A Christian Anthropologist Considers Gender in the Bible

Dr. Alice C. Linsley


As a Christian anthropologist, I read the Bible to understand how the biblical Hebrew reasoned. Their reasoning is not well represented by the term "complementarian" because that term suggests that there is no hierarchy in their reasoning. That is a false assumption. Orthodoxy requires binary reasoning. That is how the Bible presents the male-female relationship. To understand binary reasoning, we must consider how the Bible presents binary sets pertaining to gender.

We begin in Genesis 1:16 where we are told about the sun and the moon, which for the Hebrew represented a gendered binary set. The sun is described as the greater light that rules the day and the moon as the lesser light that rules the night.

This reflects the binary distinctions which characterize the Messianic Faith revealed in the Bible. In this view, one entity of the binary set is superior to the other in an obvious way. The sun is superior to the moon because it is the greater light. The moon's light is refulgent. The male is larger and stronger than the female. The sun is to the moon what the male is to the female, superior in size and strength. This is characteristic of the binary distinctions observed by the early Hebrew in the patterns of nature. Their acute observation of those patterns informed their binary reasoning. The sun was assigned a masculine gender and was greater than the moon which was assigned a feminine gender. This pattern was modeled on earth by the Nilotic Hebrew kings and their queens. The kings appeared with skin darkened by the sun. Their queens appeared in public with white skin, representing the moon.

In Genesis 37, Joseph had a dream of his father as the sun and his mother as the moon. His dream expressed the Hebrew understanding of male and female as a binary set.

Binary reasoning involves hierarchy. One entity of the binary set is universally recognized as superior in some way to its partner. The primary sets are Creator-Creature, Life-Death, Male-Female, and Sun-Moon. It is evident from observation and experience that one entity of the binary set is greater in visible ways than its opposite. The Creator is greater than the creature. Life is greater than death. The sun is greater than the moon. Males are larger and stronger than females. (See Binary Reasoning Informs Christian Morality and Ethics, Levi-Strauss and Jacques Derrida on Binary Oppositions)

Indeed, binary reasoning upholds the importance of the female, and this is reflected in the balance of male-female narratives in the Bible which give equal attention to males and females. The blood symbolism of the Passover associated with Moses has a parallel in the blood symbolism of the scarlet cord associated with Rahab.

The abusive behavior of drunken Noah toward his sons has a parallel in the abusive behavior of drunken Lot toward his daughters.

The gender balance is evident in the New Testament narratives also. When Jesus was presented in the temple His identity as Messiah was attested by the priest Simeon and the prophetess Anna.

Men and women are among Jesus’ followers. The women reportedly provided many of the material needs of Jesus and the Disciples. Jesus restored life to Jairus’ daughter (daughter to father) and life to the son of the widow of Nain (son to mother).

Jesus’ parables in Luke 15 involve a male seeking a lost sheep and a female seeking a lost coin. Paul commends both men and women to the Gospel ministry. Among them are Apollos, Priscilla, and Phoebe, a leader from the church at Cenchreae, a port city near Corinth. Paul attaches to Phoebe the title of prostatis, meaning a female patron or benefactor.

To understand the gender balance of the early Hebrew, we must dismiss the false narrative that their social structure was patriarchal. The traits of a patriarchy do not apply to the biblical Hebrew from whom we receive the earliest elements of the Messianic Faith we call "Christianity." There were Hebrew women of authority. Line of descent was traced through high-status wives, especially the cousin brides. Residential arrangements included neolocal, avunculocal, matrilocal, and patrilocal, and the biblical data reveals that the responsibilities and rights of males and females were balanced, yet distinct.

So, after all this, my observation about the ACNA and other Anglican jurisdictions is that we have failed to dig deep into the canonical Scriptures which should inform every aspect of our life as the Church.

Related reading: Orthodoxy Requires Binary Reasoning; The Feminist Critique Fails; Is "Male Headship" a Biblical Doctrine?; Philosophers' Corner: Is "Complementarianism" a Biblical Concept?