Author: Joan C. Thomson

All the People

/ Joan C. Thomson

The vast majority of the time when Paul or the other apostles wrote “men” or “man” the word was anthropos or “all the people.” Many times, the English translations insert “men” when the Greek says simply “ones.” The word translated, as “brothers” is adelphoi, which literally means, “from the same womb” and according to lexicons, “can be rightly translated as brothers and sisters.” In addition, a word often used for “son” actually means child—male or female.  Paul wrote his letters to the entire church in each place, so everything he said in general, applies to women as well.

 

All Together

/ Joan C. Thomson

Jesus included the women and treated them well but that didn’t stop with his ascension—no, they were right there in the Upper Room praying constantly.  And on the day of Pentecost they were still “all together.” They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues then Peter reminded the men who heard them that Joel prophesied that God’s Spirit would be poured out on both men and women and that both would prophesy (Acts 2).

 

The Twelve

/ Joan C. Thomson

Jesus made no distinction between men and women disciples, but what about “the Twelve?”  First of all they were set apart from all the other disciples, female or male.  But they were all male, so doesn’t that mean that church leadership should be all men?  Well, if they are to be our only example then the vast majority of churches are out of compliance unless their leadership is all Jewish and they’ve all been circumcised, unless several are professional fishermen, they’re all uneducated, one is a cheater, another has repeatedly denied the Lord, and another is a betrayer and thief–and let’s not forget the two hot-headed-me-firster “Sons of Thunder.” We don’t know why Jesus chose men for The Twelve (the Bible doesn’t say but he was likely drawing a comparison to the twelve tribes of Israel, since the twelve will “sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.  Matthew 19:28) but he chose “the Three” out of those twelve, on several occasions leaving the other nine behind.

Women Disciples

/ Joan C. Thomson

When the Bible or even Jesus himself referred to “his disciples,” women—many women, were included in that designation.  They weren’t just part of the crowd or an afterthought. “Pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers.” (Matthew 12:48-50; Mark 3:34)  Luke tells us by name just who these disciples were, ”After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others.” (Luke 8:1-3)

The same word is always used for disciples whether male or female. Women are not subset disciples but the first rate, real thing—if, as Jesus said, women as well as men, continue in his teachings. (John 8:31, 32)  Jesus’ teachings—and he continued to teach through the apostles, are the only teachings for Christians to follow—he said his sheep listen to only his voice.(John 10:3)  Get to know his word the Bible—especially the New Testament, intimately so you can use it as a filter for all the things that come at you.  Go beyond the English (or your language) translations and you’ll be amazed at the distinctions the ancient Greek makes.  It’s not hard to find Greek interlinear New Testaments and not at all hard to read them.  This is a good starting point in knowing what Jesus truly said. One I use is biblehub.com.

First to Proclaim the Good News!

/ Joan C. Thomson

Now Mary [Magdalene] stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (“Teacher”).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. John 20:11-18

Jesus appeared first to women after he rose from the dead!  Some have said that it was only because they were there doing the “women’s work” of preparing the body—if it was women’s work, then Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were doing women’s work a couple of days earlier when they put spices on his body (John 18:38-31). No, the women were there because their love for Jesus overcame their fear.  And God will always honor that.

Jesus told Mary Magdalene and the women with her to “Go and tell my brothers..” but the men didn’t believe her (Luke 24:9-11).  A girl I know made that mistake once.  Her mother sent her little sister to tell her to come home when she was playing at a neighbor’s house.  The girl didn’t want to stop playing—who was this little sister to tell her what to do anyway– so she sent her away.  Of course, the younger girl went back to their mother who sent her again.  Then the younger sister came back to the older sister saying, “You’d better come, she’s really mad.”  She went.  The mother told the older girl, “When I send your sister, I expect you to listen; it’s just as if it was me telling you.  If you ignore her—you’re ignoring me.”  We dare not ignore the Word of God brought by his messenger even if some don’t like the package!  But to their credit, Peter and John raced to the tomb so they must have believed something (Luke 24:12)!

