What is a Woman? Going Beyond the Biological Reality
What is a woman? Going Beyond the Biological Reality
Part 1
Recently, conservative commentator Matt Walsh produced a movie called “What Is A Woman?”. He traveled the world asking people that simple question. Many were unwilling to answer because to define what a woman is will call into question the moral direction this society wants to go. This society wants to define their own reality according to their own desires, and in opposition to actual reality. The self’s desires are this society’s idol.
The most basic answer to “What Is A Woman?” is that a woman is an adult human female with two X chromosomes with the reproductive parts capable of conceiving and bearing a child. That only answers the question on a biological level. There is so much more to being a woman, especially since many women do not have children. Not only that, but a woman’s essential personhood is wrapped up in what it means to be a woman in every sense. Our society wants to confuse us at the core of our being. We need to go to the source of unchanging truth: the Bible.
What does the Bible say about being a woman? Discovering truth always starts with going to the Bible to find out what our Creator says to us. The Creator is the one who made us and who defines what is true, what is good and what will make us live life abundantly. We do not get to define those things. Our Creator is the one who loves us so much that He came to earth as a man to die on the cross for our sins when we were guilty and deserving of death for our sins. He is the one who says “I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” (John 10:10b-11) He offers us salvation from sin and hell by faith in His death on the cross and His triumphal resurrection. In contrast, the Bible says of the devil, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44) The devil is also described this way: “The thief comes only to steal, and kill and destroy”. (John10a)
Before we go any further, we need to ask ourselves whether we will listen to the words of God who wants us to have life abundantly, or the words of the devil, who wants to destroy us. Those are the only two choices in this life. Satan from the very beginning has been trying to make humans doubt God’s truthfulness and goodness. Our society over the past generations has fallen right into his trap as it relates to womanhood.
Our current society has been on a path to redefine what womanhood is, and to reject what the Bible has to say on the subject for many decades. You can see how the feminist ideas have been progressing in our society as you look at the movies and TV shows through the years. Mothers and wives were honored for awhile as valuable to society. But then motherhood has been increasingly denigrated, and shown to be a worthless endeavor and much less fulfilling and beneficial to society than a career. Today the progression of feminist ideas has gotten to the point that we see women portrayed in movies and TV as those who are far more capable and intelligent than the stupid, useless men around them. Women in the movies now are the ones who save the day. Strong and good manhood and womanhood has been torn down and replaced with arrogant, unrealistically strong and talented women who do everything better than men, while men just sit around idly and admire the women. This is not what God created. This is a perverse twisting of what is true and good about manhood and womanhood.
As I will explain in detail in this blog series, the Bible gives women honor, privilege, and special duties. However, many women in our current society think that Christianity is the source of all oppression of women. Ashley Tate has this to say, “In fact, the first prominent moves to address biblical literature in terms of women's issues were not initiated by biblical scholars within the academy, but by the feminist activists and public intellectuals of the 1960s Women's Liberation Movement. They did so not because of an objective interest in unearthing more knowledge, but because they felt that the Bible's patriarchalism must first be named, and then rejected, as one of the powerful cultural forces contributing to the real oppression of women in the contemporary moment.”
But those who say that the Bible contributes to real oppression of women do not know history or the Bible. At the time the New Testament was written, women had very little respect and were seen of little value. In the apostate Jewish culture at the time Jesus came, Jewish men looked at women as little more than property. A Jewish scholar had this to say about women: “Do not sit down with women; for moth comes out of clothes, and a woman’s spite out of a woman. A man’s spite is preferable to a woman’s kindness; women give rise to shame and reproach.” This same Jewish scholar thought that a daughter was a total loss, and a constant potential source of shame Indeed you see this disgust of women in the attitude of the Pharisees towards women throughout the gospels. Jewish rabbis did not even talk to female members of their family in public. In the pagan Roman world, women were treated worse. Not only did men not value their wives as fellow humans worthy of love and respect, they were flagrantly unfaithful to them. Visits to temple prostitutes were common because of the prevailing religious culture. The husband had authority of life and death over those in his family. That included the baby in his wife’s womb. There is a letter that survives from the New Testament time period of a noble Roman man instructing his wife to kill their baby if it was a girl, but take good care of it if it was a boy. This was apparently a very common practice because women were of such little value. In addition, husbands often forced their wives to have abortions if they did not desire a child. The women had no say in the matter. The methods used for abortion then caused a very high rate of mortality for the women who underwent these procedures. Women were seen as expendable. (From the book Rise of Christianity and the book Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes)
Into this dreary, oppressive world for women shines the light of the Creator who loves women deeply. He alone gives us hope, protection, honor, privilege and respect where we had none before. In countries where biblical Christianity has touched enough to affect the culture to some extent, women are treated far better than in other cultures that have not been changed at all by the truth from the Bible. Here are some examples of oppression of women in cultures not touched by Christianity:
In the past generations in India, when a woman’s husband died, she was forced to be burned to death alongside his body. The influence of Christianity through missionaries and its influence in the British culture eventually put an end to this practice by the 19th century.
In devout Muslim cultures, such as the Taliban, the fate of women is dire to this present day. “During the 1990s, the Taliban not only brutally imposed social restrictions on women such as mandatory burqa coverings, but, more fundamentally and deleteriously, restricted their access to health care, education, and jobs. It prohibited women from appearing in public spaces without a male chaperone, de facto sentencing widows and their children to starvation…the Taliban prohibited women from holding jobs, including working as doctors for other women….(A) UN study also revealed that 80 percent of Afghan women experience domestic violence. Some 50 percent of women in Afghan prisons and 95 percent of such girls have been jailed for “moral crimes” such as having sex outside of marriage. Others have been prosecuted for killing their brutally abusive husbands, including in self-defense.” (quote is from an article by John Allen and Vanda Felbab Brown) Many Muslim cultures do not allow women to get an education. Some practice genital mutilation of girls, as well as marriages of very young girls to much older men. Women are seen as objects to be used and abused by men. Unfortunately, the Taliban has not changed their treatment of women, but still treats them abusively.
Unfortunately, the same feminists who rail against the Bible as being so oppressive towards women are silent about true oppression of women going on daily BECAUSE biblical standards are being violated. Not only that, the feminists have robbed us women of the joy of womanhood and the true honor, and privilege that we have been given by our Creator. They reject the honor that we have been given, and covet what men have been given instead, and encourage all women to do the same.
I am so thankful that we have the truth of the Bible to show us that God values women deeply. Let us embrace His loving design that is for our good. God’s truth in the Bible leads to life abundant. Rejecting that truth leads to destruction of lives, just as Satan desires. I hope you join me as I discuss God’s design for women as revealed in the Bible in my next few blogs. In our extremely confused society we are in desperate need of hearing what Scripture has to say. My next blog will discuss the basic truths from the Bible about women.
For this blog series, I will have at the end of each blog a suggestion of a verse or verses to memorize that will help you apply the concepts in this blog. You can go to the Bible memorization section of this website for videos on why and how to memorize Scripture. For this blog installment, the verse to memorize in response is Psalm 34:8.
For questions or comments, you can contact me at candice@anastasihome.com