Gender and Bible translation

My former student Rick Hale compared how different Bible translations rendered the word "anthropos" in passages that (a) could reasonably have both men and women in view and (b) are translated with gender inclusive language in the NET Bible. The table provides interpretation of ‘anthropos’ in the specified Bible translations for each passage listed. Click on the link to download the entire PDF. (Works best in Chrome.)

Revisiting the Topic of Women in Public Ministry: My Recommended Resources (2022)

For more than two decades, I’ve taught a course on gender and its ramifications in the church and for women in public ministry. Since #MeToo and #ChurchToo combined with Christian leaders saying women have to endure abuse to be biblical and also that women shouldn’t teach in seminaries, I’ve seen a shift in attitudes. Add to that the one-two punches of Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez with Beth Allison Barr’s book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood: People are revisiting what and why they believe on the topic. 

Some have sat up and said, basically, “Evangelicals have barred the front door against radical feminism while leaving the back door wide open to misogyny.” Some have heard Beth Moore told to “Go Home!” and responded with, “Stop already. That misrepresents us.” I’m hearing pastors get up and say, “I was wrong” to slut-shame Bathsheba. I’ve been told by radio hosts, “If I had talked with you a year ago about this, I would have heard you uncharitably, but now. . . .” Something has changed. 

Consequently, churches and parachurch organizations are asking for guidance about how to revisit the Bible’s words about topics like women’s silence and being “saved through childbearing.” 

Churches are seeing how inconsistent it is to have formulated policy about women without consistently applying their commitment to “God made men and women different by design, so that means we need to partner with them in having dominion.”   

Additionally, many are realizing that most debates are taking place within the complementarian camp. Indeed, within this camp, a lot of folks want to distance themselves from traditionalist views of women (e.g., “women are ontologically inferior to men”) and views of women’s public ministry that have women’s lives revolving only around those of men. There is a growing willingness to state outright that woman was made in God’s image; that violence in a marriage is what severs the marriage bond, not the departure of the person seeking safety; that if a sign of the Spirit in Acts 2 includes old and young women prophesying, it cannot somehow violate a grounded-in-creation mandate for a man to learn biblical truth from a woman. Here’s a chart I made with the help of my friend Catherine Arnsperger that shows a spectrum of beliefs within the inerrancy camp, and mostly within the complementarian camp.

I’ve done some consulting on the subject. But my first love is my students. So….  

Are you and/or your team wanting to revisit questions about gender in the church? Here are my recommended resources:

While there is no one book I recommend, here are some sources that will help you explore the issue for yourself. I highly recommend doing so in community. Through the years I have noticed that those who do so alone tend to end up in a different place (and not always a good place) from those who do so in community. Books with an asterisk are required reading in the course I teach (some in entirety, some only chapters). 

Recommended Books on Women in Public Ministry

HOT OFF THE PRESS: I wrote the foreword for 40 Questions about Women in Ministry (Kregel Academic) by Sue Edwards and Kelley Mathews. 

*Winston, George and Dora. Recovering Biblical Ministry by Women. Longwood, Florida: Xulon Press, 2003. 551 pages. Textual considerations. I require the first half of this book, and it’s a game changer for my students in helping them see how to frame the study. George graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary and was president of Belgium Bible Institute years before his retirement. His late wife, Dora, was a missionary in Europe for years and also taught at the institute. Significantly, the Winstons are more global in their thinking about masculinity and femininity/manhood and womanhood than many of the popular sources. 

*Bartlett, Andrew. Men and Women in Christ: Fresh Light from the Biblical Texts. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK), 2019. 464 pp.  Many books approach the subject from a firmly partisan point of view, whether complementarian or egalitarian. Andrew Bartlett makes use of his experience as a judge and arbitrator in assessing the debate with impartiality rather than advocacy (like a barrister). In a thorough but accessible analysis, he engages with exemplars of each view and with all the key biblical texts. He partly agrees and partly disagrees with both sides, and he offers fresh insights into interpretation of the texts.  

*Dzubinski, Leanne M. and Anneke H. Stasson. Women in the Mission of the Church: Their Opportunities and Obstacles throughout Christian History. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021. 238 pp. Many have been taught that women served only behind the scenes in the church for 1,950 years till US feminism came along and wrecked everything. Such a version of history ignores the long history of women in public ministry. Also, this article for many is full of historical surprises.

*Hübner, Jamin. A Case for Female Deacons. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2015. 90 pp. Exactly what it says it is. Short, concise.

*McKnight, Scot. The Blue Parakeet, 2nd ed: Rethinking How You Read the Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2018. 336 pages. McKnight helps readers consider the hermeneutics of culture. How do we know when something is cultural (e.g., slavery) and when it’s timeless? He applies hermeneutics of culture to the debate on women in vocational ministry.

*Piper, John, and Wayne Grudem, eds. Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1991 (re-published with only a new preface in 2006; contents in both editions are identical to the 1991 edition). Many church leaders read this book in seminary and have read nothing since. How these authors frame the debate will raise some eyebrows after reading Winstons.

*Pierce, Ronald W., Cynthia Long Westfall and Christa McKirland. Discovering Biblical Equality. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2021. 3rd ed, 698 pp. Egalitarian scholars provide alternative interpretations than those presented in Piper/Grudem’s Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. This is a big, fat book that presents egalitarianism from the perspective of contributors who hold to inerrancy. 

*Sayers, Dorothy L. Are Women Human? Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005. From a speech given in 1938. 69 pp. Sayers’s observations about sexism predate the Women’s Movement. 

*Witt, William G. Icons of Christ: A Biblical and Systematic Theology for Women’s Ordination. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2020. 447 pp. Witt makes a biblical and theological case for the ordination of women to the ministerial office of Word and Sacrament. He argues that both sides of the debate about women’s ordination embrace new theological positions in response to cultural changes of the modern era. Witt touches on issues such as theological hermeneutics, relationships between men and women, Christology and discipleship, and the role of ordained clergy in leading the church in worship.

*Cohick, Lynn. Women in the World of the Earliest Christians. If you think the women with shaved heads referenced in 1 Cor. 11 were prostitutes, or that the Samaritan woman at the well was immoral, you’re overdue an update. Lynn Cohick knows her stuff.

*Chapter on “head” in Sumner, Sarah. Men and Women in the Church: Building Consensus on Christian Leadership. Seriously, Sumner’s chapter on what “head” means in Ephesians 5 is outstanding. It’s a metaphor. Efforts to substitute the metaphor have given us either “authority” or “source” as literal equivalents. And in doing so, we’ve destroyed the metaphor and missed the point. 

For 1 Timothy 2, I give my students my two academic articles on Artemis. I did my dissertation on that one. See links below to summary posts of the content. My forthcoming book, Nobody’s Mother with IVP Academic explores the goddess’s identity and the ramifications for Paul’s writings.

I require the *chapter on eschatology in Paul and Gender by Cynthia Westfall.She and I disagree about what is happening with head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11. But her chapter on women and the kingdom (eschatology) is worth the price of the book.

Meanwhile, for the past fifteen+ years, I’ve been writing on these issues right here on bible.org. I’m including below an index with links to all the relevant blog posts I could find. Some churches have preferred to use these because, well, shorter than that book list I just dropped above. 

Godspeed!

My Blog Posts on Women in Public Ministry

Church History: What Do We Learn from Women in Public Ministry? (Hint: Women have been more present than most of us thought.)

Do males image God more than females?

Is God more male than female?

Male and Female in God’s Design

Video: Sexuality and Faith: Male and Female in God’s Good Design

Foundations: What is biblical womanhood?

Biblical womanhood: Part 2

What Does It Mean that Woman is “Helper” (Ezer)?

Does Genesis Command a Man (not a Woman) to Leave Parents?

Women rule (have dominion)

Are women worth less than men?

What Does Genesis 6 Have to Do with Healthy Male/Female Relationships?

Is it unfeminine to be strong?

Nine steps to biblical manhood/womanhood

God as Male and Female: Metaphor and Simile

What’s a man card got to do with it?

Was Abigail right to go behind Nabal’s back?

Did Jesus Have Women Disciples?  and Other Questions

Mary Magdalene: Mary from Magdala or Mary Tower?

Gender and Jesus: Scripture Over Stereotype

“Act like men”: What does Paul mean?

Manhood vs. grandma

Seven views on the role of women w/in the inerrancy camp

Complementarians on women in ministry: diverse images

What’s the main difference between complementarian and egalitarian?

Comple-galitarian

Interview w/ Eugene Peterson women in church

On the ESV’s “contrary wives”

The Bible: Women Are More Present Than You Might Think

What the presence of women prophets in the Bible tells us

Can Women Speak for God in Mixed-Sex Groups?

“She was a pretty good prophet…for a woman”

Proverbs 31: The Most Hated Woman in the Bible 

Can a woman be a pastor?

Can a woman be a seminary professor?

Women and Theological Education: Capitulating to Culture or Historically Rooted?

Women and submission in the workplace

Staying home with kids vs. marketplace work

Shepherd Like a Girl

Jesus vs. sexism

1 Cor. 11 – Who were the women with shaved heads?

Heads and coverings: Part 1

Heads and coverings: Part 2

1 Cor 11 and “veils” 

1 Corinthians 14: Are Women Really Supposed to be Silent in Church?

Does Paul really think women are gossips and busybodies?

Ephesians 5: Paul and His Subversive Passage on the Family

1 Peter 3: Weak and weaker vessels

Why Peter today would not want a wife to call her husband “lord”

More on 1 Peter 3 and wives

Is Peter insulting women? Part 1

Is Peter insulting women? Part 2

Is my husband my priest?

“Not with braided hair or pearls”

Gender: Lose the boxes

What does “workers at home” really mean?

Are the Women in 1 Timothy Leaders, Needers, or Both?

1 Timothy 2: Who Was Artemis & Why Does It Matter, Part 1

 1 Timothy 2: Who Was Artemis & Why Does it Matter Part 2

1 Timothy 2: Do Women Have to Be Quiet?

Bible Backgrounds: Read Some NT Books with the Artemis Cult in View

Paul, Artemis, Ephesus, and 1 Timothy

 Can Men and Women Be Friends?

Evangelicals and Sexism

History: Reintroducing Five Women

Meet Some Female Martyrs of the Early Church

 Lost in (Bible) Translation: Are Women Really Missing?

Gender in Bible translation

Why Don’t We See More Women in the Biblical Text?

The Bible: Women Are More Present than We Might Think

Four Books to Put on Your Reading List re. Gender and Ministry

Bible Backgrounds: When Is It Legit to Appeal to Them?

Women: Time for An Update

Remember Lot’s Wife

The Bent-Over Woman Jesus Healed

Acsah: A Lesser-Known Woman of the Bible

Vindicating Vixens: What about Michel, Wife of David?

The Most Woman-Friendly Book in the Hebrew Bible

Fight Toxic Masculinity (Vs. Thinking All Masculinity is Toxic)

Church History: What Do We Learn about Women in Public Ministry

Was Abigail Right to Go Behind Nabal's Back?

One morning after I taught a women’s Bible study on the life of Abigail—wife of Nabal, a woman hustled over to me, elbows swinging. Seeing her body language, I braced myself.

Her argument about my teaching went something like this: “You're wrong! Abigail was most definitely not righteous. By taking matters into her own hands, she shows what happens when a wife steps out from under her husband’s ‘umbrella of authority.’ If Abigail had submitted to Nabal rather than intervening, David would have felt guilty for killing Nabal, and that guilt would have kept him from killing later."

I’d heard this interpretation already—from Bill Gothard, among others.

So how do we figure out how to interpret this story? Was Abigail good or evil? The text itself provides the needed clues.

We find the "Abigail and David" story in 1 Samuel 25:2–43. The narrator begins with his assessment: “[Abigail] was both wise and beautiful.” In contrast, of Nabal the storyteller says, “But the man was harsh and his deeds were evil” (v. 3). The first clues about how to view this story appear at the beginning.

Now, Nabal was filthy rich, and David’s men had treated Nabal's servants well. But when the time came for Nabal to reciprocate, he screamed at the king’s servants: “WHO IS DAVID, AND WHO IS THIS SON OF JESSE? This is a time when many servants are breaking away from their masters! Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers and give them to these men? I don’t even know where they came from!”

Whoa. As they say in Texas, “Them’s fightin’ words!”

The reader knows David is God's anointed, but Nabal has no respect. And when David heard how Nabal had dissed him, he rounded up four hundred men. His plan: wipe out Nabal and every one of his children and slaves. Nabal was totally outnumbered.

Fortunately, one of Abigail’s servants told her what Nabal had done. This slave provided her with the backstory about how David’s men had treated Nabal’s servants with utter kindness and deserved better from Nabal. This servant needed Abigail to intervene or he would die along with the rest of the innocents.

Abigail chose to act. But it wasn’t just her own neck she sought to save. It was hers, and her kids', and her servants'—and even her evil husband's.

Abigail was no rebel. She was a peacemaker—in the best sense. And as such, she put together enough food for the army and sent her servants ahead of her. But she temporarily withheld her plan from Nabal, who would have tried to stop her, and a lot of innocent people would have died.

Riding on her donkey, the equivalent to a Mercedes in her day, Abigail went down to meet David and his men. By the time she arrived, David was good and worked up over Nabal's insults. The future king planned to kill all the men in any way associated with Nabal’s household

When Abigail met David, she showed the humility her husband should have exhibited. She “got down off her high horse”—or donkey, threw herself to the ground, fell at David's feet, and pleaded with him. Notice how much she talked about the Lord: “Please forgive the sin of your servant, for the Lord will certainly establish the house of my lord, because my lord fights the battles of the Lord. May no evil be found in you all your days! When someone sets out to chase you and to take your life, the life of my lord will be wrapped securely in the bag of the living by the Lord your God. But he will sling away the lives of your enemies from the sling’s pocket! The Lord will do for my lord everything that he promised you, and he will make you a leader over Israel. Your conscience will not be overwhelmed with guilt for having poured out innocent blood and for having taken matters into your own hands. When the Lord has granted my lord success, please remember your servant.”

Did you catch that? Abigail was focused on God. And she considered it evil to “take matters into your own hands”—the very action for which she is accused by contemporary critics. So…either this story is full of extreme irony or Abigail is a model of righteousness. Textual clues suggest the latter.

Now, notice the future king's "God talk." He says, “Praised be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you this day to meet me! Praised be your good judgment! May you yourself be rewarded for having prevented me this day from shedding blood and taking matters into my own hands! Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives—he who has prevented me from harming you—if you had not come so quickly to meet me, by morning’s light not even one male belonging to Nabal would have remained alive!”

David saw Abigail’s actions as preventing him from sin, as wise, and as guided by the Lord himself.

A less honest wife would have hidden her actions from her man. But once Nabal sobered up and the danger had passed, Abigail summoned the courage to tell her husband what she'd done. And he flipped out so intensely that he had a stroke. Literally. Utter rage exploded in his head, leading to his death.

And again David saw the circumstances as being from God. When he heard about Nabal’s death, the future king exclaimed, “Praised be the Lord who has vindicated me and avenged the insult that I suffered from Nabal! The Lord has kept his servant from doing evil, and he has repaid Nabal for his evil deeds.” David was so impressed with Abigail and how God used her that he sent for her to marry her.

So how do we know how to interpret this story? The text itself gives us the clues we need to see the point-of-view of the narrator: Abigail was beautiful inside and out, and the hand of the Lord was on her and on David. As is often true of Bible stories, the text interprets itself.

Aside from learning hermeneutics in Abigail's story, we can also learn from Abigail's life. Although suffering in an abusive marriage, Abigail protected others—and herself—from harm rather than thinking only of herself. She refused to cover for Nabal's sin, and she retained her voice in the situation. Sounds like a timely message, huh?

Photo:  "David und Abigail," Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Gemäldegalerie

Permission granted for non-commercial use. Permalink:  www.khm.at/de/object/ac796a52db/

https://blogs.bible.org/was-abigail-right-to-go-behind-nabals-back/

Women’s History Month: Meet Some Female Martyrs from the Early Church

When I spoke to a class of seminary students recently about women in public ministry in the early church, someone asked me to share some names and narratives about our foremothers. It seemed fitting to provide a sampling here during Women's History Month. (Some day I hope we will simply learn "history"; but until women are included in the telling of history, we'll continue to need a special annual focus.) You can find all the women listed below in the mosaics of Ravenna's "new" (6th c) Basilica of Sant'Apollinare. I've included a summary of the stories that usually accompany them, as well. You will notice a theme of women exercising agency over their own bodies to the glory of God.

Agatha. Virgin martyr. Agatha died in 251. Born in Sicily into a noble family, she steadfastly vowed to remain a virgin. She was taken to a house of prostitution, tortured by rods, hooks, the rack, and fire. She died after being rolled over coals and sharp broken pieces of pottery.  

Agnes. Virgin martyr. As a child, Agnes committed herself to God. At age thirteen she was killed by the swift stroke of the executioner’s sword.

Anastasia. Virgin martyr. The Roman daughter of a nobleman, Anastasia was forced to marry an unbeliever. She often disguised herself as a man to minister to Christians in jail. When her husband found out, he imprisoned her—along with three maids—and threatened to starve her. But he died, and she was released.Anastasia was later burned alive. She has been described as “one of the most highly venerated” of the church of Constantinople.

Anatolia and Victoria. Virgin martyrs. Sisters. During the reign of Decius, they refused to recant and died from sword wounds.  

Cecilia. Virgin martyr. Cecilia took a vow of chastity as a girl. Her parents betrothed her to a man who, upon learning of her vow, was baptized on what was to be their wedding day. Cecilia proclaimed the good news and is said to have summoned 400 people to her home, where they were baptized. It took three attempts on her life to kill her.

Crispina. Martyr. Raised a Christian by her noble family, Crispina was accused of disregarding edicts. The proconsul tried to get her to recant her faith by threatening her with death. “Crispina replied that she cared not for this life,” and was beheaded in 304. Augustine held her up as a model for Christians, as she gave up luxury and ease for eternal glory. 

Cristina. Virgin martyr.Cristina’s father, a Roman patrician, had her beat and imprisoned at age 12 for refusing to sacrifice to a god. His successor ordered her tongue cut out and had her put in a dungeon with snakes. Bound to a tree, she was impaled with arrows. 

Daria. Virgin martyr.An educated young woman from Athens, she had a fiancé who converted to Christianity and was baptized. They were arrested, put in separate prisons, tortured, and sentenced to die. Both were tossed in a pit and covered with dirt and stones—buried alive.  

Emerentian. Virgin martyr. Known as the foster-sister of Agnes, she was stoned to death while confronting pagans at Agnes’s burial place. 

Eugenia. Virgin martyr. She left alife of privilege to enter a monastery and, upon the abbot’s death, was elected as his replacement. She was later beheaded for her faith.  

Eulalia. Virgin martyr. At age twelve, she refused offers of marriage, choosing to remain a consecrated virgin. Her parents hid her at their country home, but she escaped and publicly delivered a courageous message. She was burned to death by flaming torches. 

Euphemia. Virgin martyr. During Diocletian’s persecutions, Euphemia wore black and renounced worldly goods and pleasures. A judge tried to get her to recant at age 15, but she refused, so she was tortured on a wheel, but the wheel broke. She was thrown to wild beasts, but they ignored her. She is said finally to have been struck on the mouth with a hammer.

Felicity. Martyr. Enslaved and pregnant, she gave birth two days after her arrest. Her labor and delivery of a preterm baby girl was celebrated, as fellow believers had prayed for such an outcome. Per her wish, Felicity died in the arena together with St. Perpetua and other believers. A Christian woman adopted and raised her daughter in the faith.

Justina. Virgin martyr.  Born in Padua, Italy, Justina was raised in a Christian family. Her father, a king, was said to have been baptized by a disciple of Peter. After her father's death, the emperor pressured Justina to renounce her faith. When she refused, she was put to death by sword.

Lucy. Virgin martyr. Lucy died in 304 under Diocletian. She sold her belongings and gave the money to the poor. She was arrested and brought before a judge, who commanded her to sacrifice to idols. She died from a sword through the neck.

Paulina. Virgin martyr. Paulina’s family witnessed her mother’s miraculous healing and converted with three hundred others. Father, mother, and daughter were martyred for their faith. 

