Gender and Sexuality

• Phoebe as a deacon

  Romans 16:1-2
• Galatians 3:26-28

  ’There is neither Jew nor gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’
• Ephesians 5:22-23


  ‘Wives, submit yourselves to your own husband as you do the Lord‘
• 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 (Paul)


  ‘Women should remain silent in Churches… for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the Church’
• 1 Timothy 2:8-15


  Instructs women to:

  ‘dress modestly’

  ‘should learn in quietness and full submission’

  ‘I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man’

  ‘but women will be saved through childbearing’
• What word is used for authority? What word would typically be used?


  Authentein. Usually the word ’exousia’ would be used
• Example of Jesus’ criticisms of the way rules were used to forbid acts of charity on the Sabbath (used by Rosemary Radford Reuther)

  ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath’ Mark 2:27
• Biblical evidence for celibacy

  Matthew 19:12 ‘there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven‘
• Advice for clergy to be married with a family (followed by Protestants)

  1 Timothy 3:1-7
• Evidence for marriage for those who can’t remain celibate

  1 Corinthians 7:9
• What does Luther say about marriage?

  it is a ‘worldly thing, that belongs to the realm of government‘
• Old Testament passages against homosexuality

  Leviticus 18:22 ‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable’

  Leviticus 20:13 ‘they are to be put to death; their blood will be on the own heads’
• Where is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah found?

  Genesis 19
• Evidence for not judging others (expressed by Paul)

  Romans 1:26-28
• Arguments against sex change

  Matthew 19:12 Origen’s ordination declared invalid
• Evidence for sex change

  Gospel of Thomas ‘every woman who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven’