Peace all
Fatah, it's taken me a few days to answer this thread and I know this reply won't do it justice, but please let me share a few thoughts that may or may not have been discussed by the others.
This is again a discussion on a subject which, although it stands on it's own, must not be.
The Bible MUST be read as a whole revelation from start to finish. What happens in the middle is not a second thought by God.
God created Man and Woman in His own image, humankind fell and because of the holiness, justice and wrath of God, humankind was eternally separated from God by sin. The love and justice and grace of God foreknew and provided the means of man's salvation before even the world was created. That means arrived in the person of Jesus Christ, and His life, death and resurrection. Man was redeemed, and now all creation is waiting for it's final redemption.. that point when Jesus returns and the Kingdom of God is fully restored.
What does this have to do with the place of women in the bible?
God created male and female .. He created both in the image of God and gave both the right to dominate the earth.
When they fell, they each came under judgement. The OT judgement on womankind in Genesis was not that she would come under male domination, but that she would want to dominate him.
The entire history of human kind shows that the equal status that man and woman were created with, was broken at the fall and each of them, man and woman have been in an eternal power struggle ever since.
The law wasn't given to make this struggle worse, it was to highlight the fact that it already existed. Every law was broken, and showed man and woman's desperate need for a saviour. Obeying the Law to it's letter and it's spirit was impossible. Disobedience to the law, wasn't and isn't just about not doing the things the law requires, but also the attitude of the heart.
The NT teaches that the OT Law existed to show man how depraved they were, and Jesus Himself said that He had come to fulfil the Law. the standards of the law were impossible to live under, and Jesus himself said even thinking about breaking the laws was enough to break them.
Clearly, the Laws were given not to be the way to God, but to show the need for Him.
What did that mean? It meant that what the law could not do.. bring about man's redemption .. God Himself provided for himself.
When that was done, the NT teaches that mankind was restored to it's "male and female, He created them" and "in Christ, there are neither male nor female".
As a Christian woman, I am equal in God's eyes to my husband. There is no male and female. However, he has set some guidelines in place to help me maintain my feminity and my place in His order.
My husband and I must be in submission to each other, we are told that "Submit to each other" as believers. We are also told that our marriage must be a picture of Christ and His Church in the world. Therefore, I'm told to allow my husband the place of head of the house. Where though does that fit in with the teaching we should "submit to one another."
In the same verse that says I should allow him to be the head of the house, it says also, he should lay down his life for me. His wants, His desires are submitted to me, but I submit to him by allowing him headship in our family life.
This is a beautiful picture of restored humanity.
I look forward to talking more with you
Carol