04.05. God has upheld this norm
5.2 God made no changes to the relation He placed between man and woman in their inter-personal relation In the inter-personal relation between man and woman the principle of Genesis 2:1-25 is also maintained.
There is a reason why the Saviour of the world was a man and not a woman.[2]
There is a reason why the disciples Jesus chose were men and not women and again, it’s not because of the culture of the day. "To argue that Jesus’ choice of apostles was determined by culture is to ignore the fact that God chose the culture and time in which his Son was to be born."[5] If God wanted a woman to be a disciple He would have called a woman to be a disciple and made it culturally acceptable too.
In Acts 1:16 we read of Peter standing up in the midst of the disciples (120 in total, including both men and women) and speaking on the matter of filling the vacancy left open by Judas. Peter addressed his speech to "men and brethren." Though Peter’s words were no doubt intended for all 120 disciples, regardless of gender, Peter reflects the principle of Genesis 2:1-25 by addressing the meeting with reference to the leaders.
In 1 Corinthians 11:3 the apostle writes, "But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God." The authority / submission structure of Genesis 2:1-25 remains.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14:34 : "Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says." The law: that is a reference to the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. The principle of the beginning is maintained throughout the Scriptures.
Similarly, we read in Ephesians 5:22-24 "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Saviour of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything." Granted, much is also written in the verses that follow concerning the task of the husband to love the wife in order to make it possible for her to submit. But the point here is that the principle of Genesis 2:1-25 remains.
The Lord tells the woman in 1 Timothy 2:12, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence."
One finds a similar exhortation in 1 Peter 3:1-6 : "Likewise you wives, be submissive to your own husbands...."
Altogether, it comes down to what we read in Titus 2:1-5. The apostle Paul instructed his servant Titus in what he was to do. Titus was to "speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine." Titus had to address the older men (Titus 2:2) and the older women (Titus 2:3). To the older women he had to say "that they be reverent in behaviour, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things - that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands ...": echoed here is Genesis 2:1-25, and the attitude of Deborah! That is what the older women are to teach the younger women, and the reason is: "that the word of God may not be blasphemed."
----- Footnotes ----- [1] cf Foh, pg 91f [2] cf Matthew 1:25; Revelation 12:5 [3] cf Foh, pg 93.