Perpetua. Martyr. Perpetua was educated. She converted to Christianity despite her father’s objections. Her father was beaten due to her confession of faith, but she still refused to recant.Perpetua was married and still nursing a baby when arrested. She died a martyr in the arena of Carthage, alongside her servant, Felicitas. Perpetua’s account of her experience has earned her the designation as the first known Christian female writer.

Savina. Third-century martyr and widow of Milan. Upon her husband’s death, Savina helped victims of persecution under Diocletian, even burying their bodies in her own home. Found praying at their tombs, she was martyred.  

St. Pelagia. Virgin martyr. To defend her virginity, at age 15, Pelagia—born in Antioch—took her own life in 311. When soldiers arrived to arrest the girl at her father’s home, she said a prayer and jumped into the sea.  

Valerie. Widow and martyr.In first-century Ravenna, Valerie married Vitalis, who was tortured and buried alive. (Justinian built a church in Ravenna to honor him—the Basilica of San Vitale.) When Valerie refused to participate in a pagan festival, villagers beat her to death.  

These are women of whom the world was not worthy. May we follow them as they followed Christ.

Special thanks for Cynthia Hester for her help with research.

I shot the image below in 2017 in Ravenna, Italy. It's a mosaic in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuevo that depicts Jesus with the woman at the well/Samaritan woman. According to tradition, her name was Fotina, and she was martyred.

Why Churches Should NOT Drop Online Services

So, Tish Harrison Warren has a regular column now in the New York Times. And I subscribed, because I generally like her work. Plus, I love that the Times has a regular columnist who shamelessly adheres to the Apostle’s Creed. But this week, I had serious issues with her words. The title says it all: Why Churches Should Drop Their Online Services. 

That felt super ableist to me. And the article itself didn't get any better.

Before I go further, let me back up and remind my readers that an entire section of my web site is devoted to life in the body. I'm all about embodied living. The five senses. In-person gatherings and long conversations over food. True face time over FaceBook FaceTime. So given the choice, I usually opt for real embodied presence vs. Zoom. And yet, I still had serious issues with the piece—so much so that after reading, I wondered, “Am I over-reacting?”

I shot a link to the article with a message to my friend Lacie, who describes herself in this post as an amputee. And I asked her, “Does this feel ableist to you?” 

Here’s her reply: 

"Of the most egregious kind. It hurt my stomach to read. It’s wrapped in language that exalts the importance of embodiment…but only the needs of the healthy body matter. 

"I can see where she’s coming from. Getting people back into pews after they’ve felt the comfort of learning/connecting from home must feel daunting for pastors. But disconnecting disabled people to motivate the able-bodied is not the way to do it. 

"She outright says it’s fine to cut us out, then adds that someone should be visiting us. Come on. Looking back to how things were done before the internet and not seeing the beauty of how the internet has connected those of us who were previously disenfranchised feels like a stone-age thought process. 

"The church has adapted and changed how we connect with one another in a myriad of ways throughout historical events and varying cultures. COVID has given us the impetus to broaden the way we do church. It’s given us the gift of worshipping across cities and states and global lines. My kids attended their grandparents' Sunday school lessons for the past year. What a gift! 

"Disabled people know the feeling of being cut off from society. We face it with the phone calls we make to venues before going out to eat to see if the Google recommendation that says it’s ADA friendly is actually true or if there is a four-inch ledge at the front door. We face it when we’re unseen entirely in a store needing assistance or told by someone with a big cart to simply get out of the way. We face it when the sign outside our church says “Have children? Park in the west lot. Need handicapped entrance?  Park in the east lot.” [Lacie has two kids.] My car was broken into two weeks ago, and the only thing stolen was my “handicapped” placard. All these things have happened to me. 

"Warren’s proposal to remedy poor church attendance by cutting off virtual attendance says we don’t matter. Again. And to use embodiment as the reason is so tone deaf. The number of people already disabled or traumatized or homebound added to the increasing number of people dealing with the effects of long-COVID should tell us that now is definitely not the time to disconnect them from the body of Christ."

9-11 Twenty Years Later

 Today I have a guest columnist—my friend Ryan Ho, who was there….

Is there a parade today? I looked out the window with a bit of confusion as paper fluttered down from the sky. Working on the twentieth floor of an office building in downtown New York City, I didn’t often see objects fall from above. I stood up from my desk, moved into another room to get a better view. . . and gasped in horror at the gaping, burning hole that I saw in the side of the World Trade Center’s North Tower.

So began one of the most consequential days of my life. When the Twin Towers fell on September 11, 2021, the world changed, and so did I. Up to that point, I was in no rush to do anything significant or meaningful. I had intended to go into ministry since I was a boy, but after graduating college and acquiring a well-paying job in Manhattan, I became comfortable. I was succeeding tremendously at work, and I clearly had a future in the company. Overall, I felt secure.

When the second plane flew into the South Tower before my eyes, that sense of security shattered. I distinctly remember wondering what would happen next. How could we recover from this? As the Towers toppled, I knew that New York would never be the same, and it wasn’t. But I would never be the same, either.

The Monday after the Towers fell, I returned to work, but a part of me never went back—the part that felt comfortable, the part that felt secure. I looked around the office and saw things with new eyes. The job paid well, and it had a future—but it wasn’t my future. I knew the Lord had called me to more.

Ryan went on to graduate from Dallas Theological Seminary and to work as an associate pastor and church planter in Oklahoma and Oregon. Today he is an Instructional Designer at LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas.  

What about you? In what do you place your security? Were you made for more? 

Photo by Jason McCann on Unsplash

Shepherd Like a Girl

Does your nativity set have any female shepherds? Mine doesn’t. And it’s amazing how much I have picked up unconsciously from art…. 

I didn’t realize that—without anything being said outright—I had internalized the idea that “shepherd” was a “guy” job. So, if I saw a Christmas pageant with girls dressed in bathrobes holding crooks, I told myself the real nativity story lacked girl roles so the directors were taking creative license. But now I know those girls in bathrobes more closely represented reality than did my misinformed imaginations.

My understanding about shepherds shifted radically when I traveled with my husband and daughter to Kenya’s Rift Valley. My husband is a U.S.-based missionary serving national leaders there. And while we were in Kenya, his ministry partner, Joseph, a Maasai warrior, introduced us to some of his friends.  

The Maasai are pastoral people—shepherds. Like Joseph, they live in individual huts inside bomas—enclosures made of brambles encircling huts made by women out of mud, sticks, grass, and cow dung. Inside the perimeter of the boma, another area, also made of brambles, serves as a livestock pen. 

The girls usually shepherd goats and sheep, sometimes with their moms or a grandparent, while boys shepherd the larger livestock. If a family has no girls—or not enough of them—the youngest son or sons also get assigned to sheep/goat duty. The pecking order is usually men, animals, women, children. For these pastoral peoples, livestock serve as their pantries, 401(k) plans, Meals on Wheels, bank accounts…. Often the shepherd-girls lack education, because someone has to guard the assets, and the boys’ educations have typically taken priority.

This setup or a similar one has been true for many shepherding tribes and peoples across time and geography. Consider that David, son of Jesse, who had multiple brothers—at least three in the army—was the youngest boy and the shepherd among Jesse’s eight sons. 

The Maasai, like some of the Bedouins my husband and I met in Jordan this summer, live—or abide—in the field. And that is exactly how Luke describes what the shepherds in Jesus’s birth narrative are doing—they are abiding, or living in the field. Not just “hanging out.” And they are watching their flock. Singular. So, the shepherds to whom the angel choir appeared were probably not a bunch of unrelated guys from different families watching multiple flocks on an open hillside. More likely, they were from one extended family unit with male, female, old, and young present. 

The highlight of my time with the Maasai in 2008 was watching the “Jesus” film with them. We threw a bedsheet over the top of a hut, hooked up a generator and voila! The best part was hearing them gasp for joy when the angels appeared to shepherds saying, in Naa—their own language— “Fear not! For I bring you good news of great joy for all the people!”   

A week later, we moved on to meet members of the Pokot tribe. And along the dirt road far from town we saw female shepherds out by themselves herding sheep.  

These experiences made me pose some questions about the biblical text to people who live much closer to its reality. And here’s what I learned: 

• Vocational shepherds are not outcasts. They smell a lot like a typical cowboy. Animal pens stink, but humans who keep the animals don’t walk around with dung clinging to themselves if they can help it.

• Nevertheless, shepherds don’t inhabit halls of power. My shepherd friends were overjoyed that in the film instead of appearing to leaders in palaces or temples, the angels came to those on the lower rungs of social power. These shepherds heard in the angels’ proclamation an emphasis on “all the people”—from the highest to the lowest.

• Girls were likely to have been present when the announcement was made about the good news being for all. The shepherds, plural, to whom the angels appeared were not individuals out by themselves alone in the dark. 

• As is true today, sheep in Jesus’s time were probably not wandering around on the hillside at night, but gathered into the sheepfold (see John 10). Shepherds guarded one entrance. And I corresponded yesterday with a Maasai brother who told me that in his world, after the animals go into their pen for the night, the whole extended family gathers around the fire for stories. That means we should probably envision an extended family warming themselves around a fire near a pen. 

So, what are some spiritual ramifications? 

• Women shepherd people. In a book on the ultra-conservative end of the gender debate, the authors imply that women cannot be spiritual shepherds because “shepherd” is a male job. Yet “Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd” (Gen. 29:9). If we want to read biblical texts about shepherding as the original readers would have understood them, we will envision both males and females in view. The metaphor of a shepherd is that of one entrusted with the care of souls.

• We must read the Bible in community with Christians whose lives are closer to the world of the text than those of us with central heating and bank accounts with passwords. That means taking the posture of a learner in the presence of those who can see what many of us cannot. 

• Representation matters. When I mentioned on Twitter the possibility that females were present at the pronouncement of “good news for all the people,” some responded with tears and joy. For the first time they saw themselves in the story. In a quick search for Christmas Bible art, I found Mary to be the only female in any of the multiple scenes. The biggest demographic leaving the church is young females. Why might that be? 

• God loves the lowly; and so must we. Although shepherds are not the lowest of the low (as they are sometimes described), they themselves still acknowledge that neither are they the rich or powerful of this world. The heavenly choice to make the announcement to those outside of the usual power structures reveals something about the heart of God and inclusiveness of the good news. Do we want to be like him? 

