"Weaker Vessel, but Saved Through Childbirth"

If you're like me and tend to see "one side" of something, I'd suggest you marry an attorney. Not joking. Super helpful the way their brains works - seeing all sides - and super frustrating at times too. ;) One thing I've loved/hated about growing old with the Lawman is his ability to take my "steadfast/resolute" opinions and show me the other side of the coin.

The picture to the right is of the Lawman and my two oldest sons. They're both a lot like him, but the older one on the left - his brain works like his dad's. They see things through a wider lens and the one of the right - his brain's more like mine. Both have imperfections and strengthens. You'd want the Lawman and my oldest to help you see the enemy's strategy and you'd want my middle son and me to identify the enemy and have the gun...him and me, we're not wasting time trying to figure out the whole picture - we're just ready to push the line back and rescue the victims. But at the end of the day, we're all there ready to love. :)

I'm starting this blog by talking about this because it's important that you know that my husband has been telling me the content of this post for years, many years. He would sit quietly as I showed him scripture and make my case and smile and say, "I think there's something you're missing and there's more freedom than you're giving yourself and other women. And, Aim, I'd always rather ere on the side of freedom than I would legalism." And when he would say those words I would want to walk out of the room because I live to be "right", but something inside hoped that he was telling me the truth. I was hoping he really was right that women had equal value/intellect/position/voice as their brothers. But I had a LOT of Bible verses to back my theology up. A lot. 

I want y'all to know that I am the woman I used to think was someone I would never want to become. The woman that couldn't be at peace with being in her manmade "place" and staying there. The woman who asked too many questions that might be offensive or go against the way things have always been. The woman that might look like she's insecure and needs to be validated by her equality with men. Yeah - that woman...didn't want to be her. Yet, here I am. And I am more free and absolutely Ami than I've ever been or dreamed of being. That boy with the bigger lens - he's to thank. :)

I know the Gospel is offensive, but it is never condescending. There were several verses that I always had a hard time understanding, but the one that called women "weaker vessels" - that one was really hard for me to get. 

A brother that I love dearly used "weaker vessel" the other night in reference to his amazing wife. I wanted to stop him and say "Are we in fact talking about the same person? Because I've seen the storms she's weathered and bro...she is anything, but weak. In fact, I've seen her hold you up a time or two." And he'd be fine with me saying that because he knows it true and he's gracious. In the flesh, real world, I'm looking at you and we both know what's true world...he really would've agreed. But I didn't say anything, because I often don't know what I'm thinking until I read what I've written. So here's what I would've said...

"Weak" used to describe most of the women in my life seems just absolutely hilarious and condescending. I had sat with friends who's babies were having open heart surgery (more than one friend) and ones who's children were dying (more than one friend) and women who had survived epic abuse and still loved (more than one friend) and women who had rescued their husbands more than once and women who had pushed life from their bodies with no drugs (more than one friend) and "weak" just would not fit no matter how I turned the puzzle piece.

I really do hate the Men vs Women thing.  

I know that may seem contradictory to this post, but I'm one of the biggest fans of my brothers. Really. (I hope they know that. :) I don't want to see women take over The Church or start their own churches nor am I longing to have equal mic time on Sunday morning. I can imagine men would tire of constantly hearing female related metaphors and the higher pitch of their voices, the female view of scripture and the world and how it all fits together and I imagine they would want to hear their brothers. I get it. ;) I'm just here to ask some questions and hope to find some answers.

1 Peter 3:7

"Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers."

For years I would read this and wonder about all of the stronger than their husbands wives I knew in my life. But I never let myself go past that question because it WAS THE BIBLE! HELLO!!!! Honestly, the Bible doesn't always make sense. Like Rahab the prostitute being Jesus great, great, great...grandmother or a single rabbi sitting around talking with women at wells in Judea during Christ's time...the Bible is often scandalous and confusing sometimes and so I put this scripture into that category. 

But down through the years I would find answers, often on accident, that seemed to help me see what He might be trying to say. It's good to know we all only see a PART of the whole picture. But Jesus IS the whole Picture - so we always look to Him to see God. And one of the first things I noticed when I allowed myself to ask questions was that Jesus broke a lot of the rules when it came to women. He invited them into a "mans world" and gave them value and broke many of the laws He gave His people hundreds of years before. 

