Myth Busters: The Biblical "Oppression" of Women

The recent #MeToo and #TimesUp movements have stirred up a lot of emotions in me as a woman. #MeToo has definitely shed some positive light on the prevalence of sexual harassment of women particularly in their places of work. #TimesUp is primarily a movement to provide financial support to women who, unlike their Hollywood counterparts, can not afford the multiple thousands of dollars in legal fees that it would take to properly prosecute their harassers. While everyone (including me) has their own opinions, positive and negative, of these two causes as a whole, both movements undeniably have beneficial components. One thing I find interesting is that these movements have spurred quite a lot of publications speaking out on how women should be properly treated. Fun fact… do you want to know another publication that’s been speaking on this same topic for roughly 2000 years? The bible. God laid the foundation for the equality of women in the very first chapter of the book! Genesis 1:27 says “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Both the male and the female were created in God’s image meaning that Adam didn’t receive all of it while leaving Eve with the scraps. No, they both have the distinction of being equal creations in the eyes of God. Now, where this usually goes completely off the rails to crazy-town is when we assume that because God made no distinction between men and women in terms of their significance in His eyes, He must also mean that there is no distinction between the sexes at all. But, that is a blog post for another day. What I really want to concentrate on is the misconception that so many people have when it comes to the bible being a proponent of the oppression of women. This post will look a bit different because there is a lot of material that I’d like to cover, but I can’t write a full description of each point because this would start to feel like a novel. So, I am hitting some highlights and will be referencing a bunch of scripture so you can go and study more if something peaks your interest.

First, very importantly, I am fully aware that it is historical fact that women in ancient times were treated very nominally and were most times not thought of as having much more value than the family’s livestock. This is absolutely historically accurate and I am not here to contend that in the slightest. What I am here to shed light on, however, is that God is not responsible for making things that way and He definitely wasn’t a fan of it. The marginalization of women in ancient cultures is not unlike the highly controversial topic of slavery in biblical times, but in both cases what we have to understand is that just because social injustices existed doesn’t mean that God championed their cause. Yes, women were treated horribly in many cultures, but it was in God’s giving of the law to Moses that we first start to see advocacy for women’s issues emerge. It wasn’t news to God that women were being oppressed, but what He did was to tell His people that they would be held to a higher standard. Let’s look at some examples from the Old Testament.

Creation - As I stated above, starting in the first book of the Old Testament, God says right out of the gate that He made male AND female in His image. If God planned on being an oppressor of women, why would He do that? Wouldn’t He have just bestowed all of the glory of being created in His image onto Adam alone and then created Eve later as some lesser being? Nope, Adam was created to be exactly who he was intended to be, a man in the image of God and Eve was created to be exactly who she was intended to be, a woman in the image of God. (Genesis 1:27)

Marriage - I read something recently that I found to be so intriguing that further emphasizes God’s amazing love for women. After God initially created Adam, he was this perfect, sinless man enjoying a wonderfully harmonious relationship to God Himself in the Garden of Eden. Sounds perfect, right? What else would he ever need? But, even in that perfect, peaceful existence God still wanted something more for Adam that came in the form of a perfect companion created just for him… Eve. That doesn’t sound at all like a plan that would form in the mind of a cruel God. No, women were created with special consideration in mind. Eve’s femininity was to be the perfect compliment to Adam’s masculinity and the two would be so closely bonded that they would “become one flesh." Remember, it wasn’t until later when Adam and Eve sinned for the first time that things went awry and the ugliness of oppression and abuse entered the world. (Full story in Genesis 2)

Motherhood - In the book of Exodus, Moses records for us the Ten Commandments that were given to him by God on Mount Sinai shortly after the Israelites escaped Egypt. There are actually 613 commandments contained in the Old Testament Law, but these ten served as sort of an overview. One commandment in particular would have been revolutionary at this time in history which was ”Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” Honor your mother. This commandment that God gave to His people stood in huge contrast to the surrounding cultures where mothers were given little to no rights over their children at all. (Full story in Exodus 20)

