Why do women have such a small role in the Bible?

The grace of the Lord Jesus was active towards all who came to Him when He dwelt here among men, but He seemed to have had the greatest consideration for the women. They are "the weaker vessels" and were not of much account in the estimation of the men. They had a proverb in those days, "Better burn the words of the Law than teach them to a woman," and even to this day in the Jewish Liturgy the men give thanks to God that they were not born women. But in contrast to the proud spirit of man the Lord stooped to the weak, the despised, and the neglected, and the greater their need the greater was His compassion for them.

The grace of the Lord Jesus was active towards all who came to Him when He dwelt here among men, but He seemed to have had the greatest consideration for the women. They are "the weaker vessels" and were not of much account in the estimation of the men. They had a proverb in those days, "Better burn the words of the Law than teach them to a woman," and even to this day in the Jewish Liturgy the men give thanks to God that they were not born women. But in contrast to the proud spirit of man the Lord stooped to the weak, the despised, and the neglected, and the greater their need the greater was His compassion for them.

(1) We have seen; then, the power of the Word in the soul of one that receives it; all the more that, as we saw her first, she had as yet bad no word distinctly addressed to herself to assure her of the blessing which she grasps with such effect. We now go on to see how the fruits produced characterize the reception of it, — how the seed tests the soil. This is shown in that familiar parable of the Sower, which we have had already in the two previous Gospels, here given a slightly abbreviated form, and without the parables which accompany it in them. As an introduction to it, however, we are shown as fruit of the Word the company of disciples who now follow the Lord, and some of whom minister to Him of their substance. It is here first we find those faithful women who follow Him to the cross itself, and at the sepulchre greet Him first in resurrection. Their own deliverance has attached them to Him, and He on His part receives their services, emancipating them from the harsh restrictions of Rabbinism, which put the woman into a not merely inferior but a degraded place. The twelve are also with Him, and throughout all Galilee, with the testimony of word and work, goes also that of the new communion of faith and love which Christianity was fully and universally to establish.

In personal service she finds her special sphere. So when the Lord was on earth, whilst He chose His apostles, and the seventy disciples, and gave them authority respectively to go out and preach, He accepted the uncommanded and unasked ministrations of women. They ministered to them of their substance. (Luke 8:3.) He called His disciples to public service, and made them distribute the bread as they received it from Him. He received the proffered service of women, and was ready, though Lord of all, to be indebted to them for the supply of His own and His disciples’ bodily wants. As love prompted, they rendered this service, and He as readily accepted it. After his departure we find men as sent by Him were engaged in preaching and teaching, whilst women found an ample sphere in personal service in their families, among the saints, or in helping those who were labouring in the work of God.

Do any ask what were the family duties of Christian women whether young or old? We have only to turn to Timothy and Titus to find out (1 Tim. 5:14; Titus 2:3-5.) If we desire to know how faithful women of old employed themselves, we have several examples handed down to us in the word. The married woman had duties to her husband and children, besides engaging in any labour of love for the saints or the Lord. The unmarried were more free to devote themselves to the things of the Lord. Beyond the range of family ties the sympathies of both could extend themselves. In Jerusalem, Mary, the mother of John, opened her house for prayer on that memorable evening when Peter was miraculously brought out of prison. At Philippi, Lydia of Thyatira hospitably entertained Paul and his company, whilst the elect lady of 2 John received into her house those brethren that went about ministering the word. Then there was Mary who bestowed much labour on Paul, and those two women at Philippi who laboured (rather, contended) with him in the gospel. There were Tryphena and Tryphosa who were labouring in the Lord, and the beloved Persis who had laboured much in the Lord. These holy women, living in that age, and working under the immediate eye of the apostles found plenty of scope for their energies, and plenty of opportunities for working for their Lord, without forgetting their true place with reference to their head. It was no idle life with them. They were in earnest: they were active. Mary, like her namesakes of the gospel, was forward in personal service: Persis had laboured much, and those women of Philippi worked zealously with Paul. Exactly what each did is not recorded. Can we not see a reason for this? The service of love may vary in different places and different ages. What is needed at one time may not be needed at another. To wash the feet of the traveller in the East is grateful to the way-worn one; in the West such service is not required. Had the special work of each been enumerated, other kinds of service, rendered so willingly, and accepted gratefully, might have been thought unsuited for devoted, godly women. The special work of one is recorded — a labour in season as much in our days as in that of Peter — Tabitha made garments and coats. Of others it is only recorded that they laboured much. These received the commendation of the apostle, and along with Tabitha have their names preserved in the inspired record. Theirs was service done for the Lord’s sake, and accepted by Him.

