by Joel V Webb | Jan 3, 2024 | Uncategorized
The Context of Scripture
“The proper context for interpreting the Bible is the context of the biblical writers—the context that produced the Bible. Every other context is alien or at least secondary.”
― Michael S. Heiser, The Bible Unfiltered: Approaching Scripture on Its Own Terms
How are we supposed to read Scripture? This is often hotly debated because the implication of praxis (how we live it out) are profound. Church history, systematic theology, creeds and theologians are certainly helpful means for us to understand what Scripture is saying… but they are not the be all end all.
Ultimately, if we are not looking at and understanding the historical context of the Biblical writers (for both Old and New Testaments), we are doing a disservice when we attempt to exegete what the author intended. It can at times lead to eisegesis, where we read out own meaning or cultural understanding onto what Scripture says.
I love Church history and the writings of the patristics, reformers and others who have shaped the Christian faith through the generation. But they are not the context in which Scripture was produced. Yes, they are helpful and important to the development of understanding Scripture, but they are not the context of Scripture itself.
Why is this hard…because it is not easy. It is much easier to take the “plain reading” of the version we are reading in our native tongue. IT is much harder to look into not just the language being used (Hebrew & Greek), but also the meanings, understandings and nuances that were prevalent in that day.
Don’t misunderstand me. There are many parts of Scripture that are clear. There are also other parts that may seem unclear or muddy in how it is understood across the tent of orthodox Christianity, where then the context becomes essential in understanding what was intended by what was written.
Thankfully we live in an amazing age of information and technology that can give anyone access to scholarly information that we can use to not just enrich but also to at times realign our interpretation to reflect the context in which it was written.
by Joel V Webb | Dec 22, 2023 | Uncategorized
Women in Ministry Part 3
Many have guarded the front doors of the Church from feminism, while at the same time keep the back door open to misogyny.
– Sandra Glahn
In our day and age, it is very difficult to walk in tension because of the mass polarization we see in the culture. Some may see it as impossible, or even compromise. Despite what many naysayers would state, two things can be true at once.
We can empower and open ministry roles to women, as the gospel allows and mandates, without giving into radical liberal theology and compromise. These two are not tied together, nor deterministic. In the same breath, many arguing against women in ministry, whether intending to or not (and I will always argue they do so with the best intentions for both men and women), continue to perpetuate actual misogyny and in some cases abuse in Church culture.
There is no ontological difference between man and women. Both are equally made in the image of God.
The gospel is the enabling of humanity through the power of the Holy Spirit because of Christ’s redemption on the cross to return to the Edenic ideal of both men and women being the stewards of creation, and priests to God.
Be it in the Gospels, letters of Paul, patristic fathers, even early church councils, and the wives of many of the reformers we see women who participate and are voices in public ministry as a benefit to the body of Christ.
You can read PART 1 and PART 2 of this series
by Joel V Webb | Dec 20, 2023 | Uncategorized
1 Timothy 2:11-15, 11 Women should learn quietly and submissively. 12 I do not let women teach men or have authority over them.* Let them listen quietly. 13 For God made Adam first, and afterward he made Eve. 14 And it was not Adam who was deceived by Satan. The woman was deceived, and sin was the result. 15 But women will be saved through childbearing,* assuming they continue to live in faith, love, holiness, and modesty.
* 2:12 Or teach men or usurp their authority.
* 2:15 Or will be saved by accepting their role as mothers, or will be saved by the birth of the Child.
1 Timothy 2:11-15 stirs up a lot of emotions on whichever side of the discussion you are on. To some it seems like a clear and direct command, HOW COULD YOU DISAGREE WITH GODS WORD!?!? I don’t. And that is why I know it does not give a general ban of women in ministry.
Anyone who has done any amount of serious Biblical interpretation knows before you can understand what a passage is saying you have to go below what the English rendering is and understand what and why it is being said (the textual and historical context). Unlike other books written by Paul, the book of 1 Timothy is a specific letter written to a specific person (Timothy). Unlike books like Romans, Galatians or Corinthians which are written to the general audiences of the churches in those cities.
The most likely exegesis done on this text demonstrates that what Paul is talking about in this passage is specific instruction for a specific issue that Timothy is dealing with at the time of writing with the church in Ephesus.
The word that Paul uses for ‘permit’, in every other passage it is used in does not give us an understanding of a permeant ban of something. So why would that change here? Not to mention that we know from the rest of the New Testament that Priscilla instructed Apollos, Phoebe was a deacon and Paul’s emissary to Rome, and Lydia oversaw the church at Philippi. Junia is called an apostle and was imprisoned for her witness. It seems unlikely that these things could have been accomplished while being quiet in church or without any church authority.
Another interesting thing of note is that the Greek word Paul uses for authority (authentein) is not found ANYWHERE ELSE in the NT Canon. So there is not a clarity provided elsewhere in Scripture as to the use of this word. The best meaning that has been found for this word is the thought as said above is in usurping authority wrongly. So what is being said is not that women cannot have authority, but that they cannot wrongly usurp it, which really would apply to anyone. But it must be assumed that Timothy was dealing with a specific issue at the time of writing that Paul is addressing.
As well, many on the complementarian side argue about the argument from creation when Paul goes back to the beginning. The interesting thing with this argument is the immediate forgetting of 2 things. Firstly, while yes Eve was deceived, it was Adam who WILLINGLY sinned against God, then tried to blame it on Eve right after. Secondly, the command concerning the fruit of the tree was only given from God to Adam directly. So it would have been Adam who transmitted the command to Eve. When the serpent is conversing with Eve and he asks her what God commanded; Eve adds the statement about not just eating the fruit but also not to touch the fruit. That was not in the command that God gave to Adam. He only told him not to each the fruit but had nothing to say about touching it. So, the onus if we track from there is on Adam for incorrectly transmitting God’s command to Eve by adding to what God commanded, adding to the likelihood of her being deceived. Interesting, right? So ultimately this argument doesn’t track.
Finally, what about salvation through childbirth? From 1 Timothy 4:3, we know that some people in the Ephesian church were forbidding marriage and were probably teaching that celibacy was a moral, and even a necessary, virtue. In more than a few early Christian texts, virginity and celibacy were associated with salvation and the resurrection in some way. 1 Timothy was written because of false teachings. 1 Timothy 2:15 addresses one of these false teachings. This verse does not represent Paul’s or Jesus’s general views on salvation or on having children. Jesus didn’t have children, and it’s possible that neither did Paul. If having children was actually necessary for women to be saved, wouldn’t they have helped a woman this way?
With all that said and done where are we? Scripture does not prescribe a general ban on women in ministry. Paul was addressing specific issues, that yes could have application and be of help in our day, but they in no way say that women cannot minister in the Church. Everything else the New Testament has to say provides an allowance and basis that women too can be minster of the gospel. We are all a part of the priesthood of all believers; and there is neither Jew, nor Greek, free nor slave, man nor women in Christ Jesus.
You can read PART 1 and PART 3 of this series