 

Leave Her Alone

/ Joan C. Thomson

Alabaster PerfumeMary of Bethany poured out her all for Jesus when she broke open an alabaster bottle of perfume worth a year’s wages!  Whether named or unnamed, each gospel account* tells of men complaining of her devotion—one said she was “the wrong kind” to be ministering to him, apparently thinking that her past life overshadowed her new one (Luke 7:39), while others thought ministering to Jesus was a waste of money!  But Jesus defended her saying, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me.” (Matthew 26:10)  She was, he said, doing a very special thing for him—anointing his body for burial; other things, as important as they were, could be done anytime but Mary’s was a special, one- of-a-kind task in time–so important that Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her” (Matthew 26:13).  What this woman, Mary of Bethany, did for Jesus was so vital that the gospel is not properly preached without telling about her. (I don’t recall this having been said of anyone else.)

*I once was rebuked for saying in a Bible Study class that the four accounts spoke of one woman—Mary of Bethany.  “The scholars say!”

Matthew 26:6-13   Bethany   Simon the Leper   alabaster/perfume    “sinful woman”      anointed for burial

Mark 14:3-9            Bethany    Simon the Leper   alabaster/perfume     a  woman               anointed for burial

Luke 7:36-50                              Pharisee, Simon    alabaster/perfume   “sinful woman”

John 12:1-11           Bethany                                                       perfume    Mary of Bethany   anointed for burial

While the comparisons above are strong evidence the strongest is Jesus’ statement that, “wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” (Matthew 26:13) Each gospel tells only of one woman, not two scenarios.  If there were two different women, then each of the gospels left out one or the other. It’s extremely unlikely that either Luke or John would have disobeyed Jesus and left out her story from the telling of the gospel (stated in Matthew & Mark).  Why does it matter?  Jesus did know who she was and welcomed her.  Mary of Bethany often found herself at Jesus’ feet, learning from him and worshipping him because he had forgiven her for so much and on top of it all—he raised her brother from the dead!

 

 

On the Road with Jesus

/ Joan C. Thomson

After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means. (Luke 8:1-3)

Jesus didn’t have a problem with Joanna, a married woman going on the road with him—he didn’t chide her for leaving her husband alone.  And notice, the women who were with him weren’t “doing the cooking and cleaning” as many have said, but they ministered by footing the bill! (Luke 8:3) Besides, Jesus didn’t consider cooking to be “women’s work”, he could cook too! (John 21:9-13)

The Head

/ Joan C. Thomson

For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.  Ephesians 5:23

This one verse has been a pivotal point of controversy in the Church but much of the controversy comes from a misunderstanding of one word— “head.”  Paul uses the Greek word “kephale” but we get stuck when we think of the English word head—we think it means “boss.”  When I was co-founding chapter of an international Christian women’s group in Texas and going through leadership training, our team was  told, “We don’t want bosses here, we want leaders.”  And as it turns out, the word kephale has no relationship to boss or even leader though Paul could have chosen one that did—but he didn’t; he and the Holy Spirit knew what they were doing!

Here is a list of what kephale DOES NOT mean: headmaster, head of a family, head of state, head of the clan, head of the household, headman, principal or supreme—all of these come from words other than kephale.  The word simply means that which sits on one’s shoulders—a physical head with eyes, nose, mouth and ears, or it can mean a head of garlic (I don’t think he meant that!) or LIFE.*  So when you read Ephesians 5:23 with the definition of “life”, it would say, “For the husband is the life of the wife as Christ is the life of the church”  Wow!  That makes a difference!  It fits the context of the verse is of husbands laying down their lives for their wives, loving and nurturing them—not ruling them.