The Daughters of Zelophehad - There is little room to debate that in ancient civilizations the vast majority of family goods and property would always pass to the male heirs upon the father’s death. However, the bible records a story of five Israelite sisters pleading their case before Moses to be recognized as the rightful heirs of their deceased fathers’s property because he had no sons. I understand that by today’s standards this still seems a bit archaic, but we have to consider this story in context to the times. Moses heard the sisters’ plea, took their case before the Lord and the Lord said, “The daughters of Zelophehad are right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father’s brothers and transfer the inheritance of their father to them. And you shall speak to the people of Israel, saying, ‘If a man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter.’” Another example of God setting a precedent that was unheard of in the surrounding pagan cultures. (Full story in Numbers 27)

Rahab - Following the death of Moses, Joshua was installed as the new leader of the Israelites. The book of Joshua opens with the Israelites making preparations for war against the inhabitants of Canaan which would become their new homeland. It is here that we are introduced to a pagan prostitute named Rahab who was a resident of the town of Jericho that was slated to be the first town the Israelites would conquer. God used Rahab, a woman of very low reputation and status, to hide Israelite spies that were sent to scout out the territory before battle and in doing so saved her and her entire family from imminent death. What’s even better, Rahab eventually married an Israelite from the tribe of Judah and can be found in the direct lineage of Jesus Christ! Because God cares about women, he essentially erased this woman’s sketchy past and converted her into one of His own. Not something an oppressor of women would likely do. (Full story in Joshua 2)

Deborah - After the Israelites moved into their new homeland, Joshua eventually died along with all the men and women from his generation. The bible states that the new generation that followed did not know the Lord and all that He had done for Israel up to that point. At this time a massive roller coaster was set in motion of rebelling against God and returning to God, rebelling against God and returning to God, rebelling… returning… rebelling… returning and it lasted for many years. During these dark days, when the people got themselves into so much trouble that they couldn’t see any other way out, they would call out to God for deliverance and like the just and faithful God He is, He would send a leader or a “judge” to take charge and save them. Most were men, yes, but not all. Deborah was Israel’s only female judge and her story is pretty great. To sum it up, after consultation with God she summoned the leader of Israel’s army and told him to go to battle against those that had been oppressing them for twenty years because the Lord was going to give him a sure victory. The leader of the army refused to go unless Deborah herself would go with him. Deborah agreed to go, but because the leader of the army had been too afraid to believe God the first time, God gave the honor of killing the rival army’s leader to another woman by the name of Jael. Here we see God honor two women in very unique and revolutionary ways in leadership and in battle. (Full story in Judges 4)

Ruth - If you’ve never read the book of Ruth, I would highly recommend it to you. It’s only four chapters, but the story of God’s faithfulness and redemption is so evident throughout the entire book. In summary, Ruth was a woman from the country of Moab. She became the daughter-in-law of an Israelite woman named Naomi when she married one of Naomi’s two sons after Naomi’s family had to move to Moab because of a severe famine in Israel. Eventually Naomi’s husband and both sons died in Moab leaving both women in a desperate situation. Ruth loved Naomi very much and was determined to stay with her as she traveled back to her home country of Israel instead of returning to her own family’s home in Moab. Remember Rahab from above and how after God saved her and her family she eventually married an Israelite man and became a direct ancestor to Jesus? Rahab and her husband would go on to have a son named Boaz who would eventually become Ruth’s second husband after they returned to Naomi’s homeland. So this is now the second example of a woman with pagan ancestry who was converted to belief in God and then grafted into the direct lineage of Jesus Chris Himself. That seems like an awful lot of trouble for God to go through if He truly wasn’t an advocate of women. (Full story in the book of Ruth)

