Women learning about women of the Bible

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LynnSmith

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As I was watching a video on a review of a Bible it hit me that I know very little about the women in the Bible. I know the basics I guess. Never was a focus. I wonder for women, does knowing more, studying the women, help us grow.
For women who have set out to study the women we are told about, do you find it draws you closer to God? Do you see and understand your purpose more? Do you end up learning more about yourself?
 

Brightmoon

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When I realized just how misogynistic the Bible actually is ,I stopped worrying about my “ role “ I could play and decided that I’m not going to accept pointless stupid limitations on my behavior . My church also accepted female clergy at all levels so there was no religious reason to accept those limits either.
 
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LynnSmith

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When I realized just how misogynistic the Bible actually is ,I stopped worrying about my “ role “ I could play and decided that I’m not going to accept pointless stupid limitations on my behavior . My church also accepted female clergy at all levels so there was no religious reason to accept those limits either.
Ok.
 
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Romans 8

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When I realized just how misogynistic the Bible actually is ,I stopped worrying about my “ role “ I could play and decided that I’m not going to accept pointless stupid limitations on my behavior . My church also accepted female clergy at all levels so there was no religious reason to accept those limits either.

Wow, God is misogynistic? Guess you should join a heretical church then huh? See how that one works for you. :liturgy:
 
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timewerx

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When I realized just how misogynistic the Bible actually is ,I stopped worrying about my “ role “ I could play and decided that I’m not going to accept pointless stupid limitations on my behavior . My church also accepted female clergy at all levels so there was no religious reason to accept those limits either.

It is easy to misinterpret the Bible. It's not actually misogynistic.

For example, God originally designed Adam and Eve to equal partners. At first, Eve did not have to submit to Adam.

But after they sinned, the curse/punishment of Eve is that she will now have to submit to her husband.

And then came Christ. Remember, one of His mission is to lift the curse of Adam and Eve's sin - this would nullify (make void) the woman's curse to submit to her husband.

And Finally Paul, who laid down the ground rules for women. But look closely. Paul explained himself that he adapted his teachings to the culture. Their culture is heavily patriachal.... And Paul did not want to cause any problem to their ruling authorities -the Romans. Trying to abolish patriarchy would definitely disrupt the established order of the day. Thus, Paul did the logical solution, commanded women to submit to their husbands.

But remember it only applied to their day....Today we have a different culture where husband and wife are now fully equals in a relationship. Christ's rule would again overrule - nullify Eve's curse / punishment and thus, Husband and Wife are now equal or co-leaders in a family.
 
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Dansiph

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As I was watching a video on a review of a Bible it hit me that I know very little about the women in the Bible. I know the basics I guess. Never was a focus. I wonder for women, does knowing more, studying the women, help us grow.
For women who have set out to study the women we are told about, do you find it draws you closer to God? Do you see and understand your purpose more? Do you end up learning more about yourself?
I feel I benefit from studying the men of The Bible so I assume it'd help for women to study the women of The Bible.

The midwives in Exodus came to mind when I thought of women in The Bible
 
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~Anastasia~

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We must not turn this into a debate about different denominations (though there can be overtones within them).

One thing I have come to appreciate actually is reading the lives and contributions and teachings and so on from women Saints in history. We have a very long history of very strong and influential women to the glory of God.

And people's understanding of religious teaching is influenced by all sorts of things. Society itself through history has generally been very patriarchal and often denigrating of women. The fact is that Jesus rather turned a lot of that upside down and gave great honor and place to women. Following the understanding given us by Christ, yes, women have extremely important roles to fill.

I have also benefited greatly by reading the same sorts of books and histories about men in history. But from time to time, it is a bit of an eye-opener to see the particular contributions made by women and the fact that they are women.

I just received a book two days ago that I had ordered - Holy Women of Russia - I looked through the table of contents and it mentions a woman and refers to her as a hermit and Staritsa (I'm guessing feminine form of Staritz, which is a Russian word for a very holy and gifted man who is often given divine insight for persons and so people often seek him out for spiritual guidance and advice). I've never heard of it in a feminine form, though since the time of the early Desert Fathers, there were desert mothers as well, and women much sought for their advice and guidance. It just struck me to see that label is all. I'm looking forward to reading the book.
 
