Christianity Chapter 2 : Marriage and The Family - 2.3 Equality of men and women in the family Flashcards
What do most Christians believe about the equality of men and women
Most Christians believe that men and women are equal, which is based on the biblical teaching that both men and women were created in the image of God. In the creation account of Genesis 1, men and women are created at the same time, and both are given authority to rule over the rest of creation:
Why may some Christians infer that men are superior from Genesis 2?
In the Genesis 2 account, men and women are created separately, and some Christians therefore infer that the man is superior, as he was created first and the woman is created as a companion for him.
‘I will make a helper suitable for him’ (Genesis 2)
Why may some Christians views women as inferior to men based on Genesis 3?
In Genesis 3, the woman appears to encourage the man to disobey God’s instruction not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Historically, some Christians have viewed women as being inferior to men on the grounds that all women share the blame for tempting the man.
In Genesis 3: 16 the woman is punished for her role in tempting the man to disobey God, leading some Christians to suggest that pain in childbirth and male domination within marriage would not otherwise have happened.
‘I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labour you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’
(Genesis 3: 16)
What evidence is there in the Old Testament which demonstrates equality between men and women
In the Old Testament, however, women seem to have leading roles in society and the Ten Commandments require respect for both parents equally: ‘Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you’ (Exodus 20: 12).
What evidence is there in Galatians 3:28 which show that men and women have equal worth in god’s eyes?
‘There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’
(Galatians 3: 28).
Most Christians therefore believe that men and women have equal worth in God’s eyes.
What Christian teaching suggests that women and men are equal but different for example they have different roles within a marriage?
‘Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour. […] Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church’
(Ephesians 5)
Christians who adopt this teaching in their marriages highlight the comparison to Jesus and the Church - Jesus laid down his life for the Church, and therefore the husband has the responsibility to love and protect the family. Women in turn have a responsibility to love, submit to, and respect their husbands. Some more liberal Christians do not agree that the husband is the head of the wife, and believe that both partners should submit to each other.
