Book Review: "God’s Woman Revisited: Pocket Edition" By Gary Burke
Wineskins Contributor・10/06/20
A revolutionary book cameout in the late 1930s by C.R. Nichol entitled, “God’s Woman”. In that bookNichol challenged many traditional views on women’s participation in theassembly (covering the pertinent New Testament scripture in 1 Timothy and 1Corinthians) as well as women in the home. The book was accepted by many peopleyou might find surprising, like N.B. Hardeman. It is also surprising that sucha book would have been written by Nichol, who was quite conservative himself.
Gary Burke has written twofollow-up books in the spirit of Nichols’ work, “God’sWoman Revisited” and “God’sWoman Revisited Pocket Edition”. This review will focus on the Pocketedition. The lengthier version will be helpful to those wanting a full-ontreatment of the passages but I will say that Burke got a lot into the pocketedition, making it the perfect read for someone who wants the gist of thearguments without having to dive into the footnotes. Another helpful aspect ofthe pocket edition is that it is perfectly suited for Bible class instruction, witheach chapter ending with a set of questions to discuss. If you are looking fora book to discuss the role of women in the assembly with your Bible class orsmall group, I highly recommend this book.
We are going to give awaytwo copies of this book to Wineskins readers. Just comment on this article and tworandom winners will be drawn this Friday! If you haven’t registered to make acomment, now is the time! It has been a real pleasure to watch our number ofregistered users climb!
Here is what this bookdoes so well that so few books accomplish – Burke tries to stick with the text.You would be surprised how many things we hear taught are just simply not inthe text. They are inferences from the text that become assumed to be what thetext directly says. For instance, many people believe the women praying andprophesying in 1 Cor 11 can’t be in the assembly. But the text never says it isor isn’t. The context can point us to a particular conclusion but we really don’tknow based on that text alone. There are several instances where the authormakes the point of the text and just stops there. Yes, we want more answers…yeswe want Paul to address our questions. But often he doesn’t and to pretend thathe does can abuse the text. So, kudos to Burke for sticking to the text as itstands.
Before Burke dives too farin he works on some process issues with the reader. He explains why badinterpretive methods have led to a variety of conflicting conclusions and lackof consensus. He then takes the time to walk the reader through what solid exegesislooks like. For many, this will be a great introduction to how to read and studythe Bible. That alone is worth the price of admission of the book!
One of the things I reallyappreciate about this book is the appeal to consistent application of our reasoning.For instance, one argument for the supremacy (or authority) of man over womanis creation order. On page 53 Burke makes the point that if you apply that sameargument consistently you would conclude that animals take precedence over humanitysince the animals were made first. So simple. So profound.
Much of the women’s roleconversation goes back to creation order. That is where Burke starts his discussionof the text coming at it from both directions: as the creation story is told inGenesis and then looking back on it from the connected texts in the NewTestament (direct quotations, clear allusions, and possible allusions).
I agree with most of theconclusions on the relevant passages, which would lead us to be more inclusiveof women’s participation in the assembly. If there were two small but significantconnections I would add to the book it would be these (I realize one can onlysay so much!): The first is that 1 Tim 2 clearly connects with Genesis but not onchildbearing…rather, it connects on deception. Paul isn’t saying women are moreeasily deceived (he never says that but people infer it), instead Paul ismerely saying that women have been deceived in the past and seem to be beingdeceived in the present in Ephesus. This becomes clearer in 1 Tim 5. Thatbrings about the second point I wish he had made from 1 Tim 2 in how it connectsto 1 Tim 5. We learn in 1 Tim 5 that young, childless widows are being deceivedand passing along the false teachings to others. In both 1 Tim 2 and 5 Pauluses the word “childbearing” and only uses the term here, nowhere else in hiswriting. Paul’s solution of being “saved through childbearing” is hard for usto understand but made perfect sense to them – marry and have kids and they won’tbe susceptible to the false teachers anymore. This deception and passing alongof false teachings also explains why Paul forbids the women in Ephesus to beteaching at that point in time. This isn’t a prohibition for all women for alltime, which is how the passage in 1 Tim 2 has traditionally been understood. Icredit Gordon Fee with making this connection and I think it makes better senseof the passage as it stands in the context of the whole letter and thesituation in Ephesus.
This book directlychallenges the traditionally restrictive position held by the majority ofchurches of Christ and challenges the position from a strictly biblicalperspective. It challenges the position that restriction is the “safe” optionwhen in reality if you restrict someone from serving God who God does not restrictthat is hardly a safe route. In a sense, what seems biblically conservative canbe biblically liberal – adding our presuppositions and inferences as binding conclusions as authoritative as the text itself.
Thanks to Gary Burke for writing these two books. May his tribe increase and may people in Churches of Christ (and any other fellowship who have severe limitations on women in theassembly) read this book and be blessed by it…may we read this book and come togrips with which parts of our view are speculation created from inference and which parts are actually, directly in the text itself…and the need for that ispresent on both sides of the aisle on this issue!