A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
by Steve West
Table of Contents
Introduction
Begin With the Background
Christian Ministry
Phoebe, and Other Interesting People
How We Got Here
Quit Ye Like Men
Summary
Introduction
This book has two main themes: 1. Scripture requires ministers to be men with specific qualities; 2. We need to understand the reason why this is a controversial issue today, even though the Scriptures are clear on the matter. Many think that anything less than full egalitarianism is bigotry, but this is a superficial position to take. There are numerous ways to fill in the blank “Women should not be allowed to _______” some of which are wise and some of which are foolish. Ministers lead people in covenant renewal, where the people gather and confess their sins, hear the Word of the Lord, and participate in the Lord’s Supper. This is a conversation where God speaks to his people and they reply to him. In the covenant community the minister presides, enacting the role of Christ (i.e., he gives assurance of pardon, speaks the benediction, delivers God’s message, and consecrates the Supper). Because the minister represents the bridegroom, he must be male. One of the difficulties in our churches is that our low ecclesiology allows for unordained men to do many things which the Reformers would have forbidden. Instead of assuming that unordained men can do almost everything in the church—and that women can do what unordained men can do—we should consider limits to what unordained men should do in the church.
Begin with the Background
It is essential to look at Paul’s writings on these topics, but we need to recognize that Paul is drawing on the Old Testament and grounding his teachings in its principles and texts. Feminists accuse the Bible of being patriarchal, and their assumption is that this is an inherently bad thing. Setting aside bias, Scripture does seem patriarchal. The patriarchs of Israel were men, the tribes were derived from men, and the priests were all men. When Jesus established the new Israel, he chose twelve men as his disciples. If the new covenant was going to break with patriarchy and establish an egalitarian community, it should have happened with Jesus, but it didn’t. There were no priestesses in Israel and no female apostles. Interestingly, the ancient world was filled with female deities and female priestesses, but Israel and the church stood out in their countercultural stance against them. Having female priests or ministers could have helped Israel and the church relate to others in the surrounding cultures, but this pragmatic observation was not the principle on which the decisions were made. Galatians 3:27-29 is a glorious passage about absolute equality of salvation in Christ, but it cannot be used logically to establish that there are no literal or functional differences between men and women. If the text is taken that way, then women can preach but also marry other women.
1 Timothy 2:8-15 is clear that only men can be ministers. In this passage Paul calls both men and women to godliness and modesty. Although what constitutes modest attire differs across cultures due to fashion (i.e., people today do not dress the way people did in the first century), the principle of modesty still applies. In every culture in history we could identify women who act with modesty and women who compete with each other and try to flaunt their sexuality to attract men. Paul is insisting that women dress and act with appropriate modesty, and appropriate modesty includes learning with a submissive, quiet posture rather than teaching and instructing men. Just as some secular fashions were inappropriate for Christian women, so the cultural practice of women priestesses teaching religion was inappropriate for Christian women to imitate. In both cases, Paul is telling the church not to adopt the practices of paganism. . . .
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