Josephus, Eliezer ben Hercurus, and Rav Berekia on women.

Flavius Josephus wrote: "Woman says the Law, is in all things inferior to man. Let her accordingly be submissive, not for humiliation, but that she may be directed; for authority has been given by God to man."

Eliezer ben Hercurus in the Mishna said "Let the Law (Torah) be burned rather than entrusted to a woman" "Instructing a woman in the Law is like teaching her blasphemy"

And, in Midrash Tehillim, Rav Berekia: "Poor is the generation whose leader is a woman!"

missional church alan hirsch

1. The missional church is incarnational, not attractional, in its ecclesiology. By incarnational we mean it does not create sanctified spaces into which unbelievers must come to encounter the gospel. Rather, the missional church disassembles itself and seeps into the cracks and crevices of a society in order to be Christ to those who don’t yet know him.
2. The missional church is messianic, not dualistic, in its spirituality. That is, it adopts the worldview of Jesus the Messiah, rather than that of the Greco-Roman empire. Instead of seeing the world as divided between the sacred (religious) and profane (nonreligious), like Christ it sees the world and God’s place in it as more holistic and integrated.
3. The missional church adopts an apostolic, rather than a hierarchical, mode of leadership. By apostolic we mean a mode of leadership that recognizes the fivefold model detailed by Paul in Ephesians 6. It abandons the triangular hierarchies of the traditional church and embraces a biblical, flat-leadership community that unleashes the gifts of evangelism, apostleship, and prophecy, as well as the currently popular pastoral and teaching gifts.
   

Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21^st Century Church (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003).

N. T. Write women ministry

 The fact that Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet within the male part of the house rather than being kept in the back rooms with the other women. This, I am pretty sure, is what really bothered Martha; no doubt she was cross at being left to do all the work, but the real problem behind that was that Mary had cut clean across one of the most basic social conventions. http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Women_Service_Church.htm

In defense of the Common English Bible's translation of elders an non-gender specific.

^“5 The reason I left you behind in Crete was to organize whatever needs to be done and to appoint elders in each city, as I told you. ⁶ Elders should be without fault.  They should be faithful to their spouse,^a and have faithful children who can’t be accused of self-indulgence or rebelliousness.  

^a “Or they should be a one-woman man.“

 

If some are going to critique the Common English Bible, I think it is useful to compare it to another imperfect translation (of which are all of course). Since those misogynists seem to love the ESV, I choose to compare it to the ESV. If you are going to say  negative words about the CEB translation of Titus 1:5-6, then I would only hope you can accept a similar critique of the ESV, a translation which you prefer. Once upon a time, men were content to accept Junias, the man, as one notable AMONG the apostles, but when it became undeniable that “Junia”, the woman, was the most reliable reading, some translators were afraid that some might read this passage and understand that Junia was an apostle. So the translators of the ESV decided to translate ἐν τοῖς ἀποστόλοις as “TO the apostles”. I think anyone comparing these two translations of ἐν τοῖς ἀποστόλοις will certainly understand them differently. So when almost all translations in English translate this phrase as “among the apostles”, it is easy to understand as did the Greek Church father Chrysostom that Junia was a woman apostle. So if Junia was a woman apostle then it is obvious that an apostle is also qualified to be an elder therefore not only is it acceptable to translate πρεσβυτερους in Titus 1:5-6 as non gender specific, but also translate the following idiom in a way that allows this non-gender understanding of elder . If the phrase “one-woman-man” is not understood idiomatically than it may require that an elder must also be married. So if there be any error in the CEB’s translation of Titus 1:5-6, I see it certainly no worse than the ESV’s misogynic acrobatics in Rom. 16:7. So if you concede that the ESV translation of Rom. 16:7 is less than acceptable, I will accept that the CEB has taken the liberty to not translate Titus 1:5-6 literally.

