Male and Female in the Biblical Drama

Article from Gender and Grace

By Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen

MSVL divides the Bible into 5 acts:

• Creation – God’s intent – the world is perfect• The Fall – mankind disobeys God; sin enters the world

and it becomes a broken place• Redemption – Christ dies on the cross as a sacrifice for

sin so that mankind and God can be reconciled again• Pentecost – after Christ’s resurrection, God sends the

Holy Spirit to be with his people until the second coming• Renewal – Christ will return and make all things perfect

again; there will be a new heaven and a new earth

• MSVL starts with Pentecost because it is key to our understanding of sex and gender

At Pentecost …

• We celebrate the sending of the Holy Spirit to be with God’s people after Christ returns to heaven (in OT, it celebrated the giving of the law to Moses at Sinai)

• Women were included in the outpouring of the Spirit at this time (MSVL called Pentecost “Women’s Emancipation Day”

Before and After Pentecost…

• Before – only males were full members of the community through circumcision

• After – both male and female were full members through baptism

• Before – scandalous for women to study scripture with men in the synagogue

• After – women ate with and worshipped alongside of men

More Before and Afters …

• Before – womens’ movements were very restricted and they could not have contact with men in public (would cause lust)

• After – women became leaders in the church and in mixed gatherings

• Other barriers that came down at Pentecost – Jews and non Jews

- slave and free Gal 3:28 – You are all one in Christ

According to MSVL, a Christian feminist is …

• A person of either sex who sees women and men as equally saved, equally Spirit filled and equally sent

• Does not mean that men and women are the same, but it does mean that stereotypes about men and women should be dropped, because both men and women can do so much when they respect each other and work together as equals

How did women end up with 2nd class status in the first place?

• To understand this, MSVL says we need to go back to Acts 1 and 2 of the Biblical drama:

THE CREATION

and

THE FALL

The problem arose with the fall into sin.

Act 1 – The Creation

• Being made in the image of God separates us from animals and means that we have:

- a special relationship with God - language and thinking abilities - the fruits of the spirit - sociability - accountable dominionMSVL focuses on the last two …

Sociability …

• God himself is social and relational – he is a tri-unity (Creator, Redeemer, and Holy Spirit) and refers to self as “us” “our”

• God himself possesses characteristics that are both male and female (stereotypes), for he is described in the Bible in terms of hierarchy, rulership, and top down authority and as a servant, emotional, relational etc.

More on God – male or female…

• Described as emotional/relational when he weeps over his wayward children, nurses his children and shelters them under his wings like a mother hen etc.

• MSVL says “God is neither male nor female, but incorporates both ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ traits into an irreducibly social nature

God created male and female to be social too …

• God said it was not good for Adam to be alone and created a partner for him, therefore it is obvious that we are created for community

• One very special gift of God’s to satisfy that need for sociability is fellowship with the opposite sex

• Not everyone has to marry, but subcultures of men or women only do not allow us to be fully human – we need nurturing contact with each other and with people of both sexes

Accountable Dominion

• At creation, God gave three commands:

- fill the earth and subdue it

- be fruitful and multiply

- have dominion over every living thing

This is often called the “cultural mandate” – God telling people to open up the possibilities latent in his creation.

MSVL stresses that while we are given dominion, we must be accountable to God in how we use it

Eve as “helper” to Adam

• Some Christians interpret this as man being the leader in the cultural mandate, and woman as follower/obedient assistant

• However, this same word (helper, in Hebrew) is used in the OT and overwhelming amount in reference to God himself

Conclusion: Act 1

• God created man and woman, male and female, in his image. He created them as a good and perfect gift for each other. He gave both of them the need to be a part of community and he commanded both of them to have dominion over the earth, together. God created man and woman to complement each other and bring joy to each other in a respectful, equal, and reciprocal relationship. So what happened??

Act 2 – The Fall

• Five consequences of the Fall were: - Shame – Adam and Eve hid from each other

and from God - Blame – Adam and Eve blame each other and

do not take responsibility for their own actions - Distance from God – Adam and Eve are

banished from the garden - Punishment – painful labor in childbearing and

in work - Brokenness – there will be sickness and death

The Curse – more specifically …

• Genesis 3:16 – “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall being forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”

• From this verse and her observations of human history and interactions, MSVL believes that …

For Men …

• Legitimate accountable dominion too easily becomes male domination

• Men will be inclined to let their dominion run wild and impose it in cavalier and illegitimate ways on each other and on women

• Not all men do this, and this is not the way God had intended for things to be, but they often are

For Women …

• Legitimate, creational sociability too often become social enmeshment

• Women will experience an unreciprocated longing for intimacy with men and might avoid taking risks (i.e. exercising her accountable dominion, or standing up for herself) in order to preserve relationships

• Not all women do this, and it is not the way God intended for things to be, but it often is

Acts 3 - 5

• The acts of Redemption, Pentecost, and Renewal remind us that the way things are today are not the way God intended them to be and that we are already to change things now and to live as close to what God intended as we can!!

• We live between D-Day (Christ’s death and resurrection; the first but big victory) and V-Day (when Christ will come again and things will return to God’s original intentions; the final, perfect victory); have hope and live faithfully and optimistically!!

The radical example of Christ in a male dominated, anti female world • Told parables using both male and female

examples, images, and activities• Insisted on monogamy and the elimination of

divorce (current culture allowed men, and men only, to easily divorce their wives, as well as to have multiple wives)

• Said family of God more important than blood ties (culture shamed barren women)

• First witnesses to his resurrection were women, in a culture where women could not even testify in court

Why still problems??

• We are still a fallen people and can not always be at our “Pentecost best”

• We are between D-day and V-day, and Satan knows this too – temptation will be strong until Satan/evil/sin is finally and fully defeated and allowed to roam the earth no more

What Can We Do in the Meantime??