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The Gospel Trajectory Hermeneutics and Female Leadership in the Church
If the Gospel Trajectory was and is freedom for female leadership in the church.
If Paul set the example of this freedom through all the examples of female participation as leaders in his ministry.
Then that leads to three major hurdles for Egalitarians.
First, this makes Paul a better Egalitarian than Jesus! If Paul is praising Junia in Romans 16 for her work as an apostle, then Jesus missed 14 opportunities to get there before Paul. Fourteen times Jesus selected apostles and never once did he choose a female.
Second, this makes Paul a hypocrite. Look at the dates of his writings:
A.D. 56 – Galatians – “No male and female”
A.D. 57 – 1 Corinthians – “Women remain silent”
A.D. 57 – Romans – “Junia is outstanding (as an) apostle.
A.D. 63 – 1 Timothy – “do not permit a womam to teach or have authority over a man”
So which is it Paul? For someone who claimed, “He will remind you about my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church” (1 Corinthians 4:17), did Paul not teach the same thing according to the Gospel Trajectory Hermeneutic “everywhere in every church”? According to an Egalitarian interpretation of Paul’s words:
1. In Galatians 3 Paul freed women.
2. In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul shackled women.
3. In Romans 16 Paul freed women.
4. In 1 Timothy 2 Paul shackled women.
Third, the Gospel Trajectory hermeneutic is flawed because it says we must go beyond the original words to find the ethical fulfillment in today’s culture. The flaw becomes apparent when they choose which words to ignore (1 Corinthians 14, 1 Timothy 2), and which words to accept (Romans 16, Galatians 3). Any hermeneutic which has as a goal to find a way to prove what is already believed, is making “All Scripture inspired by conclusions we have formed”. This is a danger for anyone in forming a hermeneutic. Let the Bible itself display how to interpret and apply authority.
(This is part of a new chapter I just started in a book I am writing called, “The Genesis of Gender Roles in the Church”)
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