The current evangelical definition of Biblical womanhood is not the way it’s always been.

Beth Allison Barr is a professor of Medieval and early church history at Baylor University. As she studied Scripture and church history, she became increasingly unsettled about the way her church defined Biblical womanhood and unnecessarily restricted women’s participation in the life of the church. There was a great disconnect between what she was studying and her church’s practice. In her book The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth, she explains what she learned about Scripture, church history, and the current popular views on women in the church. Beth Allison Barr’s book is not only well-written and organized, but is compelling because of how her study impacted her whole family’s personal journey.

The Hard Parts of Scripture about Women

For the past few years, I have been studying the hard parts of Scripture that address a women’s place in home, church, and society. There are the go-to passages of Paul: 1 Timothy 2, I Corinthians 11, and 1 Corinthians 14. There are a variety of interpretations of these hard parts of Scripture. There are also many books on women in the church that emphasize the big picture. How did Jesus treat women? How did Paul include women in the life of the early church in Acts? One of the most common views about women in the church is known as the complementarian view, popularized by The Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. This organization has been around since 1987, long enough to reflect on its impact on the church. Beth Allison Barr joins a host of recent writers who have been reflecting on the Council’s teachings on the church.

Women in Early Church and Medieval History

For me as a reader, The Making of Biblical Womanhood’s greatest contribution to the conversation is the specifics of how early church history and Medieval church history viewed women in the church. In the chapter entitled Our Selective Medieval Memory she tells the story of Margery Kempe in the 1400s who was confronted by the Archbishop of York who had a problem with her traveling teaching ministry. Margery defended her rights to teach Scripture not in a pulpit but through “conversation and good words”. She even called for the Archbishop of York to repent of his wickedness. Barr also tells about Paula who lived in the 300s AD. She founded a monastery in Bethlehem and worked alongside Jerome to translate the Vulgate, the Latin Bible, which was the first major Bible translation into everyday language besides Greek and Hebrew. Jerome thought highly of Paula and even wrote her biography. The author includes many more examples of women serving the Lord in the church or through teaching or writing.

A New View of Church History

Barr’s book made me wonder: why had I never heard of these women before? I have taken church history in college and I had heard of Jerome, but why not Paula who worked beside him? Now I’m curious and would like to dig into reading about more Christian women from early church history. Barr’s book is well-researched with lots of recommended books where she gets her information so I don’t need to look far to find some titles.

How the Reformation Impacted Women

In the chapter entitled The Cost of the Reformation for Evangelical Women, Barr describes how things changed for women during the Reformation. Before the Reformation, women and men were equals in the church under the authority of the priest system. Both had equal opportunity to serve the Lord with their life through monasteries and convents. But after the Reformation, when monastic life was no longer an option, there was still opportunity for men to enter the ministry in the church. But where does that leave women?

During the Reformation, the domestic sphere becomes sanctified as the place where women can be made holy. Instead of men and women in the church remaining equal under the pastor/elder authority after the Reformation, the husband replaces the Catholic priest in the priestly role over his family while the wife is no longer on equal footing with her husband within the local church. Yet as Barr points out, this is not the way things had always been. She also explains how the domestic sphere gets reframed as a woman’s primary calling during the early modern era. Instead of chores at home being something women and men just did because they needed doing, in the late 1800s it becomes a woman’s primary spiritual calling. This made sense to me in my understanding of history.

The author is not encouraging women to ignore their homes. But scripturally speaking, both men and women are told to take care of their homes (Titus 2:5, 1 Timothy 3:4-5). The Bible does not speak of housework and family care as women’s primary spiritual calling.

Biblical Womanhood and the Scriptures

The Making of Biblical Womanhood was not just about church history. The author also delves into the typical Scripture passages that are highlighted when talking about Biblical womenhood. However, I do not agree with the author’s conclusion that women are free to be pastors or elders.

I am intrigued by her view of I Corinthians 14. She says women asking their husbands at home is a quote from a writer of the time and Paul is quoting it negatively. This interpretation made clear in the RSV translation of the Bible. The author does say she cannot guarantee that this is what Paul is doing here, but does lay it out as an option. I appreciated Gary Shogren’s comments on this view in his 1 Corinthians commentary.

I also did not agree with her conclusion that 1 Timothy 3, lacking male pronouns in the list of elder qualifications, allows women to be elders. In fact “if someone aspires” in 1 Timothy 3:1 is a masculine singular pronoun. Also, what about the phrase “husband of one wife”? In addition, although it is a descriptive and not a prescriptive passage, Jesus does not choose any women to be in the 12 disciples/apostles. He does have women followers, but they are not listed in the main twelve.

Freedom for the Church

But despite my disagreement with the author about women as pastors/elders, I am thankful for the way her book opened my eyes to a broader view of church history in regards to women. How we do things in church right now is not the way it’s always been. That’s part of the beauty of how God has communicated what He wanted the church to look like.

God gave the church a lot of guidelines, mostly about loving, serving, teaching one another. He left a lot of freedom for what that will look like pragmatically. After all, what works in early Africa may not work in 2020 America and may not work in the jungles of South America in the 1700s. Those of us who would love to find hard and fast rules for church practices will instead find passages that leave a lot up in the air about what things look like in the church. Church is where believers will grow to be more like Him through ordinary worship gatherings, Bible reading and study, songs, and prayer.

Further Reading on Biblical Womanhood

If you are new to the conversation about women and their place in the home, church, or society, I would recommend starting with Rachel Green Miller’s excellent book Beyond Authority and Submission.

Rachel Green Miller, just like fellow author Aimee Byrd, maintains that only qualified men can be pastors or elders, but notices how Scripture emphasizes women and men being interdependent, co-laborers, and having relationships based on mutuality. Authority and submission has its place, but it’s not as primary as some would want it to be. Rachel Green Miller also shows from Scripture the inaccuracies of saying men are created to be providers/protectors and women are created to be nurturers. Rather, since both men and women are made in the image of God, both men and women are providers, protectors, and nurturers.

Once you have read Beyond Authority and Submission, then I would recommend reading Aimee Byrd’s Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and Beth Allison Barr’s The Making of Biblical Womanhood. I am currently reading another recent book about women in the church called Worthy: Celebrating the Value of Women by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Eric Shumacher. I will let you know what I’ve learned from it when I’ve finished it.

Do you have any resources you’d recommend about Biblical womanhood? Have you read any of the books mentioned above? Let me know in the comments below.

Some of the links above are Amazon affiliate links. I will get a small fee when you make a purchase on Amazon after clicking one of the above links. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

More on the hard parts of Scripture regarding women

• What I Learned from Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (and what I’m still wondering about)
• Woman is the Glory of Man? 1 Corinthians 11
• Love & Respect: Helpful or Harmful?