Text:God's Word to Women:Lesson 20
UNSUBJUGATED WIVES.
146. We have much incidental evidence that Jewish women, before the captivity of Babylon especially, enjoyed much liberty, of which they were gradually deprived after that time. This subordination was in accordance, not with Scriptural, but with rabbinical and pagan teaching. So soon as it became necessary for the common people to have their own Scriptures translated and interpreted for them, man began to interpret those writings according to such teaching, to the detriment of woman.[1] Let us cite instances of the freedom and dignity of Old Testament women.
147. Rebekah had no child. As often happened in Bible characters, being destined to become the mother of an important personage, (i.e.,—Jacob), no child came until it was conceived of spiritual desire, expressed in prayer (Genesis 25:21),—not merely of natural desire. A few months later, she went to enquire of the Lord concerning a perplexing state of affairs, and was told that she would have twins, and the elder was to serve the younger (Genesis 25:22-23). The elder was Esau and the younger Jacob. Rebekah's story teaches us: (1) God may reveal His mind, even in matters of greatest moment for both parents, to the mother alone. And hence (2) God does not intend that the husband shall invariably lead, in carrying out His will.
148. But this is quite contrary to the theological fiction as to the import of the "headship" of the husband. For instance: We open a Bible commentary, much in use at the present time, and highly praised in our Christian periodicals for use in the family (that of Jamieson, Faussett and Brown), and read: "As a moon in relation to the sun, so woman shines not so much with light direct from God, as light derived from man." . . . "In grace much of her knowledge is mediately through man, on whom she naturally depends." . . . "The woman was made by God mediately through man, who was, as it were, a veil or medium placed between her and God." . . . "Through him it (the veil) connects her with Christ, the Head of man." As though Christ were not the Head of believing women! This contradicts 1 Timothy 2:5, where "men" is of common gender.
149. If the Bible commentary tells the truth, why did God send Deborah to show Barak his duty, and not Barak to show Deborah (Judges 4:6)? Why did the angel of the Lord instruct Manoah's wife about their coming child, rather than send Manoah to his wife with the instructions (Judges 13:2-7)? Why did Hilkiah the priest, and Shaphan the scribe, with several other high dignitaries of the Royal Court, go, at the instance of the king himself, to inquire of Huldah about the Law, instead of going to Huldah's husband, her "sun?" Or, instead of Huldah being required to go to these "suns," the priest, the Scribe and the high dignitaries of the Royal Court, to obtain her light about God's Law (2 Kings 22)? Why were women sent to the apostles to tell them of a risen Lord, instead of their husbands being sent,—from whom, according to the Commentary, these women must have received their light and knowledge? Or, why were not the apostles sent to the women to tell them that Christ was risen, if indeed women must receive their Divine light "mediately" through men? In these cases, and more that might be cited, the "sun" went to the "moon" for light, and got it.
150. In Genesis 21:11 we are told that it was "very grievous" to Abraham to do what Sarah demanded. Did the Lord remind her that she must rather obey him? No; He told Abraham that he must obey Sarah. The authority was vested, not in a "sex," but in the one who took the right moral view on the question of polygamy. And so it always will be; God is with the right; not the sex. Then recall the case of Abigail (1 Samuel 25.) She knew her husband was a foolish and worthless man, and frankly said so. She did not even consult him when she took "two hundred loaves and two bottles of wine, five sheep ready dressed, five measures of parched corn, a hundred clusters of grapes, and two hundred cakes of figs," and gave them to David, knowing full well that her husband had just refused to give David anything. Under ordinary conditions, had she had a worthy husband, she would not have done this. Nabal did not measure up to the occasion, and his masculinity counted for nothing, as to authority over a wife wiser than himself. The whole Bible story goes to show that Abigail did the right and prudent thing in going against what she well knew was her husband's will, to do what she could not have done with his knowledge. She showed moral courage. She averted a dire calamity. David praised her for it, and Scripture shows its approval'—for, "It came to pass that about ten days after, the Lord smote Nabal that he died."
151. As we have said, It is rabbinism—Judaism commingled with paganism, born in the "days of mingling" (par. 86),—which placed the badge of inferiority and servility upon woman. Let us give an illustration:
Originally woman had her place in the regular Tabernacle services, either as priestess or Levite. This is now conceded by Bible scholars, as proved by the technical term used in Exodus 38:8 and 1 Samuel 2:22, translated "serving women." Now this term was altered to "fasting women" by the translators of the Septuagint Greek, and the phrase in 1 Samuel containing the words entirely dropped. To use the words of Prof. Margoliouth of Oxford, "The idea of women in attendance at the Tabernacle is so odious that it has to be got rid of." The other ancient versions followed suit in purposely mistranslating the word as "prayed," "thronged," "assembled" there. Our A. V. renders "assembled," but the R.V.rightly renders it "served."
