BACK
carried out by Ezra and other menfolk. There is no evidence that any women were involved. One might site other passages to show that the place of women in the days of Nehemiah was not exceptional, but was in accord with accepted practice, but it may be better to leave others to search the Scriptures for relevant passages.

Setting aside scriptural practice may not seem dangerous, but there are undoubtedly good reasons for what is enjoined by the Lord and ignoring what he says is taking the road to disaster. In Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress taking a by-path led the pilgrims to Giant Despair who lived in Doubting Castle. Saying that scriptural injunctions are not important, because we do not see their importance will undoubtedly eventually have serious consequences.

In practice one has noticed that Christian writings by women are almost always about subjective matters - feelings and experiences and those kind of things - rather than doctrine. Women who put out doctrine are usually in error, such as Mrs Eddy (Christian Science), Mrs White (Seventh-day Adventism) and Mme. Blavatsky (Theosophy). This was pointed out to me as a child and there is no doubt a good deal of truth in it. Satan got in by the woman in Genesis 3 and no doubt he will use similar tactics again if he can; hence the scriptural injunctions are no doubt necessary as a barrier to Satan, if not also for other reasons.

The question may be asked: "If a woman is not to speak in assembly, what should she do"? That there is a tendency in a woman to wish she was a man is something that one was made aware of as a small child. However, God's ordering must not be dismissed as male chauvinism. Women clearly have a part to play in the life of the Christian company. They may serve as Anna did in the temple (Luke 2:37) and they may be prophetesses as Anna also was (Luke 2:36). Then we have four virgin daughters who prophesied in Acts 21:9. Peter quotes Joel in his address in Acts 2 including the statement: "Your daughters shall prophesy". There were also a number of prophetesses in the Old Testament.

However, Scripture makes more of the place of a woman in the home than of her place in public life. Scripture speaks of a woman's house in the case of Lydia (Acts 16:15). Lydia was, incidentally, a business woman as the previous verse shows. Then the house in Luke 10:38 was Martha's. Paul says of women that they should: "Rule the house" (1 Timothy 5:14); the house being the private side of life. In the Old Testament it is said that the Israelites had light in their dwellings (Exodus 10:23), this showing that God makes a difference between the dwellings of his people and the world outside. It may be well said that so far as the assembly is concerned if the women are not right then the state of the assembly is likely to be bad. The fact that Paul had to speak about the place of women in 1 Corinthians would suggest that there were things that were not right with them and this may well have contributed to the bad state of the assembly there. The woman's contribution, if a silent one, is vital to the assembly, just as it is in the home (Proverbs 31:10-31). There is no idea that women should not be present at Christian assemblies, else why say they should be silent in them ? In the Old Testament Miriam had an important place if not such a prominent one as Moses and Aaron. She instrumentally saved Moses life initially (Exodus 2) and later led the singing in Exodus 15:20/21. See also Micah 6:4. Scripture elsewhere speaks of singing men and singing women (2 Samuel 19:35) and there is certainly nothing to say that women should not sing in the New Testament.

NEXT