Thanks to my time in the Rift Valley and in Jordan, I’m on the hunt for a manger scene that includes a female shepherd or two. (And some old people.) Since females were last at the cross, first at the tomb, and the first to herald the good news that Jesus is alive, it makes perfect sense that they also would have been among the first at the manger. And what does Luke tell us these shepherds did? After seeing the swaddled child, they spread the word. 

Like them, let us do the same—Go, tell it on the mountain! Jesus Christ is born!  

P.S. Some think the sheep being watched in the Bible story were those specially destined for sacrifice. The source of this information was a rabbinic Jewish scholar who converted to Christianity. But his idea has been further vetted. And comments in the link of this post address the details. Based on this research, I’m no longer inclined to think so. Nevertheless, the child who was born, the Good Shepherd, was indeed the lamb who was slain.  

Photo “Rebecka” by Dikla Laor at DiklaLaor.Photography. Used with permission.

On True Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

Beyond Ordinary Women Ministries featured a podcast/webinar in which I talked with host Sharifa Stevens about biblical manhood and womanhood. Lots of teachings floating around on the subject are rooted in stereotype rather than scripture. If something is scriptural, it must be timeless and not bound to a specific culture. Have a listen.

Little Things Matter: A Story of Suffering, Survival, and Legacy

When Barry Annino set out to write a book on life after a terminal diagnosis, his wife, Debora, embarked on her own writing journey. Their new memoir chronicles their experience in “suffering, survival and legacy” from their two very different perspectives. In this Q&A, Debora (seen below with one of the girls whose lives she is working to improve) shares insights about keeping the faith during her own recent battle with breast cancer and the steps she’s taking to continue her journey of writing and service through the Little Things Matter Foundation.

Debora, you wrote this book after your husband’s diagnosis with a terminal illness. What was your original intention behind it?

Writing about suffering was never my original plan. Before Barry was diagnosed with Stage IV liver cancer, I was writing about my journey along El Camino de Santiago, the ancient route of pilgrims and seekers across Northern Spain. But that writing journey took a left turn after Barry became ill. At that point, I realized I had entered a new chapter in our lives, so I set that project aside and focused on what was in front of us. During our crisis, my CaringBridge journal became my writing outlet. Meanwhile, Barry had become interested in documenting his experience and the new point of view he was developing. Eventually, our stories—and our paths—converged into this book, Little Things Matter, and a charitable foundation by the same name.

You had a crash course in suffering and have come out of it with some wisdom. What has been your source of hope in suffering?

I’ve learned that during any trial we are going through – I’ve had friends suffer job losses, illness, the anxiety of isolation, tough stuff – if you keep your focus on the hope of the future instead of the bog of despair, it helps carry you through. A harsh, sometimes terrible reality is that people suffer. I have a dear friend and former professor whose adult son committed suicide during COVID-19. He was in his 40s with a wife and young son. My friend also lost her husband when her boys were teenagers. So, yes, there is suffering that comes from mental illness and things that overwhelm us. But there is also suffering that comes from being human and living in a broken world. We can’t escape it, but we can learn to get through it with the hope that gives us the ability to endure and see the good even amidst the pain.

How do you maintain hope in the future?

For me, coming from a faith-based perspective, thinking of the greater good that can come out of this gives me hope. This current trial takes my daughter and me to a place of growth that is more significant than where we were before. It is a painful journey, and some days we are just pushing through. Yet, I’m learning that difficulty, challenges, and discomfort lead us to become who we are meant to be—that is if we allow ourselves to learn from it. Barry left this earth a greater man because of his journey of suffering. He acquired a deeper understanding of the purpose of life and greater compassion for others.

How did seeing your husband’s journey through the lens of faith affect your attitude about terminal illness?

Barry didn’t want to go through what he had to go through, but by his own admission, he was happier for it. It was very comforting to me to understand the power of transformation in Barry’s life. There are confidence and grounding that come from knowing that what we’re going through today does have a purpose. If we go back to my faith perspective, scripture says in this world there will be trouble. Knowing that we aren’t alone, we do have Christ who came to help us, and one day all shall be well.

Your faith seems to be a source of courage for you. Can you explain how this works?

Sure, I can try. Easter before last, I was in church, and during my time of worship, I imagined Barry standing next to Jesus. He had a big smile on his face, and he was staring down at me, and I got this feeling that where he now lives is so much better than where we are. And then there was this other time when I was walking my neighborhood, and there was this absolutely beautiful orange and pink sky. I thought if that was just a small glimpse of heaven’s beauty, there is something beautiful ahead. Knowing that God’s place is more beautiful than the glow of a sunset, I’m not afraid of dying or where I’m going. I’m only concerned about the wellbeing of those I leave behind.

What lessons can you share now that you are enduring your own experience with cancer?

Getting this diagnosis after losing Barry feels significant. Of course, it leaves me wondering what it means. It is hard not to ask "Why?" When I began to look for answers for Barry, I recall that he didn’t want to do that. He didn’t want to be consumed with researching cancer. It becomes overwhelming. Now that I’m experiencing this myself, I understand why he wasn’t being more proactive. I have felt the same. I want to enjoy my days without all my thoughts being consumed by cancer. One of Barry’s quotes we used in the book is, “Even if I live to be 80, I realize I’m on the meter.” You realize that life is short. So I try to focus on what he did, which is helping others through our foundation. 

Tell us about that.

One of my greatest passions is supporting meaningful projects in Mexico that generate long-term impact through our non-profit, Little Things Matter. Examples of our work include raising chickens and organic farming. Both provide much-needed nutrition but also education, skills-building, and economic opportunities. We invest in educational-enrichment classes for children in marginalized communities, and we host an engaging week-long summer camp for children that teaches about creation care and their value, having been made in the image of God. Some of these projects have been interrupted by COVID-19, but we have found other ways to keep investing in communities in areas of need during this pandemic by distributing food to the most vulnerable and providing children with educational activity take-home kits.

What excites you most about completing this book?

My goal was to honor Barry’s life and to know that I shared his message. Documenting it in this book ensures his experience and mode of expression will live on and have an impact. Beyond that personal goal, the real purpose of writing this, or anything, is to bring a new perspective to the world. Knowing that even one person was touched by it brings me joy. 

Since getting started down this road, I’ve been fortunate to have mentors to help me grow as a writer. Now I’m trying to pass it on to others who are beginning their own journey. I have the honor of hosting an annual writer’s workshop and retreat at my home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with Dr. Sandra Glahn (that's you!). As you told aspiring writers at our workshop last January:

My advice, if you are inclined at all to write, is this: Do it. Don’t let that voice telling you someone else has ‘already done it better’ hold you back. Perhaps that better-written book will never make it into the hands of one of your readers, and you will get to be the fortunate soul through whom someone’s life is forever changed.

We all have our voice. If we want, each of us can share a part of ourselves by leaving our stories behind, whether through the history we share with our families, the wisdom we impart to our children, or what we leave for our communities.

When I think about the bigger picture of writing, we each make a unique contribution when we put our stories out there. Some stories are comedies, and some are tragedies. Our story has a little of both, along with a fair amount of hope and redemption. That all of this came out of a personal tragedy makes me appreciate how God works to bring good from all things. It reminds me of a film I recently watched starring Oprah Winfrey called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It’s about tumor tissue that became the basis of medical research. This tissue did so much to improve research and others’ lives that it seems to give purpose to the tumor in the first place. It feeds my soul to know that through telling the story of my family’s suffering, survival, and legacy, I am part of that continuum—and the journey continues.

To purchase the book, click here to visit Amazon. All proceeds benefit the Little Things Matter Foundation.

What Is Church? On the pod...

I love traveling internationally with Kate Boyd, podcast host of Happy and Holy. She's a seminary-trained writer and thinker. Recently, Kate and I had a conversation in which we explored "What is Church?" especially in light of global limitations due to COVID-19. You can find her podcast on your favorite podcast player or search for Happy & Holy in your player of choice.

COVID-19: A sign of the last days?

Image: 

“State Public Health Laboratory in Exton Tests for COVID-19”

 by Governor Tom Wolfe (CC BY)

The entire world is shut down in various forms. Never since Noah’s flood has the whole globe at one time endured the same catastrophe. So, publishers are seeing a spike in sales of books about the end times. And people are asking: Does COVID-19 signal the end is near?  

As it turns out, before all eyes turned to Wuhan, LifeWay Research already had questions in mind about the last days. So, they surveyed 1,000 people from two groups: evangelical pastors and historically Black denominational pastors. Between January 24 and February 11, 2020, Lifeway asked some questions about these pastors’ perceptions. And the results revealed that even before everyone’s least favorite pandemic, a lot of pastors in the USA felt that current events indicate Jesus’s return is imminent.

• 88 percent saw at least some current events matching those Jesus said would occur shortly before He returns

• 70 percent saw the modern rebirth of the state of Israel and the regathering of millions of Jewish people as fulfilling biblical prophecies

•  39 percent saw the establishment of the United States embassy in Jerusalem as a sign of the End Times 

My colleague, theologian Darrell Bock, said this in response: “When we look at pestilences and plagues and how they function in Scripture, what we see is that God doesn’t always use them with a specific signature to explain why He is doing it. Rather, He uses them as a reminder to us of our need for Him, our dependence upon Him, the fact that we are mortal and don’t control what is going on around us, that we need to pursue a relationship with Him and be aware of what He asks of us as human beings made in His image.” Bock added that he thinks if Lifeway were to redo the survey today, the numbers would be even higher. And a Youtube search supports his hunch. A video of pastor David Jeremiah talking about Covid-19 and the end times has garnered 1.8 million views. 

The Bible does not say specifically that in the last days we will have a global pandemic. It does, however, in 2 Timothy 3, list the following as being among the signs:

People will …

• Love their own selves. 

  • Might that include fighting for the right to keep our faces unmasked vs. showing deference in love?

  • Might that include fighting for the right to gather with more than “two or more” in His name when such actions are at the very least perceived to put others at risk? 

  • Be covetous.

    • Might that include hoarding rather than sharing toilet paper, meat, and cleaning supplies? 

    • Boast and be proud, be false accusers.

