Monday 15 August 2011

Women Of The Bible (All Of Them!)

I was brought up in a Brethren assmebly, (even the word Church is probably too liberal to use).  Women are not allowed to take part in any services, unless there are no men present, and they have to wear head-coverings.  Now I'm no Biblical scholar, but my un-educated guess is, that when Paul wrote to the Corinthians about that, he didn't mean it to translate in 2000 years time to keep the John Lewis milliners dept in trade.

I have come to my own understanding of the Corinthians teachings, and am happy to go to Church with my head uncovered and take part as I feel led.

What I really want to do now though is undertake a full study of every woman that appears in the Bible.  Note the lack of the word 'significant'.

I am currently being taught that I am as good as the next person, God made us all equal, and while I sometimes struggle with that notion about myself, I have to start by admitting that if a woman makes an appearance in the Bible it is a significant appearance - no matter who she was.

I am not on a feminist crusade, I'm simply trying to unravel the differences between what I was taught growing up and what I believe now about women's roles.

So anyone come across any good study guides/podcasts/blogs on the subject? I would be interested to read them.

3 comments:

  1. That's a great idea. I have quite a few books on the subject but don't know of any online resources. I just bought a book on Spurgeon's sermons about women of the Bible, so you could search on the Spurgeon archive online and maybe find some of those - this is the link http://www.spurgeon.org/spsrmns.htm

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  2. Sounds like a great idea. I would try just reading through the Bible and highlighting all the passages about women / involving women characters. That would be an invaluable resource in the long run I bet.

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  3. Thanks both. Also thanks for the link will look it up!

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