Thoughts on women...

I'm back with more (personal!) thoughts on Elders. This time about 1 Tim 2:13 "For Adam was formed first, then Eve". See my previous post here focusing on 'Pronouns and Traditions'  based on 1 Tim 3:1-12. I think for some who have a complementarian stance, the linguistics of the passage in 1 Tim 3:1-12 are not so relevant an argument, it's more about what they see as the original principles of male headship, ergo male only elders. So if you truly believe that male headship is correct, then of course the linguistics of chapter 3 are irrelevant because you'd only see the explicit language as confirming the male bias. So headship. First up two things, I think it's interesting that male headship is not mentioned until Ephesians 5:23 (when Paul first used the term 'kephale'). I also think it's interesting that Jesus didn't mention headship at all and when he did talk about marriage, he said it in the context of the Eden blueprint of a husban...

John 4:4-42 The Samaritan Woman I was recently introduced to Sheila Gregoire (to her work, not to the woman herself sadly), an amazing writer and women's rights advocate, particularly in the church sphere. She wrote a fascinating piece about Queen Vashti ( read it here ) and it blew my mind. She was hopelessly positioned as the villain of the piece rather than the disrespected sex slave she ultimately was. It got me thinking about other times when women have been misrepresented in bible accounts. Bathsheba is one (she was not on the roof ok!) but the other one I recently discovered was the Samaritan woman at the well. I have to be honest and say this one hit me in the gut because I have believed those misrepresentations of this woman. She has been held up as the woman who had 'many husbands' and was currently living 'in sin' with a man who was not her husband. The implication being that she had left these men one failed marriage after the other. We are taught that s...