Q: DOESN'T THE BIBLE DISCRIMINATE AGAINST WOMEN?

In recent years the accusation that the Bible is anti-female has arisen more and more frequently. Because the Scripture uses the masculine gender to refer to God, it is labelled sexist. Because the Bible teaches that although men and women are equal in God's sight they have different roles in His service, it is called discriminatory. Because the Old Testament relates how certain women were victimized, it is accused of endorsing the abuse of women. Are these charges justified?

Whole books have been written about this subject, so it is impossible to give a complete answer here. However, we can examine the three main objections listed above and see if they are truly valid.

Firstly, the objection that the Bible describes God in masculine terms. Some people assume that the use of a masculine pronoun is meant to imply that men are closer to God or more like God than women are. There is no Scriptural support for such a view, however, and indeed much Scripture to contradict it. Right from the very beginning, the Bible establishes that both men and women are made in the image of God: "So God created man in His own image...male and female created He them." (Genesis 1:27) Although the term has fallen into disfavor today, man or mankind in this context does not refer just to the male gender but to male and female both--the whole human race. Women are made in the image of God, just as men are. Again, in the New Testament, Paul told the Galatian church that among them "There is...neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." (Gal. 3:28) Before God, men and women are absolutely equal in spiritual worth and privilege.

Is God a man, as opposed to a woman? Not at all. The Bible tells us very plainly that "God is a Spirit..." (John 4:24) Physically, He is neither male nor female as we would understand it, but is a Spirit being. Is God unable to understand or identify with women? Quite the opposite. God created women, and made them everything that they are. Every positive attribute that women possess, every quality that we regard as uniquely feminine, came originally from God Himself. In fact, women characteristically possess certain Godly characteristics and spiritual strengths that men do not, and vice versa. Men are not naturally "more like God" or "closer to God" than women. In fact a number of men have told me that they believe women to be more spiritually-minded.

We do not know all the reasons why God would refer to Himself using the masculine pronoun, but there is no Biblical justification for saying that this degrades women or excludes them from fellowship with God. As for some who lament the omission of an earth-mother figure from Scripture, we must kindly suggest that the reason for her absence is because no such deity exists. "Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God." (Is. 44:6)

But if God really understands and values women just as much as men, why are men in the position of spiritual power? Why are women asked to keep silent in the churches, while men have the privilege of public ministry? Doesn't that prove that the Bible regards women as inferior beings?

To answer this question, we must go back to creation. In the beginning, God created a man, Adam. He allowed Adam to be alone for a time, without his female counterpart, in order that Adam might recognize that he was not complete in himself. By bringing all the animals to Adam to be named, God showed the man that none of these creatures could be the helper and companion that he needed. He awakened in Adam a sense of loneliness, of need, and only then did He create Eve, since now Adam was ready to appreciate her.

God could have created Eve out of the dust just as He had created Adam, but He did not. Instead He formed Eve out of a part of Adam's own body. This was to remind the two of them that they were part of each other, each incomplete without the other, and that a man and wife were "one flesh" (Genesis 2:22-25). Having said that, we realize two things: that Adam was created first, not Eve; and that Eve was created out of Adam, not the other way around. Although both were made in the image of God, God gave the position of priority to Adam. There had to be an order in creation, in the family and in the church, and God established man as the earthly head of that order. Is the president of a company a better person than the vice-president of a company? Certainly not. Yet the vice-president is subordinate to the president. Are the vice-president's tasks insignificant or even less significant than those of the president? Certainly not. The company needs both president and vice-president in order to function effectively. But their roles are different.

1 Cor. 11:3 establishes the spiritual order in the church: the head of woman is man, the head of man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God. Is Christ inferior to God because God is His head? Is Christ less important than God the Father because they function in different roles? Certainly not! So if Christ's person and work are not inferior to God's even though God is His head, then a woman's person and work is not inferior to a man's, even though man is the head of woman.

Just because women have different work from men in the local church and in the home does not mean that their contribution is unimportant. Jesus's female disciples played a vital role in the continuance of His ministry (Luke 8:2-3). Paul commended numerous women as valued fellow servants of the Lord and praised their diligence and hard work. There is much that a woman can do in the Lord's service if she is willing to obey God's will rather than her own.

However, there remains a third issue which is often raised with regard to the Bible's supposed anti-female stance: stories in the Old Testament which relate the exploitation of women.

Numerous incidents in which women were potential or actual victims of sexual abuse, such as Lot's offering his daughters to the Sodomites and the rapes of Dinah and Tamar, are recorded in Scripture without being concluded by an act of divine judgment or by any moral commentary. Some people take this to mean that the God of the Bible does not consider the victimization of women to be a crime, and that the Bible endorses such treatment of women.

This is, however, yet another example of how wrong we can be when we regard every historical incident recorded in Scripture as having God's approval. If we take this attitude toward the stories mentioned above, we must take the same attitude toward hundreds of other stories which have nothing to do with the abuse of women. If we want to know what God does and doesn't approve of, we must look at His Law, not at the books of history. Under the Law, if a man raped a woman pledged to be married, he must be stoned to death; if a man raped a woman who was not pledged to be married, he had to pay a fine, marry her immediately, and never divorce her as long as he lived (Deut. 22:23-29). God certainly did regard rape as a violation and a crime, and expected it to be punished accordingly. However, since the people of Israel were given the responsibility of carrying out God's justice in these matters, direct earthly punishment was not always inflicted as it ought to have been. When Israel fell into a state of moral decline, they soon began to neglect justice and the Law of God, and to exploit each other in every conceivable way.

God judged the nation of Israel as a whole for their sinful ways. The book of Judges and the writings of the prophets make it abundantly clear that God did not approve of these constant transgressions of His Law, nor would He allow such acts to go unpunished. The acts themselves are recorded in Scripture with little or no commentary, but if we look at what God's Law says about such deeds and at the judgment God eventually brought upon Israel as a nation for tolerating this kind of behaviour, we find that in no way can we view these incidents as evidence that the Bible supports the victimization of women.

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