8 March is International Women’s Day. In the Bible we can read about the roles that many women 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 in the Book of Judges. Among the Judges was Deborah (Judges 4:4—5:31), who was a leader and a prophet.
Later, when the kings are listed in the First and Second Books of Kings, some of those ‘kings’ are female. The English word ‘king’ today means a male ruler, but that has not always been the case. Originally it meant a leader and later came to be associated with a male leader. Titles usually associated with 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 in the Channel Islands her title was ‘Duke of Normandy’, not Duchess of Normandy.
The two Books of Kings thus recall the stories of male and female kings, such as 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 man, it seems that the queen mother often came 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 old enough.
The Bible also mentions Pharaohs (often translated as ‘king of Egypt’), who are usually unnamed. Some people speculate whether one of the Pharaohs mentioned in the Bible was Hatshepsut.
The Priesthood
In the Old Testament the priesthood was reserved for circumcised men, but there were women who served at the tabernacle (Exodus 38:8 and 1 Samuel 2:22). All the priests and high priests who are named in the Old and New Testaments are male, and the positions were hereditary and tribal. The priesthood was restricted to the line 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 had to be men aged between 25 and 50 (Numbers 8:24–26).
The Priesthood in the New Testament
In the New Testament the Greek word πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros) is the source for the English word ‘priest’ but is usually translated as elder or presbyter. The new Christian faith did not require a priesthood in the Old Testament style. In the New Testament there was instead the radical idea of the “priesthood of all believers” (1 Peter 2:9). Jesus had made the ultimate sacrifice, and there was no longer any need for priests to offer sacrifices or represent us before God. The priesthood was now spiritual rather than ritualistic and was open to men and women and no longer 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 no longer 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 rather 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 can be a matter of interpretation or opinion, but in the Old Testament there are female leaders who are explicitly called prophets in the text of Scripture.
Miriam is described as a leader and is also called a prophet (Exodus 15:20). Deborah was one of the Judges who ruled Israel before the kings, and she is also 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 due to them being female, but to how they dressed (Ezekiel 13:17–23).
Female Prophets in the New Testament
Very early in the New Testament we read of Anna (Luke 2:36–38), who is explicitly called a prophet and is likely the last female prophet of the Old Covenant, because Luke states that she had been a prophet for some decades before Jesus was born.
At Pentecost we read that there were 120 disciples in Jerusalem, including “the women” (Acts 1:14). Then we read that ‘all of them’ (i.e. including the women) ‘were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them’ (Acts 2:4). Hearing these men and women proclaiming about God and speaking in different languages led the crowds to be amazed and puzzled (Acts 2:12). One reason was that they were not used to seeing women preaching.
So Peter stood up and addressed the crowds and tried to explain what was happening (Acts 2:14) in order 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 would be normal, and Peter was indicating that it was beginning then.
Later we read that Paul specifically mentions Philip, who had four daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:9), not as something to condemn but as something to commend him for. In his first letter to the church at Corinth, when Paul comments on the practice of women 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 in the Early Church developed and adapted. Later the system evolved 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 at the time.
However, we 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, in the New Testament Luke and Paul both refer to the couple as ‘Priscilla and Aquila’ with her name first (Acts 18:18; Romans 16:3; 2 Timothy 4:19), which indicates that she was the main partner—rather like in the UK people would talk 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 if they were expressed in what we would consider male-specific language, which was usual at the time. There might have been specific exceptions, such as at Ephesus (1 Timothy 2:12), but Paul makes it clear that in the Church all are equal, whether male or female, Jew or Gentile, slave or free (Galatians 3:28). This is in the context of his argument against imposing Mosaic law on Gentiles (Galatians 3:1-29) where he contrasts the rules in the Church to Old Testament rules, such as those for the priesthood. When Paul lists leadership roles as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers in Ephesians 4:11, there were no gender rules attached.
At the end of Romans, when Paul commends his fellow workers, he lists 29 people, and ten of them - about a 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 first to declare the resurrection (Matthew 28:1-10). When women were preaching at Pentecost, Peter had to explain it to the crowds by quoting Joel. It was a patriarchal society and so most of the church leaders were male, but all were equal in the Church, and in some places, we read about female workers like Phoebe and Priscilla.
Church History
The Early Church certainly understood that women could be deacons (historically called deaconesses), because they discussed rules for them at the Council of Nicaea in 325 and at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. During the Byzantine era there were many women ordained as deacons, and some, such as Olympias, are still remembered as saints in the Orthodox and Catholic Church traditions.
Summary
The Scriptural support for women in leadership and ministry, if any is needed, is found in all the stories of women in leadership and ministry that we read about in the Bible.