pastor title

I think an important point in this discussion is the distinction between leadership as a function and leadership titles. What Jesus spoke against was the use of honorary titles. The early church seems to have followed this teaching as we never see the use of any titles used by the New Testament writers towards their leaders. Someone my think it is insignificant, but I see an important difference between saying Paul, an apostle and the Apostle Paul. There is always an increasing tendency for religious leaders, as other leaders such as political leaders, to increase their status. So the word presbyteros evolved to become the English word priest, which in the NT is used interchangeably with episkopos which becomes the word bishop, paimen goes through Latin to be adopted as the English title Pastor. And what about reverend? It comes from the Latin word reverendus meaning to be honored. Not a big difference from the word Rabbi which comes from the Hebrew word ?? Rab meaning great. There was definitely an effort in the earliest church to avoid the use of titles that can be seen from the New Testament text. However, at the same time, there was leadership in practice. Paul, as humble as he was, still argued for his apostolic authority. Peter and James were leaders in the Jerusalem church that Paul also recognized, even if he was willing to challenge their theology. Paul encouraged the Thessalonian believers to respect those who are the leading ones p???staµe???? of them Thess. 5:12 The writer of Hebrews encourages the readers to be persuaded by the leading ones of you. pe??es?e t??? ????µe???? ?µ?? Heb 13:17. It is interesting that both the Thessalonian and Hebrews passages use a participle not a noun to express this leading or ruling capacity. The emphasis here again is on the function of the leadership and not on the title or position. The emphasis in the New Testament church leadership is the function of those who are gifted within the framework of a good example. This is what Paul argues as he claims apostolic authority, that he is called and gifted to be an apostle not by man, but by God, and that his example of service and life, evidences that he is one to be imitated as he follows Christ.

Fishers of men αλιεις ανθρωπων

Transforming culture

Since none of the biblical texts were written in a cultural vacuum, only the most naïve would argue that the cultural context had no influence on the inspired texts.   Both the Old Testament and New Testament texts arose in a largely patriarchal culture.  In spite of this, we find significant argument in some of the texts that would elevate the position of women above much of the surrounding culture.  Divine revelation occurs in and through people bound to a culture, but there is a transforming nature about the revelation.  If it were not so it would be worthless revelation.   While the haustafeln of Paul and Peter is a cultural contextualization of the liberating Good News, it maintains the transforming ethic they heard from the radical teachings of Jesus.  Although, the historical church has failed often to see and act according to this transforming ethic, this ethic is why finally, the church as rejected the institution of slavery.  I have a friend that does development work among some tribes in the highlands of central and south Vietnam.  These tribes are traditionally matriarchal or matrilineal.   Earlier missionaries were successful in converting many to Christianity.  The missionaries taught  against their matriarchal traditions, as they believed the Christian revelation was to bring these men and women to repentance and transform their society to a Biblical patriarchal model.   The result, my friend tells me, is a dysfunctional society, in which women who were traditionally decision makers and leaders, have been forced to submit to men who do not have the tradition to lead and reside in this leadership largely inactive. 

The priest of the home

I was sitting in a summer tent revival meeting.  In such a meeting I was listen to the speaker refer to a husband or father as the priest of the home.  I thought to myself, "Is that a new idea or have I just not been paying attention before."  I could not remember hearing the phrase before.  Later I asked my father-in-law about it.  He affirmed that this was a correct teaching.  I was shocked,  I asked him where such a teaching if found in the Bible.  He went on to tell me about the male requirement of the priesthood Ancient Israel.  I decided I was not in the mood for a hopeless theological debate and let the matter end at my comment that how does that work if in relation to the Biblical teaching of the priesthood of all believers.

A good woman

Women throughout history have been oppressed in so many ways that many of them are not even aware of the degree of oppression.  My daughter was commenting that one of her male friends was needing to take a course on either Native American studies or Women's studies.  He was afraid of the Women's studies because he had heard the prof. was a man hater.   I responded to my daughter, well that might be an eye opener for him, since most men are women haters.  They say they love women, but so many men resent a woman that does not show traditional female submissiveness or weakness.  They are so quick to label them as radical feminsts or feminazis.  On face book one friend made a comment about how busy she been... trying to be a good preachers wife.   I asked her what the TOR for a pastor's wife are?  She didn't reply.  I guess she either doesn't know or just thinks I am acting stupid.

Inequality

Inequality is certainly the cause of injustice. It is only by one person's, one nation's expression of entitlement that allows them to perpetuate an injustice upon another human.