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LynnSmith

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I feel I benefit from studying the men of The Bible so I assume it'd help for women to study the women of The Bible.

The midwives in Exodus came to mind when I thought of women in The Bible
Didn’t realize midwives were spoken of. Never noticed, never really clicked.
 
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~Anastasia~

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Didn’t realize midwives were spoken of. Never noticed, never really clicked.
They were quite important. Without them defying Pharoah in order to obey God's principles (no commandments or official writings yet), Moses would never have been allowed to live.
 
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LynnSmith

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We must not turn this into a debate about different denominations (though there can be overtones within them).

One thing I have come to appreciate actually is reading the lives and contributions and teachings and so on from women Saints in history. We have a very long history of very strong and influential women to the glory of God.

And people's understanding of religious teaching is influenced by all sorts of things. Society itself through history has generally been very patriarchal and often denigrating of women. The fact is that Jesus rather turned a lot of that upside down and gave great honor and place to women. Following the understanding given us by Christ, yes, women have extremely important roles to fill.

I have also benefited greatly by reading the same sorts of books and histories about men in history. But from time to time, it is a bit of an eye-opener to see the particular contributions made by women and the fact that they are women.

I just received a book two days ago that I had ordered - Holy Women of Russia - I looked through the table of contents and it mentions a woman and refers to her as a hermit and Staritsa (I'm guessing feminine form of Staritz, which is a Russian word for a very holy and gifted man who is often given divine insight for persons and so people often seek him out for spiritual guidance and advice). I've never heard of it in a feminine form, though since the time of the early Desert Fathers, there were desert mothers as well, and women much sought for their advice and guidance. It just struck me to see that label is all. I'm looking forward to reading the book.
I didn’t mention one word about denominations. I had no clue this question could stir up debate. I just want to bring glory to God, I’m growing, learning and in a very new chapter of my life and trying to do my best for Him.
 
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hu1tz

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not to mention moses' mother who saved him by not turning him over to pharaoh, his sister who made sure he was found by the princess, the princess who saved him out of the water, and his wife who saved him later in life

moses was a hero of faith, but he could not have been successful without all the women of faith in his life
 
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LynnSmith

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not to mention moses' mother who saved him by not turning him over to pharaoh, his sister who made sure he was found by the princess, the princess who saved him out of the water, and his wife who saved him later in life

moses was a hero of faith, but he could not have been successful without all the women of faith in his life
I never looked at any of that when looking at Moses. I’ve missed a lot!
 
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Endeavourer

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When I realized just how misogynistic the Bible actually is ,I stopped worrying about my “ role “ I could play and decided that I’m not going to accept pointless stupid limitations on my behavior . My church also accepted female clergy at all levels so there was no religious reason to accept those limits either.

Hi Brightmoon,

I came from a denomination that interpreted Scripture to put husbands in dominion over their wives. My journey out of realizing what Paul actually wrote vs what the translators interpreted it to be vs words they used was really fascinating.

Our English language doesn't lend itself as well to gender distinctions as the Greek did. I was shocked to find that most of the times our English Bibles use the word "man", Paul had actually written a gender inclusive word, more like "mankind" (anthropos). He only uses the word for male (aner) in very specific situations where he is referencing the maleness of a human being.

As a woman, you read man, man, man everywhere and even in cases where you know it must mean you too, it still creates a feeling of being excluded a lot. A load was lifted from me when I realized that most of Paul's pronoun references to Christ were gender neutral references (anthropos) - they were referencing Christ's humanity, not his maleness - and I felt ever so much more included in the Bible than I ever had before. I felt like I had just discovered a whole new universe of God's love engulfing me.

When you have time, print out the first few chapters of 1 Corinthians and pull up a Greek lexicon. Circle all of the instances of the gender neutral pronoun (anthropos), or gender neutral references to brethren or child. Almost every reference to man/brethren/child will be circled.

Blessings,
E.
 
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ChicanaRose

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As I was watching a video on a review of a Bible it hit me that I know very little about the women in the Bible. I know the basics I guess. Never was a focus. I wonder for women, does knowing more, studying the women, help us grow.
For women who have set out to study the women we are told about, do you find it draws you closer to God? Do you see and understand your purpose more? Do you end up learning more about yourself?

