Introduction: Hermeneutics
Derek Poole

Comment
Alan Wilson

From the Director
David Porter

What is Hermeneutics?
Brendan W Devitt

The Bible and the Church
Alwyn Thomson

Hear the Word of the Lord
David Bruce

Patience: An attribute of love
Graham Cheesman

The Bible and Christ
Alwyn Thomson

Understanding Scripture: Issues of Gender
Fran Porter

The Bible and the Christian Life
Alwyn Thomson

Take me to the Theatre
Steve Stockman

Anabaptist Hermeneutics
Walter Klassen

Reading the Bible Then and Now
Alwyn Thomson

Cross-Cultural Communication
Alan Wilson

< Past Issues Archive

UNDERSTANDING SCRIPTURE
Issues of Gender

Gender concerns what we view as normative behaviour and attitudes for women and men. We come to the Bible seeking to understand its meaning and relevance for our lives today. The specific concerns we bring with us however often differ depending on the different circumstances of our lives: our sex, our race, our economic status, our sexuality, our dis/ability and so forth. It is often those adversely affected by their circumstances who begin to ask questions relevant to their situation, for example: what does the Bible have to say about the suffering and injustice of racial prejudice, economic exploitation and sex discrimination?"

Whatever the initial concerns that we bring to the Bible, as Christians seeking to engage meaningfully with our world we need to consider what other insights we might gain from scripture if the questions we were addressing were different. Do these different questions confirm or challenge our views? On what basis and why?

Having such different starting points is not about optional 'special interest choices. In other words, biblical interpretation that arises from an awareness of race, disability and gender should not be a concern only for people of colour, the disabled, and women. For however strange or difficult it may be to think about somebody else's life situation, it is essential that we do in order to understand the meaning and relevance of scripture for our world today. This article concerns how we might begin to think about the question of gender. I suggest three things that having an awareness of gender initially involves when reading the Bible.

An awareness of gender is a recognition that humanity is both female and male.

In the same way that an awareness of race is a recognition that humanity is not just white, and an awareness of disability is a recognition that humanity is not just able-bodied, an awareness of gender is a recognition that humanity is not just male. It sounds obvious! But the awareness that humanity consists of both female and male counteracts a general tendency to prioritise maleness in our thinking about humanity. In other words, it reminds us not to think 'male' when we think 'human being'. Biblical women, with the exception of Jesus' mother Mary, are rarely put forward as 'role models' for men as well as women. Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, are held up to Christians as examples of followers of God from whom all of us, women and men, can learn. Sarah, Hagar, Deborah, and Ruth are usually reserved for all-female groups. Why? The assumption is that male characters have something of relevance to say to all of humanity, both women and men, but female characters only have something to say for women. In practice this endorses the view that lessons learned from male biblical characters are normative for men and women, whereas lessons learned from male characters are generally only applicable to women.

The need to raise awareness that humanity is both female and male is one reason why it is so important to use inclusive rather than generic language, using both female and male terms ( women and men, sisters and brothers, she and he ) to speak of people rather than only male terms ( men, brothers, he ) to refer to both. Using inclusive language counteracts an unsaid equation between humanity and maleness rather than with humanity being both female and male. This unsaid equation can be illustrated in the following sentences. Man is the only primate that commits rape. Man being a mammal breast-feeds his young. Man has difficulties giving birth.l The strangeness or otherwise of these sentences depends on how we picture the generic term 'man'. If the latter two sentences seem odd or funny it is because when we use generic terms we think of males rather than of both females and males. One way we can change this kind of thinking is to use gender inclusive language.

A more conscious awareness that humanity includes both women and men affects what we see in the Bible. Because we are so used to not noticing them, a useful question to ask of any biblical text is "Where are the women?" For example, we generally think of Jesus travelling around Palestine with the twelve apostles. However, Luke 8:2 tells us that he was also accompanied by many women, three of whom are named (Mary Magdalene, Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza and Susanna). The women provided for them out of their own resources (see also Mark 15:40-41 ). These verses, which have always been in the gospel record, contribute to the picture of what the life and ministry of Jesus was like, but it is not generally the one we envisage when we think about Jesus travelling around teaching and healing. They also provide us with a possible clue to the identity of the seventy sent out by Jesus in Luke 10:1 . Further they severely affect any notion that Jesus' teaching and ministry was for an exclusive male circle to observe and participate, and any implications taken today from that about women and men in the church.

There are norms of behaviour and attitudes taken for granted by us about how women and men think and behave and these norms have social, historical, cultural, and/or religious roots.

Gender concerns what we view as normative behaviour and attitudes for women and men.

