The story of the Bible’s female leaders

8 March is International Women’s Day. In the Bible we will read in regards to the roles that many ladies played in leadership and ministry. This is the story …

Female Kings

In the Old Testament, before kings ruled Israel, it was the time of the Judges, as told within the Book of Judges. Among the Judges was Deborah (Judges 4:4—5:31), who was a frontrunner and a prophet.

Later, when the kings are listed within the First and Second Books of Kings, a few of those ‘kings’ are female. The English word ‘king’ today means a male ruler, but that has not all the time been the case. Originally it meant a frontrunner and later got here to be related to a male leader. Titles normally related to men were, and still are, sometimes used for female leaders. Even until recently, Queen Elizabeth II, on the Isle of Man, held the title ‘Lord of Man’, not Lady of Man, and within the Channel Islands her title was ‘Duke of Normandy’, not Duchess of Normandy.

The two Books of Kings thus recall the stories of female and male kings, reminiscent of the visiting Queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10:1–13) and Queen Athaliah (2 Kings 11:1–20), who ruled Judah in her own right. Even when the king was a person, plainly the queen mother often got here second in authority, and if she was the regent she held the actual authority, acting as ‘king’ in all but name until her son was sufficiently old.

The Bible also mentions Pharaohs (often translated as ‘king of Egypt’), who are often unnamed. Some people speculate whether one in all the Pharaohs mentioned within the Bible was Hatshepsut.

The Priesthood

In the Old Testament the priesthood was reserved for circumcised men, but there have been women who served on the tabernacle (Exodus 38:8 and 1 Samuel 2:22). All the priests and high priests who’re named within the Old and New Testaments are male, and the positions were hereditary and tribal. The priesthood was restricted to the road of Aaron (Exodus 28:1; Numbers 16:40) and was reserved for men aged between 30 and 50 years old (Numbers 4:3). Assisting them were the Levites (Numbers 3:10; Numbers 18:6–7), who needed to be men aged between 25 and 50 (Numbers 8:24–26).

The Priesthood within the New Testament

In the New Testament the Greek word πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros) is the source for the English word ‘priest’ but is normally translated as elder or presbyter. The recent Christian faith didn’t require a priesthood within the Old Testament style. In the New Testament there was as an alternative the unconventional idea of the “priesthood of all believers” (1 Peter 2:9). Jesus had made the final word sacrifice, and there was not any need for priests to supply sacrifices or represent us before God. The priesthood was now spiritual reasonably than ritualistic and was open to men and girls and not hereditary. Spiritual sacrifices consist of praise, good deeds, and holy living (Romans 12:1; 1 Peter 2:5).

In AD 70, with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, Judaism also not had priests. The Early Church developed different leadership roles which contrasted with Old Testament rules and were appointed, and open to all, based on moral integrity and leadership qualities reasonably than ancestry or gender.

Prophets

Traditionally, the Jewish Talmud recognises seven women of the Hebrew Scriptures as prophets: Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah, and Esther. Whether some are prophets or not could be a matter of interpretation or opinion, but within the Old Testament there are female leaders who’re explicitly called prophets within the text of Scripture.

Miriam is described as a frontrunner and can be called a prophet (Exodus 15:20). Deborah was one in all the Judges who ruled Israel before the kings, and she or he can be called a prophet (Judges 4:4). Huldah was a prophet (2 Kings 22:14) to whom the high priest and king deferred.

That female prophecy was more common than we realise is indicated by Ezekiel, who condemned women who prophesied while using armbands and head coverings. What is interesting is that his condemnation was not on account of them being female, but to how they dressed (Ezekiel 13:17–23).

Female Prophets within the New Testament

Very early within the New Testament we read of Anna (Luke 2:36–38), who’s explicitly called a prophet and is probably going the last female prophet of the Old Covenant, because Luke states that she had been a prophet for some a long time before Jesus was born.

