Hot answers tagged gender
13
The Hebrew words in question are עזר כנגדו (ezer kenegdo).
The Hebrew root עזר means “help” and the word kenegdo comes from the root word נגד (neged). Neged in the OT always means "opposite" or "across from" and negdo means across from him. In Exodus 19:2, Israel encamp neged hahar, opposite to Mount Sinai.
The form kenegedo doesn't appear anywhere else ...
12
In the spirit of biblical hermeneutics, the general hermeneutic that I will be applying to this text is historical-grammatical-critical. Since no real discussion can occur unless we agree on our hermeneutics, here are some of the hermeneutical principles that I apply as I interpret scripture, including this text:
The original text and the best text must be ...
11
According the the NET Bible translator note on the verse:
1 tn Heb “ a woman, a prophetess.” In Hebrew idiom the generic “woman” sometimes precedes the more specific designation. See GKC 437-38 §135.b.
Interestingly, since her husband, Lappidoth, is identified the text must reorient itself to point back to Deborah when talking about her leadership ...
10
Looking at the verse, we can see that the command is crystal clear for woman to not speak in church.
In fact, it mentions this four times in four different ways:
The women are to keep silent
they are not permitted to speak
let them ask their own husbands at home
it is improper for a woman to speak in church
To further illustrate the point of silence, ...
9
Who is "she"?
To answer your first question, the "she" in verse 15 probably refers back to the she in verse 12 ("she must be silent"). For "she" to refer to Eve would seem like a digression. It's better to think Paul stays on point.
What does it mean for her to be "saved through child bearing?"
Having read numerous attempts at a reasonable interpretation, ...
8
This passage is not easy to understand, not least because certain interpretations offend many modern sensibilities. There are some (relatively minor) issues of textual criticism and of translation. There are some difficult referents, like "law" in verse 34. Moreover, the "crystal clear" line of total silence for women is difficult to adopt because in 1 ...
8
Jon Ericson has already given a thorough interpretation, but just to answer the Hebrew query in your question:
וּדְבוֹרָה אִשָּׁה נְבִיאָה, אֵשֶׁת לַפִּידוֹת--הִיא שֹׁפְטָה אֶת-יִשְׂרָאֵל, בָּעֵת הַהִיא.
(From Mechon Mamre)
אִשָּׁה
(woman) is the feminine form of אִישׁ
(man). The other Hebrew words in this passage that are explicitly feminine are: ...
8
Occam's answer:
The toleration of polygamy in the OT is not to say that it was an ideal, and we see that the laws dealing with it are mostly proscriptive. The ideal is more likely represented by the monogamous story of Adam and Eve. But for various reasons, the position of women in the ancient world was such that polygamy was an unavoidable fact of life ...
5
I don't have a problem with a change like this. The concept behind "brother" in these contexts is "fellow member of the covenant community." Originally, it applied to Jews only. Then very early Christians began referring to themselves as "brethren" both amongst themselves and to Jews. Acts 1:16 is a great example of that, but there are others in Acts ...
5
This test has many dimensions to it. It has little to do with the guilt or innocence of the woman.
In order for the test to apply, the woman must become foolish. This has been interpreted to mean that she has aroused her husband's jealousy by flirting. Or she has aroused the suspicion of witnesses to her flirting, but they have not witnessed adultery, and ...
4
There is a definitely a cycle of feminine trickery stories that most commentators note:
Lot's daughters
Rebekah's advice to Jacob regarding Isaac's blessing
Rachel's theft of her father's terafim
Tamar's manipulation of Judah
The midwives Shifra and Puah
Yocheved's hiding Moses in the reed ark on the river
Miriam tricking Pharoah's daughter regarding a ...
4
As for why the KJV used the term "meet", the Old English adjective form means "proper", "suitable" or "precisely adapted to". See the definitions on Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster.com and TheFreeDictionary.com. I think that in some cases people have reacted to this rather strongly (and unnecessarily) because of the passing resemblance to "meat" - See, God ...
4
John’s extensive marriage theme begins with none other than the wedding of Cana and Jesus’ encounter with His own mother, the first woman to appear in the gospel.
