Seventeen And Eighteen The New Woman & Phoebes Place 1 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Lesson Seventeen And Eighteen The New Woman & Phoebe’s Place

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“Shall the sisters pray and speak in public?”

This was

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the most pressing questions among churches of Christ from about 1888 and for several more years.

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In March of 1888 a man wrote to David Lipscomb, editor of the Advocate suggesting that the command, “Let your women keep silence in the churches” (I Cor. 14:34) prohibited women even from teaching children in the Sunday school.

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Lipscomb responded: “…. That they could teach children and even their husbands but

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in a “modest deferential manner,” not in “an assuming, authoritative way”. He added: “Women must never stand “before promiscuous [or mixed] assemblies” but rather teach only in private.”

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Selina Moore Holman an elder’s wife from Fayetteville, Tennessee challenged some of the traditional assumptions provoking sharp and lively exchanges with Lipscomb that continued

• n and off for many

years.

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Who was Selina Moore Holman?

• 1. She was born July 9, 1850 near Lynchburg,

Tennessee.

• 2. She died September 18, 1915
• 3. She married Doctor T.P Holman in Jan.1875.
• 4. They had 8 children together.
• 5. Her father was Capt. J. L. Moore,

confederate army officer who died from battle wounds when she was only fourteen.

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Who was Selina Moore Holman?

• 6. As oldest child, Selina took on the

responsibility of caring for her three sisters and brother by earning a living as a teacher.

• 7. She met her husband when he treated her

for a severe illness in 1874. They married just a year later.

• 8. She was a strong supporter of the

Temperance movement and active in the movement to gain women’s right to vote.

• 9. She was president of Tenn. Woman’s

Christian Temperance Union for 15 years.

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Who was Selina Moore Holman?

• 10. She wrote for the Gospel Advocate and her

first article appeared in the Feb. 1888 issue entitled, “Shall the Church Help the Saloon To Live?”

• 11. The article encourage church members to make

non-intoxicating drinks for refreshment and even included her own recipe.

• 12. In 1888 she wrote a letter to the Gospel

Advocate taking a different stance from Lipscomb’s stand about women in the church.

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13.She believed husbands are the head of the households and the wives first role is to support the family, but she also believed there was no reason to prevent women from teaching on Biblical topics and to support her claims she pointed to examples of women in the Bible who were placed in positions of power by God. 14. In the 1890’s she aligned herself with the “New Woman” movement which supported the women’s suffrage, better education for women, and more opportunities for church leadership.

Who was Selina Moore Holman?

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“A learned Christian woman may expound the scriptures and urge

• bedience to them, to one hundred

men and women at one time, as well as to one hundred, one at a time,…. and no more violate a scriptural command in one instance than the other.”

• - Silena Holman – (1888)

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Arguments Made By Mrs. Holman On Her Beliefs:

1.There were several passage indicating that women were prominent workers in the early church. 2.There were others seeming to teach differently from I Cor. 14:34. 3.She cited Deborah the judge of Israel (Judges 4-6) 4.She cited Anna the prophetess in Luke 2:37-38. 5.She cited Priscilla who taught Apollos. (Acts 18:26)

• 6. She cited Phillip’s four daughters who prophesied

(Acts 21:8-9)

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Arguments Made By Mrs. Holman On Her Beliefs:

7.She rejected the distinction between private and public spheres that Lipscomb and others sought to maintain. 8.Such distinction, she argued, was much more cultural than scriptural. 9.She rejected Lipscomb’s position that God had made women more emotional and less rational than man. 10.She also rejected Lipscomb’s position that women were suited for nurturing children but not for public teaching or leadership.

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Some of Lipscomb’s positions on Women and their work in the church: 1. In the story of Adam and Eve Lipscomb asserted the Holy Spirit was saying: “I suffered you to take the lead once; your strong emotional nature led you to violate God’s word and to ship wreck a world, I cannot again trust you to lead.”

This appears to me that Lipscomb was putting words into the mouth of the Holy Spirit, a very dangerous position to take or to stand upon. When in truth, this was never said in any place of the Scriptures.