      • Might that include asserting we know more than all the experts? And/or posting and forwarding conspiracy theories, thereby adding to the slander of people at the center of them when we have no way to verify their guilt or innocence—and even if doing so makes people wonder if our belief in the resurrection is equally lacking in investigative rigor?  

      • Might that include slandering “the media,” as if all journalist are liars? 

      • Be unthankful.

        • Might that include “I know I have a full pantry and a job, but…” 

        • Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. 

          • Might that include worship of a god in our own image whom we believe is always on America’s side? 

Events in our world are prompting people to reflect on their mortality. Surveys show it. Book sales show it. Youtube shows it. The trauma of COVID-19 is making many consider their lives in light of eternity. Yet many who name the name of Christ, rather than seeing in this pandemic the need to stay laser-focused on the gospel—reaching out across the world in word and deed—are sacrificing our credibility on less-important conversations, some of which call into question our commitment to love and/or sound thinking. If our insistence on our rights is louder than our commitment to self-sacrifice for the sake of love, maybe our beliefs are more rooted in the U.S. Constitution than in scripture.

Perhaps, based on what we find in 2 Timothy, we are indeed seeing indications that the end is near. But those indications don’t actually include the virus.  

Are the “Widows” in 1 Timothy 5 Leaders, Needers, or Both?

One of my students, Corinne Samuelson, has spent the summer investigating what’s happening with “widows” in 1 Timothy 5. At first glance, one might think Paul was simply instructing Timothy about how to handle the many hungry older women in the Ephesian church (1:3). But on closer exploration we see a description of what might look like an office. That's a challenging question. As Corinne notes, “While Timothy would have surely understood Paul’s instructions about widows in the Ephesian Church, 1 Timothy 5:3–16 leaves today’s readers with many questions.” Each of the questions below (most of which she crafted) are worth considering when making interpretive decisions about this passage:

• Meaning of “to honor” (τίμα, v. 3) – (“Give proper honor to those widows who are really in need.”) Does “to honor” imply interpersonal respect, financial support, or both? Is this a parallel to granting “double honor” to elders who teach (v. 17)? 
• Placement of need/pleasure contrast (v. 5–6) – (“The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.”) Is the reference to need/praying a Pauline tangent, further description of the “real” widow, or a prerequisite for enrollment? 
• Meaning of “to enroll” (καταλεγέσθω, v. 9) – (“No widow may be enrolled unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband, and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the Lord’s people, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.”) What are the implications of “to enroll”? Did Paul simply describe a name being added to a charity list or is he implying accompanying duties for the person placed on a list? If the former, do we refuse food to hungry older women who have not done these things? The description parallels in many ways the description of an elder in 3:2–7 (faithful to his wife/faithful to her husband). Speaking of which…
•  Meaning of “faithful to her husband” (ἑνός ἀνδρὸς γυνή , v. 9) – Was Paul referring to a woman who was married once only or is the emphasis on being a one-man kind of woman?
• List of qualifications/duties (v. 10) – “Raised children, practiced hospitality, washed the feet of the saints, helped those in distress”: does this list describe the past character of the widow in view, or was Paul outlining ongoing responsibilities of an enrolled widow?
• Meaning of “a widow who is really a widow” (τάς ὄντως χήρας; vv. 3, 5, 16) – What’s the difference between a “widow” and an “actual” or “real” widow? Her lack of family members, her devotion to God, the characteristics listed in vv. 3–10? All of the above? A few people roughly contemporary with Paul (e.g.,  Philo  QE 2.3,  Ignatius13.1) speak of “widows who are virgins”—suggesting the word was used to mean a “without-a-man woman.” So are there “widows” and then “actual widows”? And if so, did one include older single woman never married vs. those bereft of husbands?
• Different kinds of widows? – Are the widows in verse 9 and verses 3, 5, 16 one and the same, or was Paul referring to two types of widows (a “real widow” and “an enrolled widow”)? 
• Meaning of “their first pledge” (τήν πρώτην πίστιν, v. 12) – What is the meaning of “pledge” (πίστιν)? The first wedding vow? Or a vow of office? Perhaps a vow of commitment to celibacy? 
• Harsh language –(“being led away from Christ,” v. 11; “wandering after Satan,” v. 15) What actions did Paul have in mind here?
• Bad behavior – (“idlers, going house to house, talking nonsense,” v. 13) Was Paul insinuating young widows were spreading heresy, participating in witchcraft, or committing social faux pas? Can we gather from “going around from house to house” that these women were conducting bad house visits which were a part of their duties as enrolled widows? Does “house to house” refer to going from house church to house church?  
• Overall purpose – Why did Paul give this instruction about enrolling widows and the qualifications? Did he provide here some requirements for selective charity, or was he talking about widows being enrolled into an order/office? Is there an overlap between the two? He wrote quite a bit about church organization in this letter to Timothy. Is it possible he had more in mind here than food distribution? 
• Contradictory advice? – Is it problematic that Paul lists qualifications for widow enrollment for those who married once (v. 9), but instructs younger widows to remarry (v. 14)? Why would he give different advice to women in differing age groups? Is he taking into account Roman civil marriage laws that apply to younger but not older women?  
• Background information – What pertinent background information about women and widows is helpful in understanding Paul’s instructions?

The options for translating and interpreting this passage are numerous. Considering that compared to fifty years ago we have a lot more social-background information (e.g., Roman civil laws) available to us, this passage is certainly due a closer look. 

Women with a Past?

Recently, I was a featured guest on the Journeywoman podcast. The topic was women in the Bible with a past. But in this case, they had a clean past but got labeled otherwise. Have a listen.

Biblical Womanhood: What Is a Woman?

What a woman is.

She is an image-bearer. It was the first day of a class I was teaching on the role of women in the home, church, and society. Driving in to the seminary where I teach, I thought through the material I planned to cover, and honestly I feared that some of what I’d prepared to say was too elementary for graduate-level students. Many of them were raised in church and have heard messages all their lives. Did they really need to hear again that Genesis 1:26–27 teaches that both male and female were made in the image of God? Nevertheless, I determined I’d better make sure.

So I repeated what I assumed they all knew. And sure enough, a woman present was thrilled when she heard my words! She was made in the image of God? And not only that—she did not have to marry to fully image God? Or have children to ultimately image God!? In the days that followed, she changed her focus to concentrate not on finding a husband but on equipping herself for ministry. Her church had warned her of the dangers of radical feminism but had never told her who she was.I have my students in a sexual ethics class look at curricula that churches have created to explore what it means to be a man or woman of God. And these astute students consistently observe that what most ascribe to manhood and womanhood should actually be ascribed to husbands and wives. The curriculum writers wrongly go to the marriage verses to define what it means to be a man or a woman, and in doing so, they send the erroneous message that humans do not become fully mature until or unless we marry.But Jesus was a mature person, right? As was John the Baptist. And Paul the apostle. And as were Mary, Martha, and Lazarus of Bethany. If marriage were a requirement to reach full maturity as a male or female, why would Paul ever counsel anyone to remain single (see 1 Cor. 7)?She is an ezer-warrior. In the next chapter of Genesis, we see something else about woman’s identity. The word God used to describe her is “helper,” but—sadly—people read that word and think of a Hamburger Helper or “mother’s little helper”—or some other person who is capable only of accomplishing menial tasks. And here’s the problem with that. The word is used elsewhere in the Old Testament to refer to nations to whom Israel turns for military assistance when under attack. And even more significantly, it is used in reference to God sixteen times. When we pray, “God, help me!” surely we don’t have a junior assistant in mind.In every use of “ezer” in the Old Testament, there is military language involved. God is his people’s helper, sword and shield, and deliverer. The ever-present rescuer from trouble. He is better than chariots and horses. He keeps watch like a guard over his people and with His strong arm he overthrows their enemies. That’s the kind of help Genesis describes. So based on the consistent use of this term in the Hebrew Bible, it only makes sense to conclude that God created the woman to be a strong ally—a warrior. Battle is not just for boys; women are called to put on our armor, too (see Ephesians 6). The description of Lady Wisdom personified as a woman in Proverbs 31 is full of battle words—like valor, strength, and prey. Woman is a co-regent and co-heir. Woman is a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield of life.

What Woman is Not

Sometimes we’ve misunderstood some scriptural references that refer to woman. So maybe it would also help if we clarified what woman is not.Woman is not made to be a baby factory. The original command to be fruitful and multiply was given to woman and man. And the purpose of multiplying was to fill the earth with worshipers. Children are important—sometimes the world diminishes the important job of parenting. But the danger is not only that we will devalue mothering and the home. There is also a danger that we will (1) assume all women must marry and (2) miss what women bring to the church and society. Consider these realities:

• Motherhood is not a woman’s highest calling—being conformed to Christ is.

• Every Christian woman, even one with kids, has a spiritual gift given to her to exercise for the benefit of the entire body of Christ, not just the nuclear family.

• Every woman is part of the call to glorify God in all she does, whether at home or at work, at church or at play. The woman in Proverbs 31 sold belts and bought real estate. She was operating in the marketplace.

• The woman in Proverbs 31 not only contributes to economics of her home, but she teaches kindness, stretches forth her hand to the needy.

