Prove All Things:
A Response to Women In Ministry
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Headship, Submission, and Equality in Scripture
Samuele Bacchiocchi
Introduction
Recently the question of whether women should be ordained to serve in the church in the headship role of elders and pastors has been hotly debated in many Christian churches. Some churches, like the Lutheran church, have actually been split over this issue. At the root of the controversy is one's understanding of the biblical teaching regarding headship, submission, and equality in male-female relationships. This fact is clearly recognized by the special pro-ordination committee set up by the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary to supervise the production of the symposium, a collection of chapters by different authors, called Women in Ministry: Biblical and Historical Perspectives. In the introduction to the part of the book dealing with "Perceived Impediments to Women in Ministry," the committee lists as the first of four "serious obstacles" to the ordination of women "the concept of the headship of all males over all females."1
The symposium, made up mostly of teachers at the Seminary, attempts to overcome this "serious obstacle" by arguing that the role distinctions of male headship and female submission derive from the Fall (Gen 3:16) and that they apply exclusively to the home. In the church, women can serve in the headship positions of elders and pastors. The methodology used to construct this position consists primarily of two strategies. First, the Genesis passages (Gen 1:26-31; 2:18-25; 3:1-24) are interpreted in isolation from the rest of Scripture as teaching "perfect egalitarianism," that is, full equality with no role distinctions between Adam and Eve. Second, the crucial Pauline passages, which interpret the Genesis passages as prohibiting women from serving in a headship role in the church (1 Tim 2:11-15; 1 Cor 11:3-12; 14:34-36), are interpreted as temporary restrictions which apply exclusively to the home, or perhaps to problematic women who caused disorder in the church.
An Overview of the Assumptions of the Symposium
The fundamental assumption of the symposium is that the role distinctions of male headship and female submission were not divinely ordained at creation but were introduced after the Fall and are limited to the governance of the home, not to the community of faith. Thus, Christians are called to return to the creation ideal of "perfect equality," understood as obliteration of gender-based role distinctions.
Before we examine the specific arguments used to construct this position, some general observations are in order regarding Women in Ministry's perception of the problem and the moral implications of the position adopted by the contributors to the symposium.
First, we have already noted that the symposium sets out to examine "perceived impediments to women in ministry," among which it lists "the concept of the headship of all males over all females." Yet I have never seen this concept expressed in the Seventh-day Adventist church. It is certainly not the view of opponents of women's ordination known to me. Women in Ministry offered no references to books by Adventist authors which set forth such a view. By framing the issue in this extreme way and arguing against it, the book imputes to its opponents a view which they do not hold while failing to deal adequately with the views they do hold.
Further, by listing this view of headship as a "perceived impediment to women in ministry," the book implies that those who do not share its views are opposed to women in ministry. In fact, the opposite is true, as I shall observe in more detail below. The authors of the book you are now reading believe that there is a significant place for women in ministry and a genuine need for their services. They believe that respect for the biblical view of roles and headship in the home and church does not prevent women from ministering, but channels their ministry into the areas where it may be most effective.
To turn next to the moral implications, Women in Ministry's assumption that male headship and female submission reflect "God's plan for fallen human beings rather than an original mandate for the sinless world"2 implies that functional role distinctions are intrinsically evil. But we must ask, Is this true? The answer is, Absolutely not! The most compelling proof is the fact that functional role distinctions exist within the Trinity itself! The Bible tells us that "the head of Christ is God" (1 Cor 11:3) and that the Son Himself "will be subjected to him [the Father]" for all eternity (1 Cor 14:28). If there is nothing morally wrong with functional distinctions within the Trinity, why is it morally wrong for functional distinctions to exist within male-female relationships?
This leads us to another observation, examining the assumption that male headship entails superiority and female submission inferiority--a subtle and deceptive assumption that underlies the whole symposium. We ask, do functional male-female role distinctions imply superiority and inferiority? Absolutely not! This is true in the Trinity and is also true in male-female relationships. In the Trinity the headship of the Father does not make the Son inferior. Christ Himself affirmed, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). In human relationships, male headship does not make women inferior because of their submissive roles. We "are all one in Christ," and consequently there is no male superiority or female inferiority (Gal 3:28-29).
The fact that I am a man called by God to serve as the head of my family does not make me superior to my wife. In a certain sense she is "the boss," because she has constantly reminded me through the years of my God-given responsibility to serve as the spiritual head of our home. Functional role distinctions have nothing to do with superiority or inferiority but only with the different--and complementary--roles God has called men and women to fulfill in the home and in the church.
The Real Issue
The real issue in the debate over women's ordination is not whether men were created superior and women inferior. No Adventist scholar opposed to women's ordination holds such a view. Rather, the real issue is whether God created men and women equal in nature and worth yet different in function, with the man called to serve in the servant headship role and the woman in the submissive helper role.
It is most unfortunate that the symposium fails to address this fundamental crucial issue, choosing instead arguments about superiority and inferiority--arguments that are foreign to the Bible and to the whole question of women's ordination.
