Comments on: Gender Division Divides the Church - by Margaret Mowczko

By: C.J.

C.J. — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 22:43:14 +0000

Thanks so much for your response – that makes sense with the disciples!

And it’s true, unclean just sounds dreadful and I think I associate it with ‘bad’ or ‘rejected’.

Actually, when I read Leviticus, I was really surprised and moved by the care God clearly had through the rules he put in place. Such specific details he attended to with His people, like not wanting people to have mould in their house, to avoid disease, etc. Shows such a tender, loving Creator.

By: Margaret Mowczko

Margaret Mowczko — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 23:42:27 +0000

C.J. I’m reading Leviticus at the moment. With very few exceptions, the general regulations (i.e. the regulations that don’t concern priests) apply equally to men and to women. (That’s not to say that the OT isn’t patriarchal; it often is.)

We are discussing these issues on a facebook page and a few women have expressed their feelings of dismay that women were deemed unclean over something natural.

Most of these regulations, however, were given for health reasons also; to protect the person and the community from disease. And by abstaining from sex during the almost two weeks of being unclean, it meant that sex was more likely to take place when a woman was fertile. Being unclean does not somehow equate with sin!

Jesus’ ministry occurred at a vital juncture between the Old Testament and the New Covenant; between “Israel only” and the inclusive Church. The New Covenant had not yet been inaugurated when the Twelve were called. And so, at that time and place, Jesus chose twelve Jewish men to be his closest disciples and assistants.

By: C.J.

C.J. — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:34:23 +0000

Thanks for this line of comments – something i have often questioned as well. As much as Jesus clearly does not favour a gender (although all the disciples were men – what’s the deal there? culture i guess?).
I always struggled with OT stuff cause there does seem to be clear value placed on men. I remember reading Leviticus, all God’s rules and there is a value piece where women are clearly less. And those rules were all from God. I don’t know how to incorporate that into my understanding of Jesus!
Good point about the priests though – that’s true – it wasn’t even all men but a specific group of men.

And women being unclean – kind of annoying that God creates women with a menstrual cycle and then deems it unclean – what is that all about?

By: Margaret Mowczko

Margaret Mowczko — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 01:58:05 +0000

Women frequently would have been ceremonially unclean due to menstruation and childbirth, so it would have been impractical for a woman to be a priest.

Having said that, I don’t think it is a case of “men could be priests, women could not.” The fact is that it was only a small, select group of men within the Israeli community who could be priests. Even Levite men were disqualified from being priests for a variety of reasons.

By: Dale Fincher

Dale Fincher — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 22:01:19 +0000

Caleb, I don’t know what it means… would have to think on it some more. And I’m going to ask one of my Jewish friends to let me know how Jews thought of that in their own scriptures.