A woman does not innately lean toward deceiving—or being deceived. All humans are sinners, but that does not mean that the ways in which our first parents transgressed serves as a prototype illustrating gendered actions for all men and women for all time. So all men are not bald-faced rebellers, and all women are not easily deceived. Genesis emphasized how crafty the serpent was precisely because he had a tough job deceiving the woman whom God made. What is significant about the man and woman in the story is that they both rebelled, not that each demonstrated precisely the approach all men or all women have to sin. Some women seduce, and so do some men. Being seduced by evil is a human thing, not a woman thing—as Paul mentions when warning the Corinthians (2 Cor 11:3). The Bible does not teach that because Eve was deceived, all women are more easily deceived than men. Nor does the Scripture teach that all women excel at seducing and deceiving (these ideas are contradictions, anyway—one cannot be a master of deception while also being easily duped).“Woman” is not synonymous with “submit.” All humans are made to live in submission to our creator God, as Christ submitted himself to the Father’s will. So in that sense, submission is a human word.Some people teach that because wives are told to submit to their husbands, ergo at a female’s core she is made for submission to a man—in a way that a man is not made to serve a woman. Where do they get this stuff? Why don’t the same people teach that at a man’s core he is made for sacrificial love in a way that a woman is not—since “love” (actually, not lead) is the corresponding verb given to husbands? Nor do such teachers read Paul’s observation that men in Ephesus needed to stop being angry (1 Tim. 2:8) and assume therefore that all men are innately angry while women are not.When Paul tells wives to submit, he makes clear that he wants them to do so with their ownhusbands, not all men, precisely because he is speaking in the context of a role she may take on (wife) and not something innate (woman). The Taliban teaches that all females must submit to all males, but the Old and New Testaments teach nothing of the sort. Submission is always choosing to serve another in the context of a relationship, not a quality that's innate in woman. Once again, as has happened with Genesis 1, we have tended to “extrapolate.” So we’ve taken Paul’s admonition to wives to submit and made that mean women were made for submission. That’s what we call a logical fallacy.Every women is not created ideally to have a quiet personality. We read in 1 Peter 3 about wives married to disobedient husbands in a world in which these wives cannot go to a woman’s shelter if they are abused. Peter advises such women to refrain from preaching the gospel using words, and instead he counsels them to lean into their silent witness. He speaks of having a gentle, quiet spirit that is so precious to God. But a quiet spirit is precious to God not because it is a female quality, but because it is a character quality—evidence that the soul is at rest. And Paul is certainly not idealizing a quiet personality. Rather, he is talking about a Spirit-directed character trait demonstrated in the face of injustice. To be an outgoing, extraverted woman is not to be un-womanly in God’s eyes; it is un-womanly only in the eyes of the misinformed.All these truths about what a woman is and is not have ramifications for how we talk about women, treat women, and create partnerships of men and women in the church, home, at work, in society:

• We must treat every person, male and female, with dignity because they bear God’s image and are precious to him.

• We must treat others as we would want to be treated—the second Great Commandment. In fact, we are told to treat them as if they were Christ: “I was hungry and you fed me…naked and you clothed me….”

• We must treat people with respect for their God-given dignity at every stage of life. The imago Dei is why so many Christians are pro-life—because every life, even unborn life, is made in the image of God. But sometimes we fail to see the ramifications of the imago Dei at other stages of life…how we handle domestic violence, homelessness, poverty, bullying, human trafficking, sexual abuse, euthanasia, and so much more.

• We must stop teaching stereotypes as if they are based in scripture. Jacob cooked stew. Jesus cooked fish. The male deacons—not the women’s ministry—served food to the Greek widows. Paul let himself be beat up in Philippi, and Jesus allowed himself to be stripped and spit on—great insults to manhood. Mary of Bethany sat in the traditional pose of a male seminary student as she studied Torah at Jesus’s feet—and Jesus told the woman who expected her to stay in the kitchen to back off. All these and more suggest that we must always rank following Christ and spiritual priorities higher that conforming to cultural gender norms—even if that culture is the Christian bubble.

• We must seek to create male/female partnerships instead of segregating everything. Some see involvement of women as a man-fail, but male-and-female partnerships are essential to “subduing the earth” and imago-Dei-ing together. Does your women’s ministry seek male input on the studies you choose? Do all the committees at your church have both men and women providing input? When you invite people to come to the front of the sanctuary for prayer, do you make sure you have both men and women ready to welcome them? (Imagine if a sexually abused woman fears men. Seeing a female to whom she can talk knocks down an unnecessary barrier.)In a world in which #MeToo and #ChurchToo remind us that brokenness has infiltrated every part of society including the church, the Bible’s truths are absolutely relevant. When God brought ishah (woman) to ish (man), he called their partnership “very good.” Let us show by our words and actions that we believe his words to be true.

Biblical Womanhood: Part 2

Several weeks ago, I wrote about biblical womanhood. Afterward a theologian posed some good questions for clarification. So I’m using that conversation as a Q/A here to help further explain what it means to be a woman as God designed her. His statements are bold; my explanations follow: 

You say of woman that, “She is an image-bearer,” but then argue that because “she” is an image-bearer the female bears that image completely in and of herself. The underlying assumption is that an individual human being, whether male or female, carries the whole divine image.  

Woman is indeed an image bearer, completely in and of herself. But that does not mean she expresses the full range of image-bearing. Our humanity is a good parallel example. Are women human? Fully and completely in and of themselves? Absolutely. But do they bear the full range of humanity? No. We need man and woman together to demonstrate the full range of humanity. Nevertheless, women are fully human without the presence of men. In the same way, women fully bear the image of God. They don’t need the presence of men in order to bear that image. Yet the full range of image-bearing requires men and women together. 

The two image-bearers complete the divine image together only in their mutuality, by animating their natures in a complementary way, which is most fully actualized in and through procreation (Gen. 1:26–27).  This interpretation is borne out in the blessing and mandate of verse 28, “God blessed them and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it…” It is literally by their extensive reach into the created world through procreation that this first couple subdues and has dominion over it. 

I agree about the first couple.

Yet later, when Noah emerged from his voyage with the animals, God does repeat the original imperative to be “fruitful and multiply” (9:1). In both the Garden and after the Flood, God give people instructions to fill the earth. It is worth noting, however, that both pronouncements come at critical junctures when those hearing God’s words are earth’s only human inhabitants. Back in the Garden, ish and issah had been charged with increasing from two to many. Following the flood, Noah, his wife, and six family members, face a similar task. If either our first parents or Noah and his family had failed to procreate, the entire human race could have vanished.     

Yet after the Flood, the commands to “multiply and rule” are never repeated. And while some consider “be fruitful and multiply” a timeless command to reproduce biologically, Jesus, John the Baptist, and Paul—to name a few—were unmarried. And as mentioned, the New Testament writers never repeat the mandate to biologically multiply. In fact, the New Testament “seems to turn from a Jewish perspective of marriage to valuing celibacy for the kingdom of God.” All talk of multiplying at the time of the earliest Christians turns to focus on multiplying disciples—reproducing spiritually to fill the earth with worshipers.  

It would be simplistic, though, to conclude that the Old Testament emphasizes physical reproduction, while the New Testament emphasizes spiritual reproduction. While biological families do receive emphasis in the Old Testament, the Hebrew portion of the Bible still provides hints that human flourishing goes beyond having children. Isaiah mentions that leaving an eternal legacy will be even better than children for believing eunuchs (56:4–5). So while the Old Testament speaks primarily about biological reproduction and family units, readers still find in its pages subtle references to a different kind of reproduction. Nevertheless, such references are infrequent before Jesus appears.    

With the coming of Christ, however, the emphasis overtly shifts from physical to spiritual reproduction. “Family” is introduced as a metaphor for the spiritual community. Calling non-relatives “brother” and “sister” develops as a new habit, as Jesus says that those who do his will are his mother and sister and brothers. Additionally, single people are more often included among those depicted as righteous in New Testament times. John the Baptist never marries. Nor does Jesus. Anna is a godly woman who never has children (Luke 2:36). And Jesus teaches about a subset of the unmarried saying, “For there are some . . . who became eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:12). Later, the Lord paints a picture of the future in which there will be no marriage nor being given in marriage (Matt. 22:30). This suggests celibacy foreshadows the eternal state in which there is no need to multiply (because there is no death?). 

If Paul was married—and many scholars believe he was widowed—he never mentions it. And his married co-workers, Aquila and Priscilla don’t appear to have had children. In the elder John’s writings, he uses family relationships—spiritual children, youth, and fathers—as metaphors for spiritual maturity (1 John 2). And as mentioned, in Ephesians 5, Paul reveals that an essential purpose in God’s joining of bride and groom is to provide an earthly picture of the heavenly union of Christ and the church. Whether married or single, then, fruitfulness in God’s people is bringing him glory on the earth—working to fill the earth with worshipers. 

This is the task and calling of male and female alike. 

Abuse: Rise Up, Church!

Today I have a guest writer whose story you need to hear: 

<<I'm not even sure if the Hebrew is correct.But it doesn't matter.It means something to me.This is where girls would have scars from cutting themselves in attempts to escape the pain of abuse. But by the grace of God, and by His grace alone, my wrist doesn't have cuts. It says “Daughter of the King.”There have been a few accounts and testimonies of abuse circling around social media lately, including the Larry Nassar case and sexual assault on campus in my hometown. And I want to help raise awareness for the sake of many victims and survivors of abuse who are being driven out of our churches.My mom worked in the sex industry. I have seen, heard, and experienced just about every type of abuse. That kind of life was my norm. People who know me wouldn't be able to imagine my connection to abuse if I didn't talk about it, because my scars are invisible. It is a cycle that I was brought into and a cycle that my children are now fighting to escape from.Why am I talking about abuse? Because 1 in every 3 women have experienced it. Just a few years ago, that number was 1 in every 4. In the church, if 60% are women, that means the statistic applies to 20% of the congregation. Standing on the pulpit, scan the room, section off 1/5 of the audience. There. That's how many. Yet, we don't talk about abuse.(If it is difficult to grasp the concept, replace the word “abuse” with “bullying.”)This sin is one of those that fester in darkness because nobody talks about it. Nobody wants to talk about it. Certainly not the perpetrators. And not the victims, because it feels shameful. And the bystanders? Their tendency is to sweep the issue under the rug, because it is simply too uncomfortable of a conversation. Some days, it is easier to put a Band-Aid on a gaping hole and call it a day, while the wounds turn into infections; and before long, you'd have to sever the entire limb. The victims are the ones walking around limbless. And sometimes, the church is the one holding the saw.You may think for those in the church the incidence is a lot lower. Perhaps. However, abuse sees no socio-economic class, no race, no education level, no position or profession. It happens everywhere. Even at the seminary I attend. Even to the neighbors living next door or the people sitting next to us at church. The truth is, the more affluent a church is, the more likely it is to present a façade, and the easier it is to cover up abuse—or simply, minimize it.I have been conditioned to always assess situations and environments by how safe I feel before I step into them. And I thought church was supposed to be safe.You didn't get bloodied or bruised up, they'd say.Sometimes, I wish that the wounds were more visible. At least in that way, something can be done. But the pain gnaws at my bones. Cutting marks are just minor surface scratches compared with what agonizes inside abused victims, so that they feel and see that pain. No medicine can heal the invisible wounds.You must have done something to cause it, they'd say.They put me on trial as the instigator for my own abuse. I learned to blame myself. I learned to suppress my pain. I leaned to avoid and distrust people. It affects every. single. relationship I have, and every. single. relationship that I will ever have, even my relationship with my Heavenly Father.Forgive, turn the other cheek, and carry the cross, like Jesus did, they'd say.The “peacemakers” who said such things also became my oppressors. They kept me from speaking up and getting help. I shrunk until I was no more. They silenced my voice. Perhaps God wants me dead as well. Does He?Now I serve at a safe house for women who have gone through all sorts of abuse. As I spent time with them, I was reminded of the verses in Ecclesiastes 4:1-3:

So I again considered all the oppression that continually occurs on earth.