When the "mother of Jesus" approaches him about the wedding’s lack of wine, she assumes and expects her son to assume a role that in Jewish custom is specifically reserved for the groom and or ...
3
The following quote regarding Jesus' reference to His "hour" comes from D. A. Carson's commentary on John (generally considered to be the best available commentary on this book of the Bible): (See p. 171)
"The reason Jesus gives for the distance he maintains between his mother and himself must be viewed in the light of the cross. . . . the word 'time', ...
3
There are cases where masculine pronouns are used in reference to the Holy Spirit.
For example, John 16:13:
John 16:13
Greek text: ὅταν δὲ ἔλθῃ ἐκεῖνος τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας ὁδηγήσει ὑμᾶς εἰς πάσαν τῆν ἀληθείαν οὐ γὰρ λαλήσει ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ ἀλλ᾽ ὅσα ἂν ἀκούσῃ λαλήσει καὶ τὰ ἐρχόμενα ἀναγγελεῖ ὑμῖν
English translation: But, when he, the Holy Spirit, ...
3
The entire verse (in Hebrew) reads as follows:
לא יהיה כלי גבר על אשה ולא ילבש גבר שׁמלת אשה כי תועבת יהוה אלהיך כל עשׁה אלה ף
From right-to-left, these words are:
לא - H3808 - Not (when paired with a verb, considered imperative - "Must not")
יהיה - H1961 - Be, become, come to pass, happen
כלי - H3627 - Article, implement, vessel, object; can include ...
3
We often think that the punishment for adultery in the Bible was stoning but according to the Mishnah (Sanh. xi. 1) it was strangulation. John Owen says, strangulation was used for: adulterers, strikers of parents, man-stealers, old men exemplarily rebellious against the law, false prophets, and those who predicted the future under the names of idols (John ...
3
Calvin and Gill agree that "she" refers to all women. Both take the through to be circumstantial rather than causal; that is, with the sense of passing through rather than by. Having just mentioned how the woman was deceived first, and therefore has the curse of the pain of childbearing upon her, Paul quickly moves to giving comfort that women who persevere ...
3
It is the tendency in Greek grammar (and I believe is also common in European languages, before the wide use of what we've come to call politically-correct language) that whenever mixed-gender groups are referred to, the masculine is used. (Smyth, §197a, §1055)
So in Romans 1:13, if Paul had wanted to say either "brothers" or "siblings" he would have said ...
2
To add to Ami's answer...
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God
he created him; male and female he created them.
No other creature was created in God's image - in the context of the creation account here in Genesis 1, we can infer the nature of mankind is more like God than any other created thing.
It follows that, ...
2
Bible scholar Ben Witherington argues that the peculiar phrasing of this verse—the singular "she" in the subject combined with the plural "they" after the verb, as well as the form of τῆς τεκνογονίας, literally "the childbearing"—points to a particular birth, namely, the birth of Christ.
Moreover, the context indicates that Paul is addressing a ...
2
Those who opposed the custom of women wearing a head covering, as was customary in the middle-east, were those 'inclined to be argumentative'. Paul is not negating any part of his argument but showing how firm his stance was on the issue.
Paul always stressed submitting to local cultures and customs. This verse at the end follows a lengthly argument why in ...
1
If you believe that the text is divine, then this isn't a question about the text. It's a question about why G!d chooses this asymmetrical policy. And, as such, that question belongs, I believe, on a doctrinal site.
If you look at the text as a text, then you are looking at the social and cultural context of the time in which it was written. In that society ...
1
Polygyny was acceptable because women were considered to be possessions. That is why Sarah called Avraham adon (Gen. 18:13 cp. 1 Pet. 3:6), or "sir"/ "lord"/ "master." The husband is essentially considered to be his wife's "master," and she, his servant.
This is why women did not have the right to divorce their husband. The only way they could re-marry was ...
1
In Genesis 3:17-19, God had cursed the ground because of the sin of Adam, and therefore the earth receives the disobedient curse. Thus the ground produces thorns and thistles and is thus "disobedient" to the cultivation of the land by Adam (mankind), whose sweat of the brow is the turmoil that results. The Apostle Paul accounts for the disturbances of the ...
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