Does the Bible say women cannot be leaders of men?
The arc or whole of scripture highlights women in leadership, whether that be Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, or Esther in the Old Testament or Mary Magdalene, Priscilla, or Phoebe in the New. Consider these women among many more in scripture, and their leadership legacies as you process the reading here.
Women Leaders
Ordained Women in the Church
Wealthy Women in the First Century Roman World and the Church
Women Prophets in the Old Testament
Women Leaders
ESTHER THE SILENCE BREAKER
EQUALITY IN LEADERSHIP
PHOEBE THROUGH THE EYES OF PAUL
ESTHER THE SILENCE BREAKER
It wasn’t until 2017 that TIME Magazine honored women silence breakers as their “Person of the Year.” Truth be told, women have been breaking the silence on abuse and harassment for centuries. They have often been God’s hands of compassion and liberation, working to expose evil and topple systems of oppression.
EQUALITY IN LEADERSHIP
Early in his writings, Paul authored Galatians, a book primarily dedicated to explaining to Jewish Christians that their uncircumcised Gentile brothers were not second class members of the church. Paul directly refutes this concept of hierarchy in Christian community in Galatians 3:28: “there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
PHOEBE THROUGH THE EYES OF PAUL
Paul taught that women were second-class citizens in God’s Kingdom. Or did he? How Paul spoke of one specific woman, Phoebe, is telling. We know about her only through Paul’s eyes. What did he see? In Romans 16, Paul affirmed twenty-eight coworkers in ministry, including ten women.