Something that has really helped me see the Bible with a wider lens is looking at it through the eyes of Love. When I see the laws He gave the Israelites about women, marriage and even war I see Love. I see Him taking chaos and setting boundaries that would give beaches to an ocean of hate and injustice. As we keep reading we get to His Son - the climax of the story - and He says "If you want to see God - look at Me." And what He did was take us all to another place of Love. "Love your enemies, do good to those that hurt you and despitefully use you." and "Love God and love people." And as Paul would later tell the ones who had known Him best, even the Gentiles are included! God even gave Peter a dream in which a sheet was hanging down and all those forbidden foods were made clean. God is always stepping outside of our box...even a box He gave us to begin with. 

Now. I'm NOT suggesting that I have a new revelation. Not suggesting that Jesus is giving me a new theology. I'm just reminding all of us that Jesus is the fullness of the God head. :) And He called women to himself, to be His disciples and to have a place and a voice. I think He knew the culture of the day would not accept a woman being one of the Twelve, but He did begin shifting the culture in some significant ways. If you're talking to a group of basketball players you're not going to use metaphors that relate to childbirth, but rather driving the ball down the court, shooting the ball and making it from the 3 point line for the win, etc. If you're going to reach a male dominated world you're not going to give the louder speaker to women. I think He knew, like discipleship, He would change the view of women one person at a time.

Back to the verse above - the weaker vessel. :) 

We have an elder at our church who happens to be a Bible translator. Now I know I've just offended about have of us reading this page. I know because I used to be a KJV girl myself - actually, I preferred the Geneva Bible. The KJV was King James' response to the pilgrims Geneva bible that did not elevate kings the way he preferred. And if I'm king of the most powerful empire of the day, who happens to struggle with gender issues, I'm for SAR-TIN gonna be printing up a new Bible. I also know that the KJV is the most literal version. I agree. And I also know that there is a lot to be lost in literal translation. 

I could describe each of my children in literal text and you'd miss 99% of who they really are as individuals. I could take the part of the Bible that talks about Jesus being the "Bread of Life" to some of the remote tribes in Africa or China who do not eat bread or even know what it is and that verse is NOT going to make sense to them. But if I said Jesus is the "Rice of Life" in China or the "Taro Root of Life" in Africa - they're going to get it because rice/taro root has kept them alive for centuries. Do you see what I'm saying? 

Sometimes scripture says something and we don't get the meaning because we don't know the culture that author was speaking to. And wether you're a KJV person or not I can promise that you have translated the Bible for someone at sometime in your life. Preachers and authors do it all the time and if you're raising your children in the ways of the LORD - I hope to ever lovin' goodness you're translating the Bible for them. That is a sober reckoning as we seek to speak the Truth. 

Many times I need help understanding what I'm reading in the Bible...like

1 Timothy 2:11-15

"A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve.  And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety." 

Now if I'm a woman who has never been married or a wife who has remained barren...how in the world will I ever be saved? 

I asked this question and the one about being the "weaker vessel" to our dear friend/elder/PhD/Bible translator and I thought you might like to see what he had to say - in shortened version - as Paul talks to the Ephesian women who had taken to heart the freedom Jesus offered them and in turn abused their "right" by lording it over the faithful, seasoned male leaders Paul put in charge of the church in Ephesus:

On "childbearing" -

And usually it is read in a way that ends up being depressingly oppressive to women in general. That was not Paul's purpose. Rather, it was a witty argument for a specific purpose. Because it involves a bit of background information, reading the next few paragraphs may require some patience.

There was nothing strange about this use of the term "childbearing" in the world of the author and audience of 1 Timothy. The idea of virtues and vices as children is a commonplace in the Gnostic literature of a later period.And in general Greek mythology, the virtues Diké, Eirene, and Eunomia (Justice, Peace, and Order) along with Horae (Hours, Scheduling) were the daughters of the chief god Zeus and the female titan Themis. Whether influenced directly by Gnosticism or not, the audience of 1 Timothy, as acculturated Hellenes, would have been familiar with the idea of virtues and vices as children. Most likely the audience of 1 Timothy would have automatically read the meaning of virtues as children into the author’s use of "childbearing." Such a reading would have been a natural, although metaphorical, interpretation of good works for women in 1 Tim 2:10. Oddly, we probably would have been spared years of modern exegetical difficulty if the author of 1 Timothy had used the term “fruit bearing” instead of “childbearing” in 2:15. If the author had used the agricultural rather than the more appropriate gynecological metaphor, the postnatal or post-generative relationship between the four virtues and the women in 2:15 would probably have been more readily recognized by modern interpreters. But Timothy's congregation would not have had the same difficulties grasping the gynecological metaphor that we seem to have had. After all, women are not fruit trees. Women give birth to children, not fruit. It would then make good cultural sense to speak of metaphorical “Eves” giving birth to metaphorical children. As we shall see, the most prevalent metaphorical use of children in the cultural environment of the Pastoral Epistles was as references to virtues. The author of 1 Timothy therefore uses his audience’s familiarity

