“Mommy, can men be pastors too?” That was the question my young eight-year old daughter asked me one day several years ago. We had been attending a small church led by a female pastor and she had simply not had the opportunity to witness anything different. At eight, she was beginning to be aware of differences between girls and boys, not just physically, but also the assumptions that are made about each based on gender and the roles each plays in this world. My husband and I both work outside the home and try to share the work at home equally. He cooks while I do dishes. I do the laundry; he cleans the house. For our daughter, this pattern of sharing chores is normal. Still, she is noticing other ways that gender affects her experience in the world and the expectations placed on her.
For instance, she noticed that in the church’s Christmas pageant, the angels were typically played by girls and the shepherds and wise men were played by boys. She noticed that the large majority of her elementary school teachers were women. She noticed that the dress code at school for boys and girls was quite different. And she expressed a number of times the pressure she felt as a girl to be both smart and pretty, an expectation she did not think was applied to the boys.
None of these things in and of themselves was a big deal or even necessarily bad. Cumulatively, however, my daughter was quickly learning that gender affected one’s opportunities and experiences in the world as well as expectations others had of her.
The Problem of Dangerous Women
Certainly, this has been true for women in society at large. It has been even more true in the church. Since the beginning of time, assumptions about God’s design and intentions for men and women have shaped how Christians understand what it means to be male and female. For women, these assumptions have resulted in significant limitations and restrictions on women’s participation in society, church, and often in the home.
The difficulty is that at first glance, the Bible seems to affirm that women are the lesser sex, created primarily to serve and help men. They are to submit to their husbands, be quiet in church, and cover their heads when praying. Man is the image and glory of God but woman is the glory of man (1 Cor. 11:7). The biblical witness, then, seems to point to women having a lesser role in the world based on the notion that women are lesser human beings.
Added to this is a long history of interpretation in which Eve is cast as a temptress, a woman who seduces Adam into eating of the fruit. The message this interpretation conveys is that women are dangerous and their bodies, their sexuality bad.
The effect of these ideas on women’s sense of self and on male-female relationships cannot be overstated. Women have been made to feel small, inferior, shameful even. Cast like Eve in the role of temptress, women tend to be blamed for men’s sexual indiscretions. Because female sexuality is dangerous, it must be tamed, controlled, and hidden.
Interpreting Women in Scripture by Women
But is this what God really intended for women? Is this what the Bible really says? Not everyone thought so. Early in Christian history there have been those, particularly female interpreters, who believed the Bible had more positive things to say about women.
For instance, as early as the 14th century, female interpreters have noted that just because the woman was created last from the side of the man, this does not make her inferior. Instead of being an afterthought, she, in all her femaleness, is the crowning glory of God’s creation.
While traditional interpretations suggest that as a helpmate, Eve is subordinate to Adam, female interpreters note that the man is incomplete without Eve. It is not good that he is alone. Rather than a picture of male dominance and female subordination, female interpreters see in Genesis 2 a vision for mutuality, intimacy, and companionship between the male and female, with Adam delighting in Eve precisely because she is a woman:
“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She will be called a ‘woman,’
For from a man she was taken (Gen. 2:23).”
Looking at God’s interactions with the man and woman after the fall, female interpreters observe that neither the man nor the woman is cursed, only the serpent and the ground. From this they conclude that in Genesis 3:16-19, God is not outlining punishments on the man and the woman per se, but describing life in a fallen world. Because of this, they interpret Genesis 3:16, “your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you,” not as something God is commanding for male-female relationships. Instead, they read this as God warning them that because of sin, men will try to assert their dominance and authority over women but that they should resist. Male dominance and female subordination are effects of the fall, not what God desires for men and women.
Delighting in Female Sexuality
It is also worth noting that Genesis 3 is not the only or even most important image we get in the Bible of male-female relationships. Picking up on the garden imagery we find in Genesis 1-3, the Song of Songs invites us to revisit the relationship between man and woman. In a delightfully sensual love poem, the Song of Songs explores the honest and raw love, desire, and longing between a man and a woman. Here human sexuality, particularly the woman’s body, is not shameful or bad. It is not something to be feared or tamed or controlled. Rather, it is something in which both the man and the woman delight. It is a blessing, a gift from God that arouses their deepest sense of need and longing for each other. It is something to be given to one whom you love and who loves you.
How delightful is your love, my bride!
How much more pleasing is your love than wine,
And the fragrance of your perfume
More than any spice! (SofS 4:10)
Song of Songs is the counterpart to Genesis 3, a picture of what male-female relationships looks like when redeemed. The mutuality, intimacy, and companionship of Genesis 2 is restored. Love triumphs over guilt, shame, and sin that distorts. The spiritual and emotional dimensions of love find their perfect complement in physical desire and sexual longing, each celebrating the gift of each other.
Rightly interpreted, then, the Bible teaches women that there is dignity, worth, freedom, and joy in being created female. Scripture has a liberating and redemptive word for us. God loves us, having created us the way we are. We are image bearers of God, commissioned together with men to be fruitful and multiply and to take charge over the earth and to care for it (Gen. 1:28). In the original plan, God put no limits on women’s roles or presence in the world. Instead, he made male and female partners equal to each other and companions with himself. And when he looked upon what he had created, He delighted in it, loving what he had made. And if God loves and delights in us, shouldn’t we do the same?
To read more on female sexuality from Dr. Benckhuysen, check out her new book with Intervarsity Press, The Gospel According to Eve.
In Song of Songs, we see that the woman’s body is not shameful or bad. Female sexuality is not something to be feared, tamed or controlled. Rather, it is a blessing and a gift from God. Click To Tweet