Esther - I really can’t say enough times how much I love the story of Esther. She is one of my favorite heroines of all time. At the time of her story, the Israelites had been exiled from their homeland for years and years of continual disobedience to God. Esther, whose own mother and father had passed away, was being raised by her cousin Mordecai and they had been exiled to a place called Susa. Due to some circumstances that resulted in the outing of the current queen, King Xerxes ordered a petition to round up a group of young women to basically compete to become the new queen. Esther was chosen as one of the young women to go (although keeping her Jewish nationality a secret) and eventually won the heart of the king. During this time a lot was happening with Mordecai outside the palace, but most importantly was his discovery of a plot by the king’s officials to commit genocide by completely wiping the Israelites out once and for all. With Mordecai’s urging, Queen Esther summoned all of her courage to go in and see the king (which was punishable by death if you were not summoned into his presence, but just showed up expecting an audience) and after being shown mercy was able to reveal her true heritage to the king and save her people. Not only that, but the official who was behind the genocide plot was put to a most unfortunate death. God protected Esther and used this young woman to save the entire race of His chosen people. I love Esther’s words upon deciding that she would no longer be afraid of confronting the king on behalf of her people when she says, “When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I die, I die.” God could have saved His people in any number of ways, but again chose a young lady to be His champion further proving God’s appreciation of women. (Full story in the book of Esther)

Proverbs 31 - Perhaps the most complete picture of God’s love and respect for women was written in the account of the Proverbs 31 woman. I encourage you to read it for yourselves if you haven’t already done so. This chapter was written by King Lemuel (who we don’t know much about) and is based on his own mother’s wise teachings to him about finding a wife of strong character. There is much to be said about her in these verses, but the most important themes are trustworthiness, diligence, generosity, preparedness and wisdom. She isn’t shown in a purely domestic light, but is also the model of a profitable business woman helping to prepare her family for whatever may come. Her physical appearance isn’t mentioned once as an attribute to be searched for. In fact, verse 30 states “Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” Contrast that with today’s “liberated” woman who strives for physical beauty above almost anything else and judge for yourself which version is truly free. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Why would God then allow this noble account of women to be included if He was ultimately going to be a persecutor of women’s rights? Answer… He’s not.

Let’s turn now to the New Testament and look at some examples from Jesus’ life where time and again he modeled appropriate and respectful treatment of women.

Woman at the well - I really wish I knew this woman’s name because her story has many culturally significant (and stereotype busting) themes to pay attention to. In summary, Jesus was traveling with his disciples and the shortest route to his next destination was through a place called Samaria. The Samaritan people were hated by the majority of the Jewish population because they were considered “mixed race” Jews. Their parents had intermarried with foreigners thus producing this race of people that the pure-bred Jews despised. Along the journey, Jesus came to a well and sat down to rest when a Samaritan woman came out to draw water and He asked her for a drink. It is important to note two things here because this was a double whammy to acceptable cultural norms of the day. First, at this time it was considered completely undignified for a man to openly speak to a woman in public. Second, not only was Jesus talking to a woman, but a Samaritan woman at that. Jesus dignified this woman by simply speaking to her and He revealed to her His true identity as the long awaited for Messiah. Then, through the words of her testimony, many people in her town came to know and believe Jesus as their Savior. (Full story in John 4)

Mary and Martha - Here we have two sisters who along with their brother, Lazarus, loved Jesus very deeply and enjoyed a very close friendship with Him. Once when Jesus visited their home, Martha became very distracted with the daily preparations that had to be made because of her house guests while Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to all He had to say. Martha became very upset by this and in a fit of anger began to verbalize to Jesus what she felt was a lack of caring on His part that her sister had left her to do all the work. Two important things to note here are the way that Jesus responded in gentle kindness towards Martha’s outburst and the fact that he didn’t tell Mary to get up and start cooking. Clearly Martha had such a close bond with Jesus that she felt comfortable enough to “chide” the Savior of the world and Jesus felt a comparable affection towards Martha not to reprimand her for it. But most important of all, He told Martha that Mary had chosen the better option! Remember, this was a time when women weren’t considered worthy of speaking to and it certainly wouldn’t have been proper for a woman to be sitting among a group of men being taught spiritual truths. (Full story in Luke 10:38-42)