But there is more here. "I permit not a woman to teach, nor to exercise authority over a man, but to be in quietness." This clearly is not limited to the assembly; as the apostle traces the ground of it in the constitution and natural character of woman. "For Adam was first formed, then Eve." Her subsequent formation out of the man is never to be forgotten by such as fear God and believe His word. All other thoughts are presumptuous theory in forgetfulness of the truth which goes up to the beginning. An individual woman may be comparatively able and well-instructed; but under no circumstances is leave given for a woman to teach or to have dominion over a man; she is to be in quietness. Thus absolutely does the apostle guard against any reaction from the abject place of women in ancient times, specially among the heathen; or any imitation of the peculiar prominence given to her sometimes in oracular matters, as among the Greeks and especially the Germans of old.

Had then women no seemly or suited, no good and useful, place in Christianity? None can deny that they have, who see how honoured were some of them in caring for the Lord Himself in His ministry (Luke 8:1-3), who know how He vindicated Mary that anointed Him when the apostles found fault under evil influence. Certainly He put no slight on Mary of Magdala, if His resurrection interrupted the plan of those who brought their spices and ointments after His death. Not otherwise do we find the action of the Holy Ghost when the Lord went to heaven. Mary the mother of John Mark gives her house for the gathering together of many to pray; and the four daughters of Philip were not forbidden to prophesy at home, though even there authority could not be rightly exercised over a man. Lydia is a beautiful example of Christian simple-heartedness and zeal; her house too has honour put on it for the truth's sake. Nor was Priscilla out of place when she with her husband helped the learned Alexandrian, mighty in the scriptures, to know the way of God more thoroughly. Romans 16 pays no passing honour to many a sister, from Phoebe who served the church at Cenchreae, commended to the saints in Rome as a succourer of many and of Paul himself. Prisca or Priscilla again is coupled with her husband as his fellow-workers in Christ, who not only for his life laid down their own necks, but wherever they went opened their house for the assembly. But need we dwell on all the cases and the beautifully discriminating notice taken of them?

We may say of Evodia and Syntyche that there is not the smallest reason for conceiving them preachers, because they shared the apostle's labours in the gospel (Phil. 4:2). That they joined their efforts with Paul in that work is no warrant for the inference that they preached. In those days a woman's preaching must have seemed far more egregious than her venturing to say a word in the assemblies of the saints. Even in private where they might exercise that which was given them in the Lord, they must never forget the form and the reality of subjection. In public all teaching was forbidden. Such is the testimony of scripture, and nowhere with greater precision or breadth than here.

(4) There was to he one exception as to this general liberty. In the assemblies, when the saints were all actually come together, the women were to keep silence. It is a question, not of a woman's capability of exhorting others or of edifying, but just that question of order with which the apostle started, and which creation establishes. The woman's sphere of liberty, and, one may say, sovereignty, is at home; that is to say, it is private and not public. It must not be thought that this does not give ample scope for the exercise of gift of whatever kind. If there were only more of the cultivation on the woman's part of that which belongs really to her sphere, how fruitful would be the exercise of gift with which God has endowed her and how many places would be open to her which men, by reason of their being men could not in the same way fill! Thus in relation to children, it is at once evident; with the younger children, the woman is still the best and the nature-ordained teacher. God has placed the babe in its mother's arms and not its father's; and this does not mean that the woman's sphere is only in her own family. There are countless families to which her sex will introduce her, and where she may find herself fully at home and abundant profit and recompense of her work. So, through the wives, women have access in this way to an indefinite sphere of occupation for varied blessing. The wife is the heart-centre of the household, and the ability thus to reach the wife in a way that woman certainly can do far beyond others is an immense privilege and responsibility entrusted to her. Would that there were more realization of this! It would not be thought that the apostle's rule here, which is evident, was intended to reduce the woman to a nonentity or to deprive her of the use of whatever gift God may have endowed her with. As already said, if you take men themselves, how many have their proper sphere in any public ministrations? Women are no more disqualified in this sense than the large number of men are. God has ordained to each his place, and the spirit of love is only needed to find the wisdom which will enable any one to realize the doors which God will ever open to those who seek to serve Hint among men.