with a commonplace idea to introduce a more Christian form of that same idea.

As an aside, in Gal 4:19, Paul declares that he is in birth-pangs for his children (i.e., “my children,”) until Christ is formed  in them. This is not exactly the same idea as Ephesian women giving birth to virtues in 1 Tim2:15. Still, this verse helps to make a point about the distance between the perspective of ancient writers and our modern sensibilities. If the idea of Ephesian women giving birth to virtues is strange to modern hearers, then it is certainly no stranger than the idea of the male Paul giving birth to Galatian believers who are themselves pregnant with Christ. 

More important than all this is that the idea of virtues and vices as children appear in the allegorizing interpretations of the first century Jewish writer and contemporary with Paul, Philo. He referred to the story of the Hebrew midwives as soul giving birth to virtue (Laws 3.3), an idea not far from that of a pure heart issuing in virtue in 1 Tim 1:5 (cf. 1 Tim 1:19; 2 Tim 2:22).  Philo also gave an allegorical reading of the children of Noah as virtues, an understanding similarly implied in 1 Tim 2:15 for the "children" of the Ephesian women, and similarly made more explicit by context. Philo interprets other narratives from the Hebrew Scriptures in the same metaphorical way, even to the point of allegorical rewording of patriarchal statements. In Laws 3.180–81, Jacob responds to Rachel’s request for children saying, “You have greatly erred, because I am not in the place of God, who alone is able to open the wombs of souls in them, and make them to be pregnant  and to give birth to good things” Laws 2.82; Cherubim 2.45–52).

So, the point is that Paul is not talking about the general relationship between all men and women or even between all wives and husbands. And the special application of his teaching would be that women who will be saved (just as men who will be saved) need to pay special attention to their lives and their teaching so as not to go astray. And that is precisely what Paul tells young Timothy elsewhere in the letter: 

On "the weaker vessel" -

This is my translation, looking at the Greek text. Peter starts with common false criticisms that pagan men had in the ancient Greco-Roman world against their Christian wives: women are less intelligent and weaker than men. Then he completely over-turns those demeaning assumptions by saying that what is appropriate in the relationship is the understanding that women have equal inheritance rights to enjoy life along with men. And that includes this present life and the life to come. (So, women aren't put off till heaven!). So, unlike pagan men, Christian husbands are to "bestow honor" on their Christian wives because they are "joint-heirs of the grace of life."

I know it isn't the traditional reading of the text, but it is certainly defensible in light of the immediate context. So the first part of the sentence with "weaker vessel" is tongue-in-cheek or ironic and the Greek could be read as conceding the assumption for the sake of overturning it immediately. That is what makes the most sense to me. Otherwise, the two parts would be strangely contradictory: one is demeaning but the other honoring. I don't think that is the best way to read it. And, since the Greek text allows this reading and the gospel favors it, I think it is the best.

A better interpretation might be:

"In the same way, you husbands should live with your wives in an understanding way. They are called “the weaker sex.” But they deserve your respect because God gives them the same blessing he gives you—the grace of true life. Do this so that nothing will stop your prayers from being heard."

As I finished reading his email I sat there and cried. Do you do that too? When something resonates in your heart? Like the D chord being struck on the piano and every other unplayed instrument's string begins to vibrate in the room - resonating the D chord...my heart resonated the Freedom and Life that Peter and Paul were offering to his brothers and sisters. 

Obviously, there are other scriptures that I have a question mark about and maybe one day I'll have the chance to study more of the Bible instead of cooking for the masses and doing their laundry, but until then I'm once again overcome by the Love of Christ for His Bride. 

And for my three beautiful daughters, may you have brothers who step up to the mic and hand it to you sometimes. Because you have a piece of Christ that needs to be heard.