Few people in all of history have had more impact on the church than that of John Chrysostom. He was born during the most critical years of the Christian, years that shaped everything that we know today. He is respected for his role as Doctor of the Church one of only eight people to ever be elevated to this status. As I have pointed to in the past the earlier a doctrine emerges in Christian history the more we must look to it. We call this the Law of Proximal Authority, the closer an orthodox idea is to the time of Christ the more foundational it is to the Church (so for the doctrine of love we lean on Augustine, rather than on Calvin). Chrysostom was one of the Greek Fathers, and wrote extensively on theology. He is respected across denominations and traditions as the greatest preacher of the early church. He spurred on the monastic movement, and in many ways shaped the counsel of Constantinople in 381 ad. While this is not his principal teaching, he brings great clarity to a very prevalent issue in our modern church, the role of women in the Church. Great Christian leaders in the church today such as John Piper, and James MacDonald have a tragically poor, and distorted view on the subject, and my hope is to always encourage people to look back to what the Consensual thought has been from the Church over time. I must articulate that I do not doubt the love Piper and MacDonald have for Christ, or their role in furthering His kingdom, I lament at the fact that they were educated in a shallow tradition based on pop-theology, and passing trends, instead of looking to the great Tradition already laid by the Apostles and Fathers of the Church. Do not hear me wrong, they are making great contributions to the gospel, and are men of God. I just hope to show the history, and help to bring you to a faith rooted in scripture, and the teachings of those great Fathers of our faith.
Turn in your Bible to Genesis 1, we'll be using the first three chapters of Genesis to set up God's understanding of the sexes.
Then God said,A)"> "Let us make mana]"> in our image,B)"> after our likeness. AndC)"> let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth (Genesis 1:26, ESV)." Notice if you will in the ESV Bible there is a foot note after the word man, it says that "The Hebrew word for man (adam) is the generic term for mankind and becomes the proper name Adam." We see here that God created them in His image, that without the reflection of man in woman there is not completion of the image of God. This echoes in the trinity, one God in three divine persons. In the tradition of Hebrew literataure, a Jewish author will repeat something when it must be made clear, it is a flag to really lean into the teaching. We see this countless time in the Old and New Testaments, and in the teachings of Jesus. God does this here through the author Moses. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." It was as if there must be a foundational understanding to move on. The image of God is reflected in man and woman. If you know this passage you know that it moves on to paint a beautiful picture of marriage, that she is now bone of my bone (bone was the strongest thing in a person), and flesh of my flesh (flesh was the weakest thing in a person), and so woman is now strength of my strength and weakness of my weakness. Everything good in a man was woman, she is even granted the prestigious title of "helper," a title most often used to describe God, our great helper, or our strength. "In order to fully appreciate the intended unity of male and female, it is important to notice the materials employed in their creation. The man comes from the ground. In Hebrew, the most common means of expressing the feminine gender is with a suffix, -ah. The word for “man” in most of chapter two is ‘adam. The ground from which the man is created in v. 7 is ‘adamah. Therefore, when God introduces the woman to the man, he cannot use the ‘adam/’adamah distinction, because ‘adamah has already been used as a word to mean something else. Instead, the man uses two new words, ‘ishah for woman, and ‘ish for man. Thus as the man (‘adam) was taken from the ground (‘adamah) and will return to it (Gen. 3:19), so the woman (‘ishah) was taken from the man (‘ish). However, here something happens that is unexpected. Instead of the woman returning to the man, and thus completing the circle, the man returns to the woman (Gen. 2:24). The man and woman together create “one flesh,” as was the case before the woman was created from the man. This picture reverses the expected means of reconnection. By doing so, it avoids any sense in which the woman is a derivative secondary figure who must find her way back to the man for completion. While the woman is taken from the man, the man returns to the woman to complete the picture of unity. This symmetry of activity emphasizes harmony rather than dependence. And indeed, the picture at the end of Genesis 2 is one of harmonious relations. The man and woman are naked and unashamed (v. 25), without any barrier between them" contests Richard Hess in his Evidence for Equality.
So then we begin to gain clarity in that the intent was total equality between the persons of Adam and Eve. We also know that God meant for total unity between God, and mankind. In the fall all of this was shattered. The beautiful harmony of the Garden was shattered, and our relationship to God and each other wouldn't be restored until Christ. We see this hierarchy, not part of the original creation, but reality to most of history "What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come (Galatians 3:19, NIV)..." The beauty of the Christ event is that the wounds of sin were, in Christ, reconciled. The one blood sacrifice was made to bring us back into harmony with each other and God, and to relegate inequality to history. Paul says it so powerfully "for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:27-29, NIV)." All is made new in Christ. So then we have this restorative tone to all of Christ teachings. God wants to restore His creation.
We know that Christ had women disciples (Acts 9:36 Tabitha is called mathetria meaning disciple, Luke 8:1-3 where we see his male disciples financially dependent on female disciples who were likely financial independent, and in Luke 10:38 where we see Mary learning at the feet of Jesus).
We know that women taught men, we learn this in Acts 18:24-28. We know of Aquilla as the great teacher of Ephesus, but it is unclear why Priscilla is mentioned. Several extraneous sources inform us that Priscilla was teaching in tandem with her husband. We find another example of this in the lives of Andronicus and Jounian. They are mentioned in the same short passage of scripture as Apostles, and Apostles of high respect. You can interpret Jounian two ways as it is a first declension Greek noun, making Jounia a teacher and Apostle, or you can read it Junianus, which because of the wording would make Andronicus homosexual, a very significant problem in light of the teaching of historic Christianity. We then can infer that Andronicus and Jounia were an Apostolic couple, with powerful ministry, much like Priscilla and Aquila, and that Paul was making two strong examples of exceptional ministry couples.