If anything, the Bible demonstrates God’s special regard for women and the Lord’s appreciation of their faithfulness and the spiritual insight which they possess, and which often seems to surpass that of men. Of all the impoverished people in the Middle East at the time, it was a widow to whom God sent Elisha (2 Ki. 4:1–7). Phoebe has the longest commendation letter in history (the book of Romans) because of her faithful service of the Lord’s people (Rom. 16:1). Mary of Bethany appears to have had the best understanding of the Lord’s statements concerning His death and resurrection during His earthly ministry.

In ancient times there were great women leaders of Israel. Miriam was one (Micah 6:4). Deborah was another (Judges 4:4). This makes it all the more remarkable that in Christianity, while women have an honoured place, leadership is reserved for men.

(2) But there were not only prophets, but prophetesses. Beautiful it is to see that, when it is God's grace that is raising up help, the expression of it will be found in those who in their very weakness will thus be most competent witnesses. There were no priestesses in Israel; nor, saving usurpation, any queens that reigned in their own right, but there were prophetesses. The grace of God did not in the same way regard distinctions such as these. Nay, if the men of Israel failed, the rise of a prophetess might be a more signal rebuke to them — thus Deborah, in the days of the Judges, and others at other times. And if after all there were but few women of this class, we know how slow God's people are to accept the grace which thus visits them in its fulness of blessing. And God's delight is shown in various instances, as in the case of the daughters of Zelophehad, who claimed their portion in Jehovah's land when a weaker faith might have thought it humility to make no claim. The heart that counts upon God's grace, how much may it enjoy of the grace it counts upon! Grace is the same grace towards all, and God answers faith. Alas, we ourselves put limit where God puts none. If we make our portion in the land the whole question, we may hesitate to ask for the needed springs — which Achsah did — to make the very land that is our own, fruitful! Beautiful is the recognition, which even a false prophecy is forced to make, as to the sovereign grace of God in the instruments that it employs. But, alas, even such precious grace as this could find those who would pervert it, and Ezekiel has now to utter Jehovah's voice against the daughters of his people, who prophesied out of their own heart merely.*

When a woman becomes prominent in public affairs our sense of "the proprieties" is apt to be shocked. We do not greatly admire "the long-haired men and the short-haired women." The phrase is Dr. Holmes' (and a very good one), but the idea is as old at least as the Epistle to the Corinthians. The excellent lady whose voice is so weighty in "society" informs her friends that she never could do such a thing (which is, indeed, true), and that this woman is "simply seeking notoriety" (which is often very untrue); for women like Deborah are mostly forced — called by God or by urgent providential circumstances — into the position which they take, and are often glad to retire from it when their work is done. There was no man in France that could do what Joan of Arc did to regain the independence of that country; and when her mission was accomplished, she apparently wished to retire into privacy: that an exacting popularity prevented her, and a cruel bigotry destroyed her, was not her fault. It was when there was no one else to lead the ancient Britons that Queen Boadicea led them against their Roman oppressors. Of course that is not always the case. But if there be times such as those we are considering of national convulsion and universal crisis, we must not be surprised to see strange and abnormal things occur. God will in providence or in grace take up whatsoever instrument He chooses, — the younger son Jacob instead of Esau, the wife Priscilla instead of Aquila — and in this His sovereign power is made known. We are reminded that none of us have any claim to the posts of honour in His service; and we do well when we abstain from in any way discouraging, but, on the contrary, recognise, countenance, and so far as we consistently can, assist those, whosoever they may be, whom He raises to any important work.