Bible Gender Roles

Throughout history men have been leading the battles, conquering worlds, discovering new lands, but behind every good man is a good woman! So, as I read this week, I learned an enormous amount of information about the diversity of the different roles women play according to where they might live or what era they grew up in. I will address the rights that women had, how they are viewed in society, the comparison between these women and the ones from the New Testament, the evidence to support my claim.

In Biblical times women were the owned property of a man. Men ruled over women and their children. Women had very few, if

The status of women in Palestine during the time of Jesus was very decidedly that of inferiors. The women is, ‘in all things inferior to the man,’ as stated by first century

Since the Christian religion was a large and prominent force in the everyday life in the average person in the 17th and 18th century, the Bible was a large influence in how the woman was seen in society as it says, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church…” (Ephesians 5:22-23, 33). The Bible is that the woman was ruled by her husband, that she didn’t even have her own head, and cannot think for herself because it was expected by the very faith that she must submit to her husband. The Holy Book also says that the woman was created from the rib of the man, which it is known now as completely preposterous, so it implies that the woman is inferior to man because she was created from man, because heaven forbid that any evidence point towards that it is man that came from a woman.

I also noticed, in the book of Deuteronomy where it was talking about the place of women in an Israelite society. I found it to be very patriarchal indeed! No wonder the Hebrew Israelites were all walking around hating women and trying to manipulate women into some kind of box where she has no voice, to be seen and not heard, never have any say in operations of the Temple.

In the earliest of Christian texts, there is talk about what women did in the Church and the important roles they played (Fiddes, 1990; Fontaine, 1996). Many women were activists during that time, and they spent time focusing on their studies and duties to their households and to their God. In Corinth, for example, it was believed that a Jewish missionary woman who came from Rome helped to found the

The stories told about women in the bible illustrate the importance of their role and contribution to society. Although the Bible does not explain God’s relationship with women as with Moses and other prophets, it illustrates love and devotion women had for Him. The stories of the bible describe brave, nurturing, and God fearing women whose decisions impacted the existence of the Israelites.

to scatter your enemy, to drive him before you,to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears,and to gather into your bosom his wives and daughters." Genghis Khan, much like the Hebrew Bible during certain points, regards women as objects. However, to write the Hebrew Bible off as fully misogynistic would not do the ancient texts justice. From Genesis to Judges 2, the Hebrew Bible objectifies women, uses them as scapegoats, but during certain points rises them to the level of highly admired Prophets and warriors. This essay attempts to explore the various undertones of femininity depicted throughout the Hebrew Bible.

In the Hebrew Bible, a significant section where this idea can be seen is in the beginning with the story of Adam and Eve, specifically in Genesis 4. When Eve is manipulated to eat the forbidden fruit, it poses the idea that the suffering of humankind was caused by a woman, showing the idea that woman react without consideration or senselessly, when really Eve was only acting on a very human trait, curiosity. When Eve convinces Adam to eat the forbidden fruit, one of gods punishment to Eve is “Your man shall be your longing, and rule over you” (p.97). Or when God describes Eve as “his woman”, God is essentially saying she is not her own independent person and is meant to be owned by men. This passage alone shows that women are viewed as people that were meant to be controlled; that men were always meant to be above them.

This biblical event was used as an encompassing example of the negative nature of women as well as their role in life. It also explicitly states that women are to submit to their husbands. This attitude of submission to male authority was expected from women in all circumstances.

The Holy Bible is full of advice on every issue known to humanity. This advice varies in topics from society's functions to foreign policy and even gender roles. Today's western culture is very confused when it comes to gender roles, swinging over the last over 50 years from a male-dominated society to a large portion of the feminist society fighting for female dominance and the disappearance of chivalry. Society is always searching for answers from science and philosophy but constantly fails to look in the right places. The Bible is the foundation of truth and it requires the ultimate amount of attention if any community plans to be successful for any length of time. The education of modern society on what the Bible says about gender roles is necessary to achieve mutual understanding of beliefs.

It is tough to get a clear look into the ways Meyers interprets textual evidence since her focus on women’s religion is often marginalized. Nonetheless, she does with what she has to make a full and convincing argument. Meyers identifies that feminist biblical study is masculinized, so she decides to uncover the role of women in the sanctuary through the Deuteronomic use of unisexual terms such as “you” and “person”. In doing so, she concludes that both women and men were to engage in communal events and offerings (Meyers 2002, 279-280).

Gender roles, and the mere existence of a gender binary, has been a recent topic of conversation for many churches, theologians, and individual believers. As the cultural pressure to remove gender-specific limitations builds, many of those aforementioned have turned to scripture for answers. Seldom are women’s roles in the Old Testament characterized by decision making or personal merits. Rather, a woman’s capacity to produce an heir for their husband complements his dominance and responsible faithfulness and allows God’s plan to be fulfilled through their combined efforts. In the New Testament, through the transformative power of Christ, prominent women became less of an anomaly, but were still held to a different set of standards and expectations than men and were usually still praised according to their actions and their faith. The Pauline epistles, written in the context in which the Church still exists today: the age to come, provide a basis for today’s understanding of women’s roles in marriage and in church leadership. Although there are many instances of women fulfilling God’s plans and proving their worth among the community of Christians, the biblically normative role of women is to avoid authoritative church leadership positions and remain submissive in situations of teaching and interpreting the Word.

The Bible is controversial on the matter of gender equality. There are numerous contradictions about the status of women in Christian society. Historically, the most prominent interpretation has been rather negative toward women. The Christian Church, with principally male authority, emphasizes the idea that women are inferior to man. They focus on Eve’s sin leading to a punishment that “her husband will have authority over her.” (Drury, 34)

The rigidity of gender norms and gender roles is analogous to those in the New Testament and provides insight on how the society present in the story uses religion to present women as a monolith. Due to biblical expectations, women are constrained from making autonomous decisions, thus forcing them to follow a moral code. In the bible, women are groomed to become child bearers and “pure” wives (Titus 2:4-5), an idea shared in the book. This promotes them as having no sense of self-ownership, which objectifies them as characteristics, not humans with nuanced emotions nor ideals. An example of this is Purisima del Carmen. After she got married, Purisima’s teaching career ended quickly because of