* www.perseus.tufts.edu: Liddell,Scott; Georg Autenrieth, A Homeric Dictionary;

www.uchicago.edu Woodhouse’s English Greek Dictionary

 

Submission

/ Joan C. Thomson

21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:21-32

The dreaded “S word”–submit.  Many preachers are afraid to tackle this subject—afraid of being “the bad guy” and many others tackle with this subject—not caring if they’re “the bad guy.” The Bible does indeed say that wives are to submit to their husbands, but there are a couple things to note.  In the Greek, the word submit, doesn’t even appear in Ephesians 5:22 but comes from verse 21 “submit to one another, out of reverence for Christ”—all Christians are to submit to one another.  It’s about mutual submission because we love Jesus and we love each other.  The Greek word translated as “submit” is hupotasso, which is a military term; when it’s used in a non-military sense as this is, it means to voluntarily come under with the idea of cooperating together to accomplish something*.  Paul and Peter always spoke directly to the wives and never told the husbands to make them submit.  I’ve come across several women who want nothing to do with God because their fathers, while beating their mothers yelled, “Woman, submit!”**

From the beginning, it was not so…  Incidentally, the Bible never tells all women to submit to all men just because they’re men.  And it NEVER commands women whether Old Covenant or New, to obey their husbands.  But Sarah obeyed Abraham… Yes, but she chose that and was commended not commanded. (However, God commanded Abraham to listen to his wife and do what she said concerning Hagar. (Genesis 21:12)

If you look at the whole section in Ephesians 5 you’ll see that once again, the Bible interprets itself.  Paul emphasizes one role of Jesus toward the church as a comparison to marriage, that of giving his life up for her.  Paul used a metaphor; metaphors don’t compare on every point, only those that the author emphasizes, just as when we refer to Jesus as “the Lion of Judah,” we refer to his strength, power, and leadership, even ferocity.  We’re not saying that he has four paws and a tail and sleeps all day draped over tree branches!  In the same way, Paul does not mean to compare husbands to Jesus in every way.  A husband can never save wives from their sin, he didn’t create them and he’s certainly not God!  What Paul does say is that a husband is to love her as much as he loves himself, to feed and care for her—just as Jesus did and does for the Church (this was a culture that treated women with contempt and as property), even leaving his family behind.  Notice that the majority of the instruction is to the husband!  It’s about love not rulership!

Think about it, when you go to a salon to get your hair cut, you have to voluntarily come under the stylist, you have to sit still and let him or her serve you.  Peter didn’t want to allow Jesus to serve him by washing his feet—he didn’t want to hupotasso to Jesus’ loving service.  Jesus washed his disciples’ feet to be an example for us to serve one another.

*Bauer’s Ardnt Gingrich, (Chicago University of Chicago Press) 847

Thayer’s Greek Lexicon (software)

** In fact, God is very plain that he is against turning against one’s wife. And this is the second thing you do: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying;
So He does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with goodwill from your hands. Yet you say, “For what reason?” Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously; yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant.But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. “For the Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce, for it covers one’s garment with violence,” says the Lord of hosts. “Therefore, take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.” NKJV

 

Priest of the Household

/ Joan C. Thomson

But isn’t the husband the priest of the household?  I’ve searched the New Testament through and cannot find a single reference to that.  I find that those of us who follow Jesus are all “a holy and royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5; 1 Peter 2:9) and that “there is only one mediator—our high priest, Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5)  Not only is it not there but why would any women or only married women need an extra intermediary?[1]  We can all “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence” (Hebrews 4: 16).   Where I have found husbands as priests of the household is in Mormonism[2], Roman paganism[3] and in Nigerian Juju spiritism.[4]

The earliest Christian reference I’ve found is in one of Charles Spurgeon’s sermons[5] but he didn’t say where he got it.  I know people have meant well, they seem to have said, hmmm “spiritual head” (it’s not spiritual head, but metaphorical or figurative head—“Buddhism considers husbands to be the spiritual head of the Burmese household because of his spiritual status.”[6]) that means leader (it means “life”) sooo, they think, an example of a

[1] See J. Lee Grady, 10 Lies the Church Tells Women, (Creation House) 76

[2] www.lds.mormon.com/second_anointing.shtml concept 7; www.ldsendowment.org/secondanointing.html ;

PBS special The Mormons, aired February 4, 2010

[3] Everett Ferguson Backgrounds of Early Christianity (Eerdmans) 158 from H.H. Scullard Festivals of& Ceremonies of the Roman Republic

[4] Ruthanne Garlock, Fire in His Bones (biography Benson Idahosa) 13

[5] Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon’s Sermons on New Testament Women 149

[6] Pauline King, Countries of the World, (Gareth Stevens Publishing) 22