Anonymous Asks (273)

“What does the Bible say about women’s rights?”

Many people have strong opinions about how things should be, some of which are better and more biblical than others. Graduating from mere personal opinion to a “right” requires two things: (1) collective agreement about what any group’s entitlements actually are; and (2) a means of enforcement when disagreements arise.

When a society is functioning properly, its laws have both these properties.

Women’s Rights Under the Law

When the Law of Moses came down to Israel from God at Sinai, there was collective agreement: “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” We can argue about whether Israel bit off more than it could chew, but the expressed intent to follow whatever God said was certainly there. However naïve, they meant what they said. Moreover, the Law of Moses came with its own means of enforcement packaged in. Judges and officers were appointed in every town in Israel, charged with showing no partiality and accepting no bribe.

So then, the Law of Moses created genuine rights and their corresponding responsibilities. After all, you never have one without the other. Granting me a legal right obliges you to respect it, which is a responsibility.

Most of these rights were universally applicable, but certain special rights applied only to women. Under the law, a wife had the right to food, clothing and sexual congress, and the right to separate from her husband without repayment of the bride price if he did not provide these to her. Daughters had a special right to inherit their father’s property when they had no brothers in order that it stay in the immediate family. Wives accused of adultery had the right to vindicate themselves in court, probably to the great public embarrassment of their jealous husbands.

Rights Without Teeth

These and many other women’s rights were enshrined in God’s law, but they only had any teeth when everyone in Israel agreed what the law said and everyone followed it. When we read the book of Judges, it’s evident that was not always the case in Israel, and a right without agreement and enforcement is a right in name only.

The fundamental problem with trotting out Old Testament law as precedent for women’s rights or any other kind of right in today’s world is an old one, and easily explained. Western women today do not live in ancient Israel or any other theocracy, and cannot enjoy the benefits and protections offered by that law. If we had a Christian government and democratic agreement to rewrite our laws using scripture for guidance, we might have a shot at a society in which biblical women’s rights were enshrined and protected, but it seems highly unlikely that will ever be on the table. In a secular society where laws are largely arbitrary, based on human reasoning rather than the commands of God, and exist primarily to quiet the squeaky wheels of special interest groups like feminists and the LGBTQ lobby, we have to make do with whatever we’ve got. The only “rights” likely to be upheld are the ones with which society’s enforcement agents agree. The Bible doesn’t really get to weigh in.

Rights in the New Testament

There is not a lot of talk about rights in the New Testament. In Israel, rights were something you claimed and the God-given authorities enforced for you. In the churches and homes of the New Testament, rights exist largely to give us something to surrender for the good of others. Our great example, who was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. The Lord Jesus abandoned his rights when he came into the world for our sake, and invites us to do the same in his name. The apostle Paul got the message and did exactly the same thing. Though the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel, Paul said, “I have made no use of any of these rights.” Why not? In order to give the gospel away free of charge and win more people for Christ.

So then, in the Christian world, for men and women alike, the primary purpose of granting us rights is to provide us with currency in our pockets for doing the will of God. We have rights in order to give them up for the Lord’s sake and to accomplish his purposes more effectively.

The Inadequacy of Rights

In fact, for the Christian, rights exist only to the extent other believers choose to recognize and respect them. There is no real mechanism for their enforcement as there was under Israel’s laws.

Suppose for a moment that when the Hellenists in the early church complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution, the apostles had said, “Settle that yourselves” rather than “Pick out from among you seven men of good repute.” It might well be that nothing would have been done and the overlooked widows would have eventually abandoned the faith in disgust. Their “right” to be treated equally, without their ethnic background being a factor in their treatment, depended on the entire community respecting the principles taught by Christ and the good things they had learned from the Old Testament law.

Or imagine, for example, if a believing woman today were to claim her God-given right to her Christian husband’s body. How exactly would she enforce that right? Can you imagine the elders gathering in the couple’s bedroom to make sure the wife gets what she’s entitled to? She certainly cannot appeal to our secular government to act on her complaint.

Perhaps you can see the problem.

Rights and Love

That said, wherever there is collective agreement, in the churches or in a godly family, there is the potential for respecting rights even without a means of enforcement. Where Christians act in love toward one another with high regard for the text of scripture and the will of God, a long list of our rights is not necessary.

That’s true whether we are old, young, male or female.