(Women and Words) Bible Passages that Support Women’s Leadership with Rev. Dr. Aída Besançon Spencer

In the second episode, Dr. Mimi Haddad meets with Rev. Dr. Aída Besançon Spencer to explore key ways Scripture goes against the grain of culture. While some scholars uphold Bible cultural as the moral standard, Aída encouraged readers to begin in the New Testament. For example, in the story of Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42), Martha was anxious that Mary would help her serve the disciples a meal. But Jesus said, “Martha, Martha … You are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Jesus reversed women’s priorities from domestic spheres to theological spheres: learn God’s truth. Paul also said, in 1 Tim 2:11, “A woman should learn in quietness (silence) and full submission.” Insisting on women’s silence was/is a to call women to learn as the theological scholars (Rabbis) did at the time of Christ, in silence—with rapt focus. Aída believes we need more scholarly reflection on women and silence in Scripture.  

 

Aída ends with a warning to always view people as created in God’s image and considers passages also embrace the shared dignity and agency of women. Reflecting on the marginalization for Native Americans who were accused of and punished for alleged idol worship, by white colonizes who believed they were given the US given as theocracy, Aída and her husband William David Spencer address both topic in a powerful article titled, Calling on God or Colonial Oppression.  

 

Aída addresses the leadership of women in the early church, with a focus on context. Whereas women’s leadership in Ephesus was different from women in other contexts, like women planting churches like Lydia in Greece.  

 

Aída ends by reflecting on Helen Barrett Montgomery (1861-1934) was elected the first president of national Woman’s American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. She was also elected the first president (and woman) of an American denomination, the Northern Baptist Convention in 1920. She’s also the first woman to translate the New Testament in 1924. Her translation of Roman 16:1-3—interpreted Pheobe as a “minister” and “overseer,” yet it has taken so very long for other translators to see the same biblical truth (in 1843). Barrett Montgonery’s The New Testament in Modern English was republished in 1952, and translated Romans 16:1-2: “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a minister of the church at Cenchreae. I beg you to give her a Christian welcome, as the saints should, and to assist her in any matter in which she may have need of you. for she herself has been made an overseer to many people, including myself.” Prostateo, the verb meaning to be leader or ruler of, hold office, authority for providing, regent (Liddell & Scott’s classical dictionary). 

 

Guest Bio 
Rev. Dr. Aída Besançon Spencer, Ph.D., Th.M., M.Div., is Senior Professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, S. Hamilton, MA. Born and reared in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, she has served as community organizer, minister, and educator in a variety of urban and suburban settings. She has over 200 publications, including 20 books, among these are commentaries of James, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, 1 Peter, and 2 Corinthians and books encouraging women in leadership, such as Beyond the Curse: Women Called to Ministry, Global Voices on Biblical Equality, Christian Egalitarian Leadership, The Goddess Revival: A Biblical Response to Goddess Spirituality, Marriage at the Crossroads, and the novel Cave of Little Faces. An ordained Presbyterian minister, she is married to the Rev. Dr. William David Spencer. Their blog is entitled Applying Biblical Truths Today. They have one adult son, Stephen. 

 

Related Resources 

Creating Gender-Accurate Bible Translations 

Video: Gender-Accurate Bible Translation Panel 

Presumption, Bias, and Gender Accuracy in Bible Translation