At Pentecost we read that there have been 120 disciples in Jerusalem, including “the ladies” (Acts 1:14). Then we read that ‘all of them’ (i.e. including the ladies) ‘were stuffed with the Holy Spirit and started to talk in other tongues because the Spirit enabled them’ (Acts 2:4). Hearing these men and girls proclaiming about God and speaking in numerous languages led the crowds to be amazed and puzzled (Acts 2:12). One reason was that they weren’t used to seeing women preaching.

So Peter stood up and addressed the crowds and tried to elucidate what was happening (Acts 2:14) with a view to address those issues which puzzled them. He explained that it was a fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy (Acts 2:16): ‘And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy’ (Joel 2:28). Joel had prophesied a time when women prophesying could be normal, and Peter was indicating that it was starting then.

Later we read that Paul specifically mentions Philip, who had 4 daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:9), not as something to sentence but as something to commend him for. In his first letter to the church at Corinth, when Paul comments on the practice of ladies praying and prophesying aloud, his concern was not that they were women but that their heads were uncovered (1 Corinthians 11:5).

Church Leaders

Leadership within the Early Church developed and adapted. Later the system evolved so as to add deacons. The first seven deacons were men (Acts 6:1–6). In 1 Timothy 3:12 and in Titus 1:6 Paul writes attributes for deacons using the masculine terminology common on the time.

However, we all know that the role was not reserved for men, because Paul wrote about Phoebe and calls her a deacon (Romans 16:1). In William Tyndale’s translation she is described as a ‘minister of the congregation of Cenchreae’.

We know that some women taught men, since Paul wrote that Priscilla (also called Prisca) and Aquila tutored Apollos (Acts 18:26). In fact, within the New Testament Luke and Paul each seek advice from the couple as ‘Priscilla and Aquila’ along with her name first (Acts 18:18; Romans 16:3; 2 Timothy 4:19), which indicates that she was the fundamental partner—reasonably like within the UK people would speak about ‘Margaret and Denis Thatcher’ or ‘The Queen and Prince Philip’, when normally in couples the order of address is ‘Mr and Mrs’.

The rules for leadership were principles which equally applied to women, even in the event that they were expressed in what we’d consider male-specific language, which was usual on the time. There may need been specific exceptions, reminiscent of at Ephesus (1 Timothy 2:12), but Paul makes it clear that within the Church all are equal, whether male or female, Jew or Gentile, slave or free (Galatians 3:28). This is within the context of his argument against imposing Mosaic law on Gentiles (Galatians 3:1-29) where he contrasts the principles within the Church to Old Testament rules, reminiscent of those for the priesthood. When Paul lists leadership roles as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers in Ephesians 4:11, there have been no gender rules attached.

At the tip of Romans, when Paul commends his fellow staff, he lists 29 people, and ten of them – a couple of third – are women: Phoebe (Romans 16:1–2), Priscilla (Romans 16:3–5), Mary (Romans 16:6), Junia (Romans 16:7), Tryphaena and Tryphosa (Romans 16:12), Persis (Romans 16:12), Rufus’s mother (Romans 16:13), Julia (Romans 16:15), and Nereus’s sister (Romans 16:15).

Biblical Ethos

In the Old Testament, while the hereditary priesthood was reserved for men, the Old Testament also tells us about women leaders who took the roles of judge, prophet, or king. When we come to the New Covenant, the priesthood is spiritualised and open to all believers.

The New Testament had female prophets starting with Anna. Women were the primary to declare the resurrection (Matthew 28:1-10). When women were preaching at Pentecost, Peter had to elucidate it to the crowds by quoting Joel. It was a patriarchal society and so many of the church leaders were male, but all were equal within the Church, and in some places, we examine female staff like Phoebe and Priscilla. 

Church History

The Early Church definitely understood that girls might be deacons (historically called deaconesses), because they discussed rules for them on the Council of Nicaea in 325 and on the Council of Chalcedon in 451. During the Byzantine era there have been many ladies ordained as deacons, and a few, reminiscent of Olympias, are still remembered as saints within the Orthodox and Catholic Church traditions.

Summary

The Scriptural support for ladies in leadership and ministry, if any is required, is present in all of the stories of ladies in leadership and ministry that we examine within the Bible.