This is what I saw:

The oppressed were in tears, but no one was comforting them;

no one delivers them from the power of their oppressors.

So I considered those who are dead and gone

more fortunate than those who are still alive.

But better than both is the one who has not been born

and has not seen the evil things that are done on earth.

Then the passage ends with this (v. 12):

Although an assailant may overpower one person,

two can withstand him.

Moreover, a three-stranded cord is not quickly broken.

Yet, we stand alone, facing our silent nightmares, with nowhere to turn, nobody to run to. Where are the “three-stranded cords?”Coming to seminary had been the highlight of my life. Sitting there in chapel on preview day, as I scanned the room, I saw the future of ministry, of God's kingdom. I saw my comrades with whom I will be fighting, pushing back the perpetrating, oppressing evil. I saw leaders who can bring change into churches for people on the fringes of society.Brothers and sisters, rise up and defend the body. When one part of the body is hurt, let’s rise to protect and nurture it. The church depends on you to stand as a wall of defense against the onslaught.  The church depends on you to speak life, wisdom, and compassion into the broken. The church depends on you to raise up a generation of men and women, boys and girls, who won't tolerate abuse and being abused, a generation that will take actions to prevent it.What can you do?

• Educate yourself on the issue.

• Bring in trained organizations to educate the congregation.

• Learn the red flags.

What do you avoid?

• Secrecy and cover-ups for the perpetrator

• Being advisers and counselors without training on this issue

• Trying to restore relationships using standard practices

Let's face it. Untrained church leaders trying to handle these situations are like those would would try to repair an engine without understanding how it works.Genesis and The Family Place are Dallas agencies with trained staff and resources. They'd even send out advocates upon request to educate the public on the issue. Most cities have such organizations.The legal system fails to protect the abused. Many cases are unreported or dismissed. Victims are trapped in this never-ending cycle.Can we find true sanctuary with the church?* * *I was born in Taiwan, grew up in a boarding school in Singapore, and moved to Texas in middle school. My home life had always been very unstable. I was surrounded by all sorts of abuse imaginable. With no parental figures growing up, I started adulting before I was a teenager.In high school, I lost my identity. I did not want to be associated with the abusive family that I was born into. I did not want that blood to run in my body. I wanted to scrub myself clean. That was when a wise woman guided me to realize that I can have a new life in Christ.But my home life did not improve. In fact, I went from my abusive home into an abusive marriage; thus, the cycle continued. After two children, things got worse, and I found myself alone, hospitalized, facing a divorce and a shattered home. In my utter brokenness, God showed Himself to me, healed me, and began to put the broken pieces together. He began to shape my identity in Him.Journeying with Him brought many abused women into my sphere of influence. From speaking engagements to magazine articles to Bible studies at the safe houses, I was led to become an advocate for women and children who are victims of abuse.Currently, I am a student at Dallas Theological Seminary studying theology. I burn with a passion to use the story of God’s redemption through my life and experiences to inspire and empower other women through their situations, knowing that God gave us an identity, not as abused victims, but as Daughters of the King. —Michelle

Seminary Online: Isn't That an Oxymoron?

I confess, I’m a slow convert to distance education. But I’m coming around.My reservations have stemmed from my commitment to embodiment. Genesis starts with God’s dignifiying of physicality in the first chapter, and that theme runs clear through the Incarnation to the bodily resurrection. Isn’t our faith unique in its appreciation for physical presence?And if that’s the case, how can any kind of decent education happen without embodiment? How can people possibly learn about our God without engaging five senses in the content? Doesn't the Eucharist include taste, touch, smell, sight, and sound? As does baptism. How can somebody grow in Christ without the senses?Yet, as I said, I’m coming around….Of course, I still believe face-to-face is best. After all, the elder John wrote, “Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full (2 John 1:12). And his next letter contains a similar sentiment: “I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink” (3 John 1:13). Clearly, he thought non-physical communication was inferior to the real thing, especially when he had so much to say.But still he wrote, didn’t he? In fact, aren't letters and book forms of distance education? Think of all the things we've learned through books and documentaries and movies and plays....The biblical epistles certainly are forms of such education. Paul wrote to believers in Asia Minor (Ephesians), in Philippi, Thessalonica, Colossae… John wrote to believers in seven churches (Rev 1–3), and to the elder and the elect lady. And these apostles packed their letters with of content that went far beyond accounts of their most recent events, family news, church updates, and political drama. They talked theology, mixing orthodoxy with orthopraxy—which is the goal of distance education.My introduction to actually teaching via distance ed came when I led my first course in Italy. Students from across the world were able to participate because we did not require them to be based in Texas. So even though I got to teach in an embodied setting, I had many students who could be there only because they were getting most of their training by distance. This past year in Italy, we had people from Albania, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, and the US, and their varied perspectives added to the richness of everyone’s experience.I took my first plunge into teaching a live distance course last semester. In what I describe as a Hollywood Squares setup, twelve of us logged on at the same time and could see each other on the screen in squares of four rows divided into three columns. And inside those squares were living, breathing, interacting humans.Our semester began with a student in Houston having to leave class early because victims of Hurricane Harvey—strangers she planned to feed and house— were arriving. The following month, a student in Florida endured the hurricane that tore through that state. So we heard about the rescue efforts from someone who was there. Then a student living in Las Vegas told of the shootings in her city from the perspective of someone ministering on the ground.Through the accounts of these students, I saw that what we had lost in embodiment, we had gained in broadness of perspective. And not only that, each of those providing “boots on the ground” was able to stay in his or her respective ministry rather than having to uproot to move to Dallas thanks to distance education. So in a real way, ministry was multiplied through our flexible learning platform.Paul expressed his longing to see people he was discipling by long distance. Here's a sampling:

• Romans 1:11 - I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong.
• Romans 15:24 - When I go to Spain…I hope to see you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.
• 2 Timothy 1:4 - Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.

Yet while awaiting the ideal, he used every opportunity to impart truth through the means available to him. And that’s what I hope to do too.This spring for the first time, Dr. Gary Barnes and I are offering a course in sexual ethics that addresses many of the issues ministry workers must be equipped to handle in their work. The lecturers we invited last year cannot come to teach every semester. But thanks to their agreement to let us film them, we can offer some of their good content to students who live all over the world. And those students don't have to quit their jobs and relocate to have access to the information.Indeed, thanks to distance ed, more and more international students are able to stay in their home countries rather than uprooting families, which means they can forego all the inconvenience and expense of relocating. Even as visas become harder to come by, distance education allows content to penetrate into areas where other governments are at odds with ours. The result is a strengthened church across the world.Last week two of my distance students showed up on the Dallas campus and gave me big hugs. It was great to meet them face to face after hours seeing each other only via screens. There's no doubt about it—I will always prefer the ability to wipe a tear and deliver a hug. But I’m a convert to distance ed. Because I see that it doesn’t have to be either/or. Through the magic of internet interaction, education can be both/and. 

Fathom Magazine interview w/ me about Vixens

This interview with me ran in the latest issue of Fathom Magazine.  Today we’re happy to have as our guest Dr. Sandra Glahn. Sandi earned her ThM at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) and her PhD at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) in Humanities–Aesthetic Studies. A professor in the Media Arts and Worship department at DTS, she teaches courses in writing, medieval art/spirituality, gender, and sexual ethics. She is the author of more than twenty books, including the Coffee Cup Bible Study series. But today we want to talk with her about her latest book Vindicating the Vixens: Revisiting the Sexualized, Vilified, Marginalized Women of the Bible (Kregel Academic), which just came out.

Tell us about Vindicating the Vixens.

Vindicating the Vixens has been on my heart and mind for more than a decade. As I studied history and cultural backgrounds at the doctoral level, I ended up revisiting some of our Western-influenced interpretations of the biblical text.For example, the woman Jesus met at the well in Samaria had five husbands, true enough (see John 4). But why do most people assume that means she was faithless and immoral? Women in her time and place did not divorce husbands five times. The man with the most recorded divorces had only three. If a woman did initiate legal proceedings, she had to do so through a male. Women could not simply walk into a court of law and speak on their own behalf. So, it’s unlikely that “the Samaritan woman” had divorced five husbands.Additionally, when we read that this woman’s current man was not her own, we assume she was living with some guy. Because that’s what it would mean in the West. But in her world, it is far more likely that she had to share a husband in a polygamous relationship in order to eat.Put these factors together, and you realize this person was probably not a beautiful young woman with loose morals. More likely, she was an older woman who had endured the death of a husband several times (war was the number one cause of death for men), been dumped a time or two, and consequently having to share a husband in order to survive. Additionally, the text says she was waiting for, looking with hope for, the Jewish Messiah (4:25).So we have, probably wrongly, assumed this woman was guilty of sexual promiscuity, and that Jesus was confronting her about her sin. More likely, Jesus was bringing up her greatest point of pain before revealing to her that he is the very Messiah for whom she has been waiting. For everyone else in Jesus’ world, the Lord seems to subtly veil who he is. But with this broken woman hanging on to hope, he comes right out with it.This woman is one of many whom the contributors to Vindicating the Vixens reconsider in light of what we know about cultural backgrounds, not only from new data but also from having more varied “eyes on the text.”

You’ve been known to talk about the importance of having varied eyes on the text. What do you mean by that?