• - Wm. Wallace --

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Some of Lipscomb’s positions on Women and their work in the church:

• 2. Lipscomb revealed clearly his deep allegiance to

what historians of the period have called the “cult of true womanhood” or the “cult of domesticity.” This vision of the ideal woman emerged in America between 1820 and 1860 and remained dominant until near the end of the century.

• 3. Lipscomb and Sewell and most other leaders

condemned the “strong-minded women” who sought the right to vote. Sewell wrote…. “a principle which , if allowed to spread, threatens to destroy the most sacred of all institutions(the home), and make America a homeless nation.”

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• 1. Selina Moore Holman did not hold a specific

position in the local church at Fayetteville, Tn.

• 2. She was a staunch worker for the local

congregation and diligently served in ways that definitely benefited the work of the local church.

• 3. She was a very outspoken woman who did take
• n many of the masculine put-downs of the

“modern woman” or “the new woman.”

• 4. She was a proponent of women’s rights, the right

to vote and was very opposed to the use of liquor in any form.

• 5. Later she served as President of the Tennessee

Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.

Synopsis:

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PHOEBE’S PLACE

“Phebe was a deaconess in the official sense

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that word…whenever the necessities of the churches are such as to demand it, the order of the deaconesses should be reestablished.”

• - Moses E. Lard --

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Campbell’s Ancient Order:

• 1. Plurality of elders and deacons

in each congregation

• 2. Included among the deacons

were “female deacons.”

• 3. In 1827 Campbell wrote that

early Christians in Jerusalem “appointed female deacons, or deaconesses, to visit and wait upon the sisters.

• 4. Of this sort was Phoebe of

Cenchrea, and other persons mentioned in the New Testament, who labored in the Gospel.

Alexander Campbell

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Campbell’s Views Continued:

5.From Romans 16:1 and I Tim. 3:11, he wrote in 1835, “it appears that females were constituted deaconesses in the primitive church. Duties to females, as well as to males, demand this.” 6.Since these specially appointed women comprised part of the church’s “ancient order,” it followed that they should have a place in the restored church.

• 7. However, Campbell apparently did not crusade

for the appointment of deaconesses, but his views had considerable impact.

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Tolbert Fanning: “The sisters, beyond all question, were as legitimately deacons as the brethren.” He continued, “Paul said, ‘I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a deacon/servant of the church at Cenchrea.” The apostle, not only recommended the brethren at Rome to receive her as a deacon of her church, but to assist her in whatsoever business she had need of them.” The name “deacon”, he added, comes from the service performed: “Philip was called the Evangelist because of his labor and Phoebe was called Deacon in consequence of her labor in the cause of Christ.

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W.K. Pendleton: Wrote in 1848 that it was “generally regarded, among

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brethren, as an essential element in the restoration of primitive order, to ordain, in every church, both deacons and deaconesses.” In 1870 he said: “Besides deacons, every church should have deaconesses, whose duty it is to perform such offices as cannot be so well performed by deacons, and especially such to females, as could not wirh delicacy and propriety be laid upon the deacons.”

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Robert Milligan: “The Diaconate of the primitive church was not confined to male members, he wrote in 1868. “Deaconesses were also appointed to attend to the wants of the sick and needy, especially

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Since the poor and needy will always remain, churches will always “require the attention of both Deacons and Deaconesses just as much as they did in the churches

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Jerusalem, Cenchrea, and Ephesus.” “Phoebes should, therefore, constitute a part

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the diakonoi

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every fully

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congregation.”

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Moses E. Lard: He saw deaconesses as part of the apostolic

• rder.

“Did Phoebe belong to an order of official women in the church?” She certainly belonged to an order of women called servants of the church, who performed their service by apostolic sanction; and the duties

• f this order were the same as those usually

ascribed to deaconesses.” “Phoebe was a deaconess in the official sense of that word.” As a result he urged present-day churches should have them too: ”whenever necessary…the order

• f deaconess should be re-established.”

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E.G. Sewell: Women were not “official” deaconesses any more than men were “official” deacons. Sewell and Lipscomb both rejected all “Officialism” in the church. To him, both men and women occupied exactly the same role – appointed servants, nothing more. “There is absolutely nothing in the use of the Greek word diakoneoo, nor in a correct translation of it, to justify such an official idea.” Sewell was troubled to see “a specific class of men in the church called “deacons” for he believed that the term should be applied to any that serves in any capacity in the church.”