They may change between generations. For example, 'boys don't cry' is still a common view of what it means to be a boy. Boys can cry physically. But 'boys don't cry concerns what our society expects of male children in their reaction to being hurt or upset.

We also have gendered spheres of life and gendered professions. Nursing is a profession with a majority of women. It is seen as a woman's profession and a nurse is assumed to be female, therefore a man in that job is the exception. Hence we talk about nurses and male nurses. In a similar way, we talk of police constables (who are men) and women police constables, These examples illustrate how gender is built into our language. We assume that 'nurse' is female and 'police constable' is male . In the same way we actually think male when we say 'humanity'.

Assumed norms of gendered behaviour is why we have given women in the Bible attention mainly in terms of them as wives and mothers, or perhaps more negatively as sexual partners, rather than, for example, as disciples. Luke 11:27-28 tells us of a woman who called out to Jesus: "Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you." In response to this emulation of motherhood as the sole virtue that Jesus' mother and by implication other women had to offer, Jesus said "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!"

When we come to read and understand biblical text, we bring our ideas about gender identity and role with us. For example, in Genesis 2:23 when Adam sees Eve for the first time he exclaims: "This at last is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh." Does this response indicate Adam identifies or contrasts himself with Eve? What are the implications of your answer?

In Luke 15, in response to the Pharisees objecting to him spending time with sinners, Jesus tells three parables about God's attitude and activity to those who are lost. In these God is depicted as a shepherd looking for his lost sheep, a woman looking for a missing coin, and a father looking for a runaway son. Why are we more familiar (and/or more comfortable) with God pictured as a shepherd and a father than we are with God pictured as a woman?

In Philippians 4:2-3 we read of Euodia and Syntyche. We know very little about either, but their so-called bickering has been used to present them as stereotypical of silly women. The text itself presents a different picture. They were co-workers with Paul (as were Silas, Barnabas, Timothy and Peter). All the text tells us is that they were not of the same mind, about what we don't know. Was it doctrinal, ecclesial, personal, pastoral? Paul does not admonish these women, but rather gives them encouragement and support for their work with him in the church. The suggestion is that their disagreement was significant for the church because of their leadership positions within it. Our assumptions about why people are doing what they are doing, come because of our preconceived notions about gender.

An awareness of gender alerts us to the different values we place on women and on men.

The gendered assumptions about what is normal behaviour and characteristics for men and women often goes hand in hand with a value system that prizes male attributes more than female attributes. In other words, what do we see as significant in the biblical text. What and who is worthy of our attention? Why, for example, have we made Abraham more important than Sarah in biblical history? We talk about God's covenant with Abraham as if Sarah was not included. In Genesis 17 we are told that the Lord appeared to Abraham and declared his covenant with him. The text makes it clear that Sarah is fully included in the covenant God initiates. The same promises made to Abraham in the first half of the chapter ( verses 1-8 ) are mirrored in covenant promises made to Sarah in the second part of the chapter ( verses 15-22 ). There is a change of name (Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah) and promise of being the ancestor of multitudes of people from whom kings will come. Further there is the specific promise of a child of whom both Sarah and Abraham would be the parents. Sarah is indispensable in this covenant God makes with them — after all Isaac was not Abraham's only child, let alone his first born — but he was Sarah's.

In Mark 14:3-9 we read of the woman who anointed Jesus in anticipation of his death and subsequent burial. While others object to what they see as waste, Jesus defends her and her anticipation of what lies ahead of him with the words: "Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she had done will be told in remembrance of her." (v9) It is not that Jesus says the story will be told 'in remembrance of me' but 'in remembrance of her'. Regardless of what may have happened in the early years of the church, when today this story is told, is there an emphasis on the memory of this woman? If not, why not? If she had been a male character (like Paul or Peter or James or Andrew) would things be different? If we are aware of gender we will begin to notice the kind of value we attach to male and female characters. If we value women we will give them due consideration.

In conclusion, an awareness of gender is important, because issues of visibility and inclusion, gendered ways of being or thinking, and the values we attach to women and men in the Bible influence our interpretation of biblical texts and their application in our lives. While gender does not occur in a vacuum, or is separate from concerns of economic status, race, dis/ability, an awareness of gender (as with these other life situations) gives us an opportunity to see what we have not seen before in the biblical text and to begin to ask different questions. In so doing we explore more of the riches of the Bible and its relevance for contemporary living,

Fran Porter - graduated in theology from the London' Bible College. She is currently: studying for her doctorate on women's Christian faith experience in Northern Ireland with the University of Ulster.

Notes: 1.These examples are taken from a discussion in Dale Spender (1990), Man Made Language , second edition, London: Pandora, pp 151-157.