Scholars from underrepresented groups looking at the Bible see what many of us in privileged positions have missed. They have brought to the text observations from a powerless perspective, which is the perspective of the typical person to whom Jesus ministers. (Like this great message from the perspective of those who are hearing impaired.) The body of Christ is made up of many parts that need each other to function as a healthy whole. But we’ve missed out on what some of those parts have to offer.In our book the contributors look afresh at Eve, Hagar, Sarah, Tamar, Rahab, Deborah, Ruth, Huldah, Bathsheba, Vashti, Mary Magdalene, The Samaritan Woman, Junia, and even the Virgin Mary—who gets marginalized by Protestants. And we look at them through the eyes of sixteen biblical scholars, each of whom hold a high view of scripture. And they all hold at least one advanced degree in Bible and theology. They are men and women; complementarian and egalitarian; American and Australian; black, white, Arab, and authors of books like Discipleship for Hispanic Introverts. Their varied backgrounds mean they bring insights in the text that the majority culture in North American has often missed—and exported. And as a result, the authors’ combined efforts provide a fresh look at the kindness of God and his heart for the vulnerable. (You can watch some of them talking about this book.)

What made you decide to do this project?

First, I believe men and women—not just husbands and wives—are supposed to partner in ministry. The church father Jerome had Paula partnering with him, though many think theologically trained women are a recent innovation. They are not. A greater emphasis on social history (as opposed to studying only troop movements, kings, and empires) has come from the academy due to women’s greater involvement in higher education in the past half-century. Trained social historians bring new ways of culling out data from the text—like what I just said about marriage practices in the Near East.But also, my deep friendship with some international students, especially those from Mexico, combined with travels to several continents told me we needed more than a Western perspective when doing observation, interpretation, and application.Additionally, part of my job used to involve serving as editor-in-chief of DTS Magazine for Dallas Theological Seminary, and I also teach theologically trained writers. So not only have I spotted some great writers, but I learned of projects people were doing that needed greater audiences. Sometimes the great writers were those doing this work.As a sampling, there was the student doing a thesis on Bathsheba (Sarah Bowler); a scholar who wrote a book on Arabs in the Bible that changed how I saw Hagar (Tony Maalouf); and a whole corpus of work on Bible stories that included women and men in need of vindication (Carolyn Custis James). For ten years or more I’ve been keeping a mental note of how these all fit together, and I could hardly wait to coordinate it.

What do you hope to accomplish?

Originally, I hoped only to help us read the Bible more accurately as we read about these women. But a happy result of the project was that the team of scholars went beyond simply exonerating those wrongly vilified or marginalized to explore what we have missed in the larger story by misunderstanding the smaller stories and how they fit into the whole. Now I see how the Tamar-posing-as-a-professional-sex-worker narrative fits into Joseph’s story in Genesis—which scholars have often assumed she merely interrupted. What emerged from all these micro-narratives was and is a clearer vision of God’s heart for the vulnerable in the meta-narrative.Before even writing, all of the authors agreed to donate profits to the International Justice Mission. So in a tangible way, we also hope our scholarship will lead to lives changed for the better for “the least of these.”

Read the chapter on Rahab by Eva Bleeker.

You can read an excerpt from Vindicating the Vixens about the context and cues from one of these heroines, Rahab.

In terms of ramifications for scholarship, I hope readers will see the absolute necessity of inviting to the table a more diverse group doing translation and interpretation than what we have typically had. I hope that we will never again see a translation of the Bible published that has only men or only women or only people from one “camp” looking at the text, but that we will instead celebrate our differences and seek diligently to include a variety of people due to our belief in God’s love for unity in difference.

Where can we find Vindicating the Vixens?

You can find the book at Amazon, Christianbook.com, and at the Dallas Seminary Book Center

Interview with a Charlotte Pastor/Author

I'm happy to have as my guest today pastor/author Winn Collier, whose writing I love. His latest project is an epistolary novel—that is, a story told through the medium of letters written by one or more of the characters. It’s titled Love Big, Be Well: Letters to a Small-Town Church.

SG: Did you have in mind any specific congregations as you wrote?

Winn: I carried all the people and churches I’ve been part of my entire life. And of course, All Souls Charlottesville, the people I serve now, is so interwoven with my life that they are always with me.

SG: Charlottesville has been at the epicenter of America’s culture wars in recent months. How has your church continued to be a voice of hope in the midst of such toxic events?

Winn: The Klan rally in July, then the Alt-right rally in August, were horrific. I've never encountered such evil so in my face. And the aftermath is far from over. Although many of the agitators were from outside Charlottesville, the evil messages tore into racial wounds and sins in our town that we've never dealt with properly. My prayer is for genuine repentance and restitution. Through all this, though, my conviction about the unique and subversive way of Jesus and the Kingdom has been radically renewed. The way of Jesus is in some way contrary to (or a corrective of) every other power structure, politic and ideal. To stand with the oppressed while loving the enemy—that's a strange thing. Justice really does need Jesus, and our church is trying to learn how to be people faithful to the strange way of Jesus.

SG: In the letter called “Whiskey and Biscuits,” your Pastor Jonas character speaks a word to anyone who has ever grown weary of the church's liturgy. Jonas views liturgy as a gift: “What a relief it is to know we don't carry this faith alone. Liturgy allows us to affirm truths we might not even believe just yet, or truths we're simply too exhausted to hold up with our own weary prayers.” What did you have in mind when you wrote that?

Winn: Our church sings a song that our worship leader wrote called “Our Salvation is Bound Up Together.” I think our communal existence, the fact that we require one another to live well and whole and that we are all bound up in the life of the Trinity means that as we come together with our bodies and our voices and embody the love of God in our liturgy, grace happens. Sometimes we think that it’s disingenuous to enact things we don’t “feel” at the moment, things that aren’t existentially potent for us. But I think that showing up (in our marriages and our friendships, as with our church) is exactly the sort of thing that makes up what we call faith. It’s doing what we can’t see (or feel) just yet. This is our work. And over the long story, the slow work of the gospel will create and remake and heal.

SG: I’ve appreciated your non-fiction. What made you decide to write a work of fiction this time around?

Winn: A dear friend of ours in Colorado asked if I had any advice for her church that was searching for a pastor. She was on the search team, and she sounded exhausted. I've been on both sides of that search, and it exhausted me just thinking about it. I remembered all the shenanigans that are so often tied up in this song and dance. So after sending her an email that I'm sure was mostly unhelpful, my mind and my pen went to writing a story. And Love Big, Be Well emerged. When I’ve told some folks about the book, they’ve assumed that I was using the medium of fiction as a tangential vehicle to only deliver a message (and I can understand the confusion). I think that would be a disastrous way to have written this book, any fiction really. I don’t know that my story succeeded, but I do know that I’ve tried my best to give it a chance to stand up on its own.

SG: Why did you decide to tell the story through letters?

Winn: Maybe it was partly because the whole thing started with a letter to me, but also because there’s something deeply human about a personal letter, the time it takes to write it, the care that’s given in thinking about the person(s) you’re writing to. I wrote another book called Let God that was reworking some of François Fénelon’s (a 17th century French Bishop) letters to spiritual friends in King Louis’ court. I think I’ve always been fascinated with letters.

SG: What authors have shaped you as a writer or as a pastor?

Winn: Certainly, Wendell Berry, with his fictional town of Port William has given me a wide sense of place and the beauty of ordinariness and the sacramental nature of our common lives. Eugene Peterson has influenced my understanding of ‘pastor’ and ‘church’ more than any other person. Barbara Brown Taylor and Fleming Rutledge are wonderful pastor-theologians who take words seriously. And Will Willimon – he makes my spine straighter whenever I hear him preach.

SG: What is your biggest hope for your book?

Winn: I'd find real satisfaction if people put down Love Big, Be Welland felt a renewed hopefulness. There's a lot of despair and sorrow overwhelming us these days—and for good cause. Yet I believe that hope and goodness are the truer story. I think friendship is truer than our sense of isolation and estrangement. I believe that God’s love is more powerful than all our hatred piled up together. I believe the church, for all our ills, really does—when we're true to who God has made us to be—exist as a community of love, hospitality and healing.

"No Greater Love" film headed your way?

NO GREATER LOVE—the first theatrical documentary filmed and directed by an active-duty soldier—brings to vivid life the battles of the “No Slack” Battalion of the famed 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan. And the battles he shows us didn't just happen in the field. They continue after soldiers return home.One of the coolest parts about this for me is that its writer and that active-duty soldier/producer was one of my writing students.Friday, Nov. 10, for Veterans Day weekend, his multiple-award-winning NO GREATER LOVE premieres in select cities nationwide. NO GREATER LOVE, after one round of cuts, is still a contender for Documentary Feature in the 2017 Academy Award®.You can bring this excellent film to a theater near you. It takes less than 30 seconds to put in your request:REQUEST THEATERS TO SHOW NO GREATER LOVE IN YOUR AREAThe film will help raise awareness about PTDS. Consider that:

• Every day, 20 U.S. military veterans commit suicide (Suicide Data Report, Department of Veteran Affairs, Mental Health Services, 2015)

• 20 percent of veterans suffer PTSD (Litz BT, Schlenger WE. PTSD in service members and new veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars: a bibliography and critique. PTSD Res Q 2009; 20(1):1-2.)

• Among incarcerated adults, 10 percent served previously in the military (Blodgett JC, Avoundjian T, Finlay AK, et al. Prevalence of mental health disorders among justice-involved veterans. Epidemiol Rev 2015;37. 000–000.)

• Of the U.S. homeless population, 12 percent are veterans (Tsai J, Rosenheck RA. Risk factors for homelessness among US veterans. Epidemiol Rev 2015; 37. 000–000.)

Most Americans are unaware that U.S. military chaplains carry no weapons, even in battle—and it’s true that while deployed in Afghanistan, Roberts initially had no plans to make a film. The courage around him, however, spurred him to ask: “What drives men to commit acts of valor and sacrifice?” (As “No Slack” won decisive, strategic victories in intense battles, it also suffered multiple fatalities, returning home with more than 200 purple hearts.) Roberts also interviews Gold Star family members.“The only way a person can really come back from war is with love,” Roberts said. “And it has to come from friends. It has to come from family members, neighbors and the people you were fighting for, and from each other. That is the only way we can fully come home.”NO GREATER LOVE producers hope the film will motivate theatergoers to get involved and support veterans in their local area. Ever wonder what you can do to help vets? Help bring this film to your city.SaveSaveNo Greater Love Movie