers (unusual for their day) include Apphia (Philemon), Cloudia (2 Tim. 4), Dorcas (Acts 9), Eunice and Lois (2 Tim. 1), Joanna (Lk. 8, 24), Mary, the mother of Jesus (Acts 1), Mary of Rome (Rom. 16), Nereus' sister (Rom. 16), Persis (Rom. 16),  Rhoda (Acts 12), Salome (Mk. 16), Sapphira (Acts 5), Susanna (Lk. 8), and Tryphena and Tryphosa (Rom. 16).   For many of these women, all we know of them and their work is their names and that they worked for God!  As we keep "scraping" away, we come to treasure even their names (and especially Romans 16) as evidence that God has work for each of us to do.

Conclusion: 
    Some of these stories are very hard to reconstruct thousands of years after they occurred, but traces of them remain.  As women, created in God's image, sustained and empowered by God's spirit, we have a responsibility to scrape far enough to find the women's stories again, to take inspiration from these women to find our own stories, and to resist any forces seeking to limit what women, created in God's image, can do.

Questions/Searching Further:
1.    How many of these names or stories are new to you?  The scripture references are given here so that you can find the stories on your own, and yet the scripture references are purposely general (chapter but no verse) so that you will have to do some "scraping" of your own.  After you have found the women in the scripture references, do some more "scraping" in one or more of the sources listed in the bibliography.
 2.    Why do you think these women and their stories have remained hidden?  What do you learn about God from reading about them?
3.    What roles have you been reluctant to take on because you are a woman?  To whom do you answer for how you use your God-given talents?
BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Deen, Edith,  All the Women of the Bible,  New York:     Harper & Row, 1955.
Dennis, Trevor, Sarah Laughed, Nashville: Abingdon Press,     1994.
Hull, Gretchen Gaebelein, Equal To Serve, New York:     Revell,  1994.
Kimbrough, Marjorie,  She Is Worthy,  Nashville: Abingdon     Press, 1994.
Martin, Faith, Call me Blessed, Grand Rapids, Michigan:     Eerdmans, 1988.
Ricci, Carla,  Mary Magdalene and Many Others,      Minneapolis: Fortress, 1994.
Weems, Renita,  Just a Sister Away, San Diego, LuraMedia,     1988.
Wright, Linda Raney, A Cord of Three Strands, New York:     Revell, 1987.
Zimmer, Mary,  Sister Images,  Nashville: Abingdon, 1993.