Absolutely! They are the heroines of faith (Esther, Ruth, Mary, etc.). The cultural implications may be different but they teach us about faith in God.
 
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~Anastasia~

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I didn’t mention one word about denominations. I had no clue this question could stir up debate. I just want to bring glory to God, I’m growing, learning and in a very new chapter of my life and trying to do my best for Him.
Forgive me and welcome to CF. I probably should have put that bit in a separate post but was pressed for time.

I actually meant to address the THREAD not to get into debating denominations (or other sorts of debate) because such issues can easily be touchy for some people and I wanted to head off any trouble.

Forgive me please.
 
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LynnSmith

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Absolutely! They are the heroines of faith (Esther, Ruth, Mary, etc.). The cultural implications may be different but they teach us about faith in God.
Learning more about faith in God is my desire.
 
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LynnSmith

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Forgive me and welcome to CF. I probably should have put that bit in a separate post but was pressed for time.

I actually meant to address the THREAD not to get into debating denominations (or other sorts of debate) because such issues can easily be touchy for some people and I wanted to head off any trouble.

Forgive me please.
No problem. I just don’t get at all how anything about denominations would even come up. Pretty sure these women who stories we read about didn’t have any denominations lol
 
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com7fy8

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Didn’t realize midwives were spoken of.
Hi, Lynn :) When Pharaoh ordered the midwives to kill the boys at the time of their delivery, the midwives did not do so; and then, when the Pharaoh asked them why they did not do what he had told them to do, they said because the Hebrew women were too healthy to need their help and had their boys before the midwives could respond to help with the deliveries. And because of this the LORD blessed those women and gave them families. This was while the Jews were a slave nation in Egypt, and their numbers were increasing so Pharaoh feared they would have enough men to rise up and conquer Egypt.

I sense you are a lady of Jesus and I can feed on your example and honesty and caring, and I am a guy :)

And, likewise, I can greatly benefit from the godly ladies presented in God's word. And yes Satan would want to keep our attention away from this, so we do not benefit from the superb example of God's women in the Bible. And we men can also feed on different things of these ladies.

For example, we men can learn from the "nursing mother who cherishes her own children" > 1 Thessalonians 2:7 > Paul and Silvanus and Timothy say they tenderly cared for the Thessalonians the way a nursing mother cherishes and cares for her children. So, I see from this, how these great men were helped by seeing how Christian mothers cared for their children. Such women helped these men, inspired them, I see, so they could find out how they needed to relate in love with God's children.

@Brightmoon > So, we can see how greatly the apostles appreciated women who were their example, teaching them what is deeper than what any words and knowledge could tell them.

Women of godly example can get past the talk and "without a word" reach a man deeply > 1 Peter 3:1-4.
 
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When I realized just how misogynistic the Bible actually is ,I stopped worrying about my “ role “ I could play and decided that I’m not going to accept pointless stupid limitations on my behavior . My church also accepted female clergy at all levels so there was no religious reason to accept those limits either.

Some Bible translations or their study notes were made by men who have an agenda to prove out male domination/female submission in marriages, in particular the ESV.

Those men were so fixated on proving gender roles out in the Bible that they created a new doctrine on the Trinity (the eternal subordination of the Son). They wanted to prove from the Bible that the Son is eternally subordinate to the Father like a type of the wife being subordinate to the husband. They say the Holy Spirit is a type of a child within a family.

The subordination of women and of the Son is subtly woven through the fabric and especially (but not only) the gender verses of the ESV.

While I've found some startling cultural influences in the translations of two specific gender verses in the KJV (which I just note in the margins) I feel the rest of the translation is freer from gender bias manipulation than many of the other versions are. You have to read through the prolific use of "man", but my circling exercise helped me with that.

My first test for a translation is whether 1 Cor 11:3 says man or husband. If it says husband there is a bias and I avoid/don't trust that translation. I've done perhaps 1,000+++ hours of research and contemplation on that verse and the only way the meaning of the verse works out in cohesion with the rest of the Bible's teaching is if you understand the word to be man, not husband.
 
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