Women In Jesus' Ministry - Not only were women being taught by Jesus, they were following Jesus along with His chosen twelve as they traveled around during Jesus’ ministry years. Some women of higher means even provided for Jesus and the twelve out of their own pockets. We also learn that many women were there at the cross at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion watching from a distance. Just another glaring example of the elevation of women’s status from one of degradation and servitude to one of fellowship and equality. (Luke 8:1-3; Matthew 27:55-56)

Women At The Empty Tomb - I have to admit that until recently I didn’t fully understand the extreme significance surrounding the fact that it was a group of women who initially discovered the empty tomb of Jesus. Back in these times, a women wasn’t allowed to enter testimony in a legal case because her views would have been considered worthless because she was essentially worthless. So it is nothing short of mind-blowing that God orchestrated the events surrounding Jesus’ resurrection to include women being the first ones to discover it. Not only that, but these women were then told to go and share what they had seen with their male counterparts. More than one publication that I have read on this topic has summed it up similar to this; if the resurrection of Jesus weren’t absolutely true, the writers of the bible would NEVER in a million years have listed a group of women as the first eyewitnesses to it. Does that make sense? The fact that the writers of all four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) listed women as the first ones to discover the empty tomb serves to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that these events took place just as they are written. Otherwise, there’s no way in the world these writers would have chosen to tell the story in this way. (Matthew 28:1-10; Mark 16:1-11; Luke 24:1-12; John 20:1-2)

Equal Heirs - Galatians 3:27-29 says “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” This is basically self-explanatory and seems like a no-brainer to bible readers in 2018. However, when placed in context to the time that this passage was written, for a man to be told that a woman was on equal ground regarding an inheritance would have been staggering. Elevating a woman’s status to that of being completely equal to a man's in regard to citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven was just another example of Jesus’ groundbreaking work in furthering the cause of women.

A Note to Husbands - In the book of Ephesians, Paul says many wise and valuable words for building up Christians and helping them in their walk with Jesus. However, the section on marriage sometimes gets a bad wrap because of the whole “submission” topic. But honestly, here’s the deal. While you might not like the actual word “submit” you may be missing the greater point altogether simply because of vocabulary. Submission doesn’t mean (and never did mean) becoming a doormat. Surely we’ve read enough about Jesus to this point to know He never expected that in the least. The willing act of submission is something that Jesus Himself had to do when God sent Him to die on the cross for us. He submitted His life to the will of the Father. Women aren’t just blindly asked to submit to their husbands leadership either. Husbands are told to love their wives as they love themselves! Honestly, who loves a person more than themselves? This is the way Jesus expected… no, commanded… husbands to love their wives which again went against all the surrounding cultural norms where husbands were free to treat their wives in whatever way they saw fit. Don’t lose the forest for the trees here and get lost in a word just because you don’t like it. Quite frankly, when a marriage is healthy and it’s foundation is deeply rooted in biblical truth, this issue is rarely a problem because it just comes naturally. Furthermore, notice that these verses say nothing about a woman’s requirement to submit to any other male other than her own husband who is supposed to love her like he loves his own body. Don’t misconstrue this and believe the bible is instructing women to submit to every man that she ever comes into contact with because that is not the case. (Full story in Ephesians 5:22-33)

Y’all, I could go on for five more pages. There are just so many other examples of Jesus’ goodness and kindness to women of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds. There are miracles of healing, representations of respect and compassion, and further elevating of women’s statuses from that of unseen and unheard to seen and not only heard, but appreciated. If you have long been in the camp of believers that mistakenly associate God and Jesus with woman-haters, I urge you to not only read up on the examples I have listed, but read through the accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry and discover Him completely for yourself. He is right there in those pages waiting to come alive in your heart. Romans 10:17 says “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” The word of Christ is the bible and I can not stress enough the fact that you MUST engage with Jesus in His word in order to grow in your faith. These examples I have listed should be enough to at least peak your interest, right? Give it a shot, I promise it will be time very well spent to discover Jesus’ perfect love and impartiality towards ALL humans in page after page of His story.

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