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• C. R. Nichol:

“It should be known in every congregation,” he wrote in 1938, “that Sister Phoebe, Sister Priscilla, and Sister Dorcas are deaconesses in the congregation, and that when their assistance is needed they are to be called.” Though a few like Nichol spoke out, few congregations seem to have considered appointing women as deacons, and virtually no congregations actually did so. Women of course continued to do a great deal of the serving in the churches – as they always

• had. That, after all, was what they took to be

Phoebe’s place.

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The contested Greek word, diakanon: Literally means: servant

Thus brings up the problem of what is called “transliteration” versus “translation.”

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Thus brings up the problem of what is called “transliteration” versus “translation.”

Translation: The giving of the meaning of a word from the original language into the current language (I.E. –from Greek to English) Transliteration: Taking an original language word and making a similar looking and sounding word in the current language.

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Greek Word Translation Transliteration

Baptizo βαπτιςο Immerse Baptism Angellos Ανγελλοσ Messenger Angel Diakonos Διακονοσ Servant Deacon (ess) If proper and consistent TRANSLATION had been used, the words, baptism, angel and deacon would not appear in any English translation of the New Testament Scriptures.

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In a paper named “Supplemental Material – Statement on Women in Worship and Ministry” issued by the 4th Ave. Church

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Christ in Franklin, Tn. (No date given) “When it comes to the role of women in the faith there will always be differing opinions and room for discussion. This church has studied and prayed about this subject for nearly a decade and believe the Spirit has led us to a place where our sisters can join their brothers in public roles such as prayer and facilitating communion and leadership roles such as teaching and leading ministries.”

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Here would be a good place to note that the phrase “over a man” in verse 12 also means “over here husband.” It is the translators’ choice on hot to bring that Greek phrase into English. This is an example of them making a choice that causes dissonance and conflict with other verses for Paul frequently speaks of women holding high positions in the church. We know that Priscilla was mentioned prominently by Paul, described as an active and effective teacher in the early church. We know that Paul spoke of women praying and prophesying (Ist Cor. 11 and 14) ans said that Junia – a female name – was “chief among the apostles” (some translators prefer “highly esteemed among the apostles.”) He addresses women by name and treats them as fellow workers and fellow laborers with him in Romans 16. (4TH Ave paper)

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I will here note my observation of the previous statements by those at 4th Ave. church of Christ. From Zondervan Publishing House’s “The New Testament from 26 Translations.” ( a side by side comparison of that many translations on each verse

• f the New Testament)
• 1. On Romans 16:1….. The only versions that do not

translate diakonos other than “servant” and NOT deacon/deaconess are Moffett and Williams.

• 2. Moffett says… “a ministering servant….”
• 3. Williams says… “deaconess…”
• 4. All other 24 versions agree that the word should be

“servant”.

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I also offer this position about commentaries and statements other than direct quote from the Scriptures. Many translations are done by individuals and reflect their own personal views of what they believe and not necessarily are consistent with general translation of the Koine Greek. Many of the more modern translations reflect the views of the current day and time rather than being consistent with what the Greek actually says. Statements from churches fall into one or both of these areas. We are not bound, by what other congregations do or say. Our

• bligation is to be as close to what the original texts say, not what

we think they were trying to say. We even often try to make the men in Acts 6 “deacons” when the scriptures say no such thing. They were just appointed to look after the needs of the Grecian widows.

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We must be careful that we do not fall into the trap of what the world around us is doing. Specifically the religious world. For often the world wants to “modernize” the church, its function and what it stands for in the eyes of those that are not following what the Bible says. Paul said it this way: I Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour: 9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

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As far as to “appointing” women as “deaconesses” in the church of today, I suggest that we would be treading on shaky ground. Without a solid example, nor a specific command that we do so, we best leave the subject alone. I Cor. 11:16…. But if anyone is disposed to be contentious--we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.

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OUR NEXT LESSON: CHAPTER 19 SIMPLE TRUSTING FAITH