God as Father

March 06, 2007 by Rebecca Merrill Groothuis

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Scripture uses various metaphors in speaking of God, and “father” is a salient biblical metaphor for God. Because God is not literally a father (i.e., a man who procreates), God is, therefore, a father in a metaphorical sense.

The picture of God as a mother is also present in Scripture, such as when Jesus describes himself as a mother hen. However, to make this observation is not to imply that the “father” metaphor is on a par with the “hen” metaphor.

It should also be noted that God’s fatherhood is not about gender. The divine nature is not sexual or gendered in any sense. Although the human nature of Jesus is gendered, the divine nature is not. The fatherhood of God is not tantamount to the inherent masculinity of God. Therefore, the question of gender equality is simply not at issue in understanding the meaning of God’s fatherhood.

It seems at least two things are clear from Scripture. First, “mother” and “father” are not interchangeable or equivalent expressions with respect to addressing God. The New Testament view is unmistakable: God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Mary was his (merely human) mother. And God is not only Jesus’ Father, God is “Our Father.” We have been adopted to “sonship” and are heirs of God, coheirs with Christ. This is the picture and terminology that the Bible uses to present the family relationship of believers to God and Christ. There is no place in this picture for a Mother God alongside or instead of a Father God.

Second, it is abundantly clear, especially in the Old Testament, that God is both mother and father to his people. This is rightly understood in a metaphorical sense, pure and simple. God is to us like a mother and like a father. So in our times of prayer and devotion to God we may say, for example, “You comfort me as a mother comforts her child” (Isaiah 66:13) and “When my mother and father forsake me, you will take me up” (Psalm 27:10).

However, God as the Father of Jesus Christ—as the first person of the triune Godhead—is not “Father” merely in the sense of a simple metaphorical descriptor. Here “Father” serves as a metaphorical name. (A metaphorical name is to be distinguished from a simple metaphor, a figure of speech used to describe one or more attributes of someone or something.) Because the name “Father” is metaphorical and not literal, it does not speak literally of God’s having a male or masculine nature. But because it is a name and not merely a metaphor, it is not interchangeable with “Mother.” Although the Bible speaks of God in metaphorical imagery that is motherly and feminine, “Mother” is never used in Scripture as a name for God.

The Bible and Gender Equality

January 21, 2006 by Rebecca Merrill Groothuis

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What is Biblical Equality?

Evangelical egalitarianism, or biblical equality, refers to the biblically-based belief that gender, in and of itself, neither privileges nor curtails a believer’s gifting or calling to any ministry in the church or home. In particular, the exercise of spiritual authority, as biblically defined, is deemed as much a female believer’s privilege and responsibility as it is a male believer’s.

Biblical equality does not mean women and men are identical or undifferentiated. Biblical egalitarians recognize average differences (both learned and intrinsic) between women and men, and affirm that God designed men and women to complement and benefit one another.

Although it shares with feminism the belief that unjust treatment of women should be remediated, biblical equality is not grounded in feminist ideology, which is derived from cultural factors and philosophies. Rather, biblical equality is grounded simply and solely in the properly consistent interpretation of God’s written word. On this basis, biblical egalitarians (a) affirm that the gifts and callings of the Spirit are distributed without regard to gender, and that all believers in Christ stand on equal ground before God, and (b) repudiate the notion that the Bible grants to men spiritual authority and other religious privileges that it denies to women.

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Leading Him Up the Garden Path: Further Thoughts on 1 Timothy 2:11-15

January 12, 2004 by Rebecca Merrill Groothuis

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Ever since I set forth a more-or-less representative egalitarian interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:11-15 in Good News for Women, I have felt somewhat dissatisfied with this approach. Although I found it considerably less problematic than the traditionalist interpretation, still it left me with some nagging questions. For instance, if women at Ephesus were not to teach or to have authority in the church because they were deceived or unschooled, why were they specifically prohibited only from teaching or having authority over men? And if Paul were addressing women and men in general, why did he speak in terms of “a woman” and “a man”? It has seemed to me that the peculiar wording of the prohibition holds important clues to Paul’s original intent in writing these words to Timothy at Ephesus. I have also suspected that the reference to Adam and Eve is not merely illustrative, but integral to the meaning and purpose of the prohibition. Both the standard egalitarian and traditionalist interpretations fall short of resolving these questions and concerns.

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Biblical Submission within Marriage

June 04, 2002 by Rebecca Merrill Groothuis

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What we have been told the Bible teaches versus what the Bible really teaches

1. The man is the head of the home, which means he is to run the home, and other family members are required to submit to his God-ordained leadership.

Response: The New Testament says that the man (or husband) is the head of the woman (or wife), not that the man is the head of the home. Moreover, when Paul says this (in two NT passages), he does not use “head” to mean the “boss,” or chief executive, whom underlings must obey. In modern English, “head” is used metaphorically primarily to refer to the person in charge, but in ancient Greek it was also used as a metaphorical reference to “origin” or “source of life.” We need to interpret this term in its cultural context, not according to some cultural pretext of our own.

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Response to Thomas R. Schreiner’s Review of Good News for Women

Themelios Vol 23:1

February 15, 1999 by Rebecca Merrill Groothuis

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In his review of Good News for Women, Thomas Schreiner maintains that my case for gender equality is not biblical, but is based on merely cultural ideas. My thinking flows out of the “western, democratic and enlightenment view of equality,” and is not derived from the biblical text. The central argument of the book (in Part 1) is based on my view of equality (not the biblical view), which I “impose” on the biblical text in order to derive an egalitarian interpretation—a method which, “if applied to other areas of evangelical theology,” would have “deleterious” effects indeed. Schreiner professes more concern over my “deleterious” method than my conclusions, which he dismisses as old news—such old news, in fact, that my discussion (in Part 2) of the texts traditionally used to support gender hierarchy “does not warrant its publication.”

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Inclusive Language Bible Translations

November 15, 1997 by Rebecca Merrill Groothuis

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Despite their concern to translate the Bible accurately, many opponents of inclusive-language Bible translations use words that offer more emotional impact than accuracy. Bible translations that do not use “man” or “men” or “brothers” to indicate people in general—but rather use terms such as “person,” “people” or “brothers and sisters”—are accused of being “unisex” translations that “neuter” the Bible and “obliterate gender distinctions.”

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