We know that the New Testament has women prophets, Acts 21:19.
We know that women were deacons in the church according to Paul Romans 16:1-2. For centuries the greatest minds in the Church have given Phoebe great acclaim on account of her office, John Calvin says "He (Paul) begins by commending Phoebe... first on account of her office, because she exercised a very honourable and holy ministry in the Church." Paul joins Jesus then in elevating the role of women in the Church.
We then must look to the teachings of those people foundational to our faith to continue to build upon the Biblical case for gender equality. John Chrysostom wrote in regards to 1 Timothy "Some have thought that this is said of women generally, but it is not so, for why should he introduce anything about women to interfere with his subject. He is speaking to those who hold the rank of Deaconesses." Chrysostom says of Jounia "Greet Andronicus and Junia... who are outstanding among the apostles.’ To be an apostle is something great. But to be outstanding among the apostles just think what a wonderful song of praise that is! Indeed, how great the wisdom of this woman must have been, that she was even deemed worthy of the title of apostle."
There is such an overwhelming tone in the vastness of scripture, with all passages leading to one direction, complete and irrevocable equality among the genders. And then we have a hitch. We have two, very specific passages with one very controversial line each, that seem to completely go against the grain of the Scriptures; that go against the current of the great reclamation of the created order to God. Rev. Dr. Kenneth E. Bailey says this "On the negative side are two critical texts. The first of these is 1 Cor.14:33-36 which tells the women to be silent in church. The second is 1 Tim. 2:11-15 which adds that they must not teach or ‘have authority’ over men. These two texts seem to affirm the exact opposite of all that we have thus far observed." Now there are two tendencies in response to these passages, both are wrong. One seeks to build an entire Biblical case on two passages that do not make any sense in light of the bigger story of Scripture, and the other, and equally as dangerous, direction would be to say that they are conflicting with the whole stream of the Canon, and must be a fault inserted over time, not found in the original autographs, and that we must throw them the way of the Apocrypha. I would say, boldly, that these are the only two responses that have any logic behind them if you do not look at the bigger picture of these two very controversial texts.
We know that 1st Corinthians 11-14 is a single treatise of Paul. Dr. Bailey brings great clarity to the teachings of 1st Corinthians 14:33-36 and has an incredible essay on this subject that you must read. I end with that rationalizing of the passage from Corinthians and hope and pray that you might begin to see the depths of the Scriptures, and to take part in the great movement that is the Tradition of the Church. If you are a pastor, I pray with all in me that you would begin a conversation with God about the implications of these teachings, that you would allow God to work in your heart, and that you would begin to see with new clarity the purposes of God in His creation, that you would not impose your views on God, but let His Holy Word speak for itself.
"In 11:4-5 the men and the women are prophesying. Thus the reader knows that the prophets who interrupt one another in chapter 14 are comprised of both men and
women. So when the women in 14:34-35 are told to be silent and listen to the prophets, it is clear that some of
those prophets are women. Also relevant is the fact that 14:26-36 lists three groups of people who are disturbing the worship. These are as follows:
1. The prophets are told: Don’t all talk at once. Be silent in the church.
2. The speakers in tongues are told: If there is no interpreter, be silent in the church.
3. Married women with Christian husbands (who attend) are told: Don’t ask questions during the worship and don’t chat. Ask your husbands at home and be silent in the church.
Each of these groups is told to be silent when it disturbs worship. Paul is not issuing a command for perpetual prophetic silence! In like manner when they disrupt public worship the women are asked to be quiet. Thus Paul is saying to the women: ‘Women, please keep silent in worship and listen to the female and male prophets. Don’t interrupt them with questions, and don’t talk/chat in church. If you can’t understand what is being said, ask your husbands at home. They understand more Greek than you do and will be able to explain things to you.’ The scene is easy to reconstruct. Corinth was a tough immoral town. Transportation workers, porters and metal workers made up a significant portion of the population. It is easy to assume that the inhabitants came from different places and spoke different languages. Their common language was Greek. The men were naturally ‘out and about’ more than the women and thus were more likely to be at ease in that common language. It follows that in church the women could perhaps not easily follow what was being said and so would begin to ask questions or lose interest and start ‘chatting’. A documented case of this phenomenon is recorded in a sermon of John Chrysostom, preached in the cathedral of Antioch in the latter part of the fourth century. Stenographers recorded Chrysostom as follows: Text: And if they (the women) will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home. Chrysostom: Then indeed the women, from such teaching keep silence; but now there is apt to be great noise among them, much clamour and talking, and nowhere so much as in this place (the cathedral). They may all be seen here talking more than in the market, or at the bath. For, as if they came hither for recreation, they are all engaged in conversing upon unprofitable subjects. Thus all is confusion, and they seem not to understand, that unless they are quiet, they cannot learn anything that is useful. For when our Presbyterians for Faith, Family and Ministry Page 7 discourse strains against the talking, and no one minds what is said, what good can it do to them?20 If this was the scene in the cathedral of the great city of Antioch in the fourth century, what can we imagine for Corinth in the days of Paul? Corinth was, no doubt, even more disorderly. (The present writer has personally experienced Chrysostom’s predicament in isolated middle-eastern village churches!) The women of Corinth were told (when they disrupted worship) to be silent. Paul assumed that the readers remembered the women prophets of 11:5 when he wrote 14:35-36."
http://www.cbeinternational.org/files/u1/free-art/women-in-new-testament.pdf