152. After a close line of reasoning, unsuitable for this place, but which we produce in later lessons, Prof. Margoliouth proves this charge which he makes.[2] He concludes, "It is evident that by the time when the Septuagint translation was made, the idea of women ministering at the door of the Tabernacle had become so odious that it was wilfully mistranslated."
"Wilfully mistranslated" is very strong language to use, since that mistranslation has remained in the versions of the Bible until our Revisers corrected it. We prefer that such a statement should stand in the language of an eminent male scholar, rather than in our own words; therefore we quote him.
153. Occasionally a Bible expositor comments on the seemingly narrower sphere allotted to women under the Gospel than was accorded them under the law. Kalisch says: "The New Testament is . . . even more rigorous than the Old; for whilst it commands the woman 'to learn in silence with all subjection, but not to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence,' she was in the Old Testament admitted to the highest office of teaching, that of prophets, as Miriam, Deborah and Huldah."
154. But we may well suspect such an interpretation of the Bible as makes the Gospel appear less kindly, less liberal, more contemptuous toward women than the Old Testament law, and which represents women as less able, by grace, to conquer the vices of the sex and rise above them, than the law enabled them to do. There must be something wrong in such a representation. We should constantly bear in mind; in studying these Lessons, the point we have made: It was during the "days of mingling," especially, that the teaching got hold of the mind of the Jew, that his wife, merely because of her sex, was his inferior. It was during these days that the first translation of the Bible—the Septuagint Greek version—was made. This version, in some places, incorporated in its renderings the idea of woman's inferiority; and all other versions since have followed suit, more or less. "Men only need," says Dr. Beard, "to bring to the Bible sufficiently strong prepossessions, sufficiently fixed opinions, to have them reflected back in all the glamour of infallible authority" (Beard's Hibbert Lectures, p. 192).
Footnotes
[1] All but educated Jews lost, largely, their knowledge of Hebrew during the seventy years of captivity in Babylon. After their return, the Oral Law came into being (Neh. 8:8) which is the basis of Targums and the Talmud. see par. 6.
[2] Nearly every subject mentioned in this lesson is dealt with more extensively In future lessons. Here we design to make but the single point,—the freedom of women In the O. T., where, if anywhere, we should expect "the curse of the law” (Genesis 3:16) to operate.
See Also
God's Word to Women | God's Word to Women Table of Contents | Foreword to the 1943 Edition | Foreword to the 2005 Edition | Author's Note | Lesson 1 | Lesson 2 | Lesson 3 | Lesson 4 | Lesson 5 | Lesson 6 | Lesson 7 | Lesson 8 | Lesson 9 | Lesson 10 | Lesson 11 | Lesson 12 | Lesson 13 | Lesson 14 | Lesson 15 | Lesson 16 | Lesson 17 | Lesson 18 | Lesson 19 | Lesson 20 | Lesson 21 | Lesson 22 | Lesson 23 | Lesson 24 | Lesson 25 | Lesson 26 | Lesson 27 | Lesson 28 | Lesson 29 | Lesson 30 | Lesson 31 | Lesson 32 | Lesson 33 | Lesson 34 | Lesson 35 | Lesson 36 | Lesson 37 | Lesson 38 | Lesson 39 | Lesson 40 | Lesson 41 | Lesson 42 | Lesson 43 | Lesson 44 | Lesson 45 | Lesson 46 | Lesson 47 | Lesson 48 | Lesson 49 | Lesson 50 | Lesson 51 | Lesson 52 | Lesson 53 | Lesson 54 | Lesson 55 | Lesson 56 | Lesson 57 | Lesson 58 | Lesson 59 | Lesson 60 | Lesson 61 | Lesson 62 | Lesson 63 | Lesson 64 | Lesson 65 | Lesson 66 | Lesson 67 | Lesson 68 | Lesson 69 | Lesson 70 | Lesson 71 | Lesson 72 | Lesson 73 | Lesson 74 | Lesson 75 | Lesson 76 | Lesson 77 | Lesson 78 | Lesson 79 | Lesson 80 | Lesson 81 | Lesson 82 | Lesson 83 | Lesson 84 | Lesson 85 | Lesson 86 | Lesson 87 | Lesson 88 | Lesson 89 | Lesson 90 | Lesson 91 | Lesson 92 | Lesson 93 | Lesson 94 | Lesson 95 | Lesson 96 | Lesson 97 | Lesson 98 | Lesson 99 | Lesson 100 | Index of Scripture Texts | Dictionary
