Why is the Bible so sexist?

Why is the Bible so sexist?

Asked by Angelica

Why does the Bible discriminate against women?
I mean come on, we all know it’s so sexist.
Why has the Bible adapted this stupid view?

As a woman myself, I actually don’t believe the Bible does discriminate AGAINST women.  While it does draw some distinctions between the roles of men and women in marriage and in the authoritative teaching of a church (and these for positive reasons), the Bible actually emphasizes the equal VALUE of men and women in the most important matters. 

For example, men and women are both equally:
- created by God and made in his image (Genesis 1:26-27)
- loved by God and made for relationship with him
- saved through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 10:9-11)
- ‘brothers’ and ‘co-heirs’ with Christ
- able to serve God

Men and women were created by God to complement each other, meaning both would be lesser if the other were not created.  This means that each must have a slightly different role to play, or they would be identical and so could not complement each other.  This accounts for things such as a wife’s role of submitting to her husband.  Note however, that this leaves the husband with the great responsibility of loving his wife as Christ loved the church – i.e. sacrificially giving up his life for her best interests!  (Eph 5:22-33) Sometimes humans have distorted and abused the roles the Bible has set out, but this doesn’t mean the roles themselves are flawed or discriminatory, or that they cannot work together for the best of both men and women.

With feminism having shaped our society so much, it’s sometimes easy to misunderstand what the Bible is saying in regard to men and women.  This is because we often import meanings to words or phrases (e.g. submit) that the Bible never intended, or come with set beliefs already about what the Bible must mean and we miss its deeper and positive points. It’s worth looking closely at the context of a Bible passage, speaking with people at a Christian church, or reading trustworthy books on the topic written by Christian scholars, to work hard at understanding what the Bible does say rather than missing out by rejecting it straight away.

Men and women are different from each other, and the Bible actually allows and celebrates this, rather than forcing them to be the same.  This can be something of great joy to us as we trust in the God who made both men and women!

Answers are kindly provided by our friends at Christianity.net.au

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