Those of us who for biblical reasons oppose the ordination of women to the headship roles of elders and pastors are often thought to be trying to deprive women of the opportunity to minister in the church. Nothing could be further from the truth. We strongly believe that if ever there were a time when the ministry of women in the church was needed, it is today. The many broken homes, single parents, and abused children inside and outside the church call today more than ever for the ministry of women who have been trained theologically and psychologically to meet such situations.
Simply stated, the issue is not whether women should minister in the church. On this point we are all in full agreement. Rather the issue is, should women serve in the headship roles of elders and pastors? The answer of Scripture is abundantly clear. In both the Old and New Testaments women were precluded from serving as priests, elders, and pastors, not because they were inferior or less capable than men, but because these offices entail the headship role of a spiritual father and not the supportive role of a spiritual mother. This does not mean that the church has no need of spiritual mothers. The contrary is true. As a home without a mother lacks the tender, loving care that only mothers can give, so a church without spiritual mothers lacks the warmth, care, and compassion that spiritual mothers can best give. Summing up, the biblical teaching is that men and women are equally called by God to minister in the home and in the church, but in different, complementary roles.
A Review of the Pivotal Chapter
This review focuses on the fundamental issue of "Headship, Submission, and Equality in Scripture," which is examined in chapter 13 of Women in Ministry. The chapter's author chairs the Old Testament department at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. Over the years I have learned to respect him, not only for his outstanding scholarship but also for his commitment to the Lord. Though I must differ with what he has written in this chapter, I intend no negative reflection on his scholarship as a whole or on his personal character. In several of my books I have quoted extensively from his writings. My review here is limited to the chapter under consideration. It examines exclusively the chapter's methodology and arguments, with no intent to question its author's sincerity or integrity.
The Women in Ministry chapter offers a reinterpretation of the biblical data relating to the headship-submission pattern in attempting to provide a biblical justification for the ordination of women. This chapter is fundamental to the whole symposium. The author himself acknowledges that a definition of the biblical teaching on headship-submission is "foundational to determining whether or not women should be ordained as elders and pastors in the church."3
In many ways the whole symposium Women in Ministry stands or falls on this chapter's interpretation of the biblical teaching on headship and submission in male-female relationships, because the other nineteen chapters are built upon the premises laid down in chapter 13. If the conclusions of this chapter are found to be based on a misinterpretation of the biblical data, then much of the work set forth by the other contributors collapses for the lack of an adequate biblical foundation. In view of the foundational importance of this chapter, we must closely examine the methodology the author used to reach his conclusions.
The Chapter's Conclusions
It may be helpful at the outset to state the Women in Ministry chapter's conclusions. Fortunately, they are expressed with enviable clarity at the end. "Before the Fall there was full equality with no headship-submission in the relationship between Adam and Eve (Gen 2:24). But after the Fall, according to Genesis 3:16, the husband was given a servant headship role to preserve the harmony of the home, while at the same time the model of equal partnership was still set forth as the ideal. This post-Fall prescription of husband headship and wife submission was limited to the husband-wife relationship. In the divine revelation throughout the rest of the Old Testament and the New Testament witness, servant headship and voluntary submission on the part of husband and wife, respectively, are affirmed, but these are never broadened to the covenant community in such a way as to prohibit women from taking positions of leadership, including headship positions over men."4
Simply stated, our author believes the Bible to teach that before the Fall there was perfect equality with no functional distinctions between the man and the woman. The role distinctions of husband-headship and wife-submission originated as a result of the Fall (Gen 3:16), and they apply exclusively to the home. Consequently, in the church women can serve even in "headship positions over men" without violating a biblical principle.
Can these conclusions be drawn legitimately from the Bible? Are functional role distinctions between men and women a post-Fall phenomenon, applying exclusively to the home and not to the church? My study shows otherwise. Both male-female equality and role distinctions, properly defined, are part of God's creational design for the harmonious functioning of humanity. God created the man and the woman perfectly equal in their moral worth and spiritual status but clearly distinct in their biological and functional roles. In the partnership of these two spiritually equal human beings, man and woman, God created man to function in the servant-headship role of husband and father, and woman to function in the submissive role of wife and mother. These distinctive roles apply equally to both the home and the church, because from a biblical perspective the church is an extended spiritual family, often referred to as "the household of God" (Eph 2:19; 1 Tim 3:15; 1 Pet 4:17; Gal 6:10).
To determine which of the two paradigms rightly interprets the biblical data, we must begin our investigation with Genesis 1 to 3. The author acknowledges that these Bible chapters are foundational for defining the role relationships of men and women.5 The three passages of Genesis which are central for our understanding of the relationships between man and woman are (1) Genesis 1:26-31, the creation of the human race; (2) Genesis 2:18-25, the creation of woman; and (3) Genesis 3:1-24, the story of the Fall and its consequences. Let us examine what each passage says.
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Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph.D., is Professor of Religion, Andrews University. |
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