GOD'S WORD TO WOMEN by Katherine Bushnell

AUTHOR’S NOTE

"Dost thou desire to study to advantage? Consult God more than books, and ask Him humbly to make thee understand what thou readest. Go from time to time to be refreshed at the feet of Christ, under His Cross. Some moments of repose there give fresh vigor and new light: interrupt thy study by short but fervent supplications."

This is a Study Book, yet it has been our hope to make the book equally interesting for mere reading.

Having been planned as a Study Book, paragraphs are to be paid attention to, not pages; it is indexed at the back on this plan. Those who do not know Hebrew and Greek, and yet wish to test its every point, will find much help in doing this in Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible, especially in editions from the seventh onward, because of the valuable Index-Lexicons at the end of the volume, informing the student of the number of times any certain Greek or Hebrew word occurs in the Bible and of all its various translations.

Some years ago, Mrs. Alexander Whyte, wife of the late Principal Whyte of New College, Edinburgh, Scotland, became interested in the Lessons, and appealed to Dr. Rendel Harris for an opinion of them from his point of scholarship, or of some other able critic. Dr. Harris referred Mrs. Whyte to Dr. A. Mingana, Professor of Arabic at Manchester University, England, and Curator of Oriental Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, which contains a wealth of such matter.

Dr. Mingana has read carefully through the Lessons of the book, and given me the benefit of his criticisms, which, for the most part, are very encouraging. In issuing this second edition, it has seemed well to add in footnotes the substance of his comments. I have not a personal acquaintance with this most obliging and helpful gentleman, but I hope that he will, as well as Mrs. Whyte, accept this acknowledgment of valuable help as the best return I am able at present to make. I understand that Dr. Mingana's name is one that stands high in rank among philologists and Orientalists. He is a voluminous writer for theological and other journals, and the author of a Syriac Grammar; of two volumes on Syriac Sources; a volume on The Ancient Koran; two volumes on The Odes and Psalms of Solomon; a work on Early Judeo-Christian Documents in the John Rylands Library, and of several other books.

While we in no wise question the authority and inviolability of the original text of the Bible, we hold that the present English translation of Genesis 3:16, "Thy desire shall be to thy husband," is erroneous, and proved incorrect by the ancient versions. Therefore the interpretation of St. Paul's rules regarding the conduct and treatment of women, since based on the erroneous translation, is incorrect.

A few persons will, of course, resign a measure of faith unless the traditional interpretation is left undisturbed. This cannot be helped. We must continually improve in our understanding of God's will, and this necessitates a continual improvement in our interpretation of God's Word. So the question is, --Shall the Church change its present treatment of women, or its interpretation of St. Paul? Its present course of inconsistency, in teaching Paul one way, and treating women in a more honoring way, is mischievous:

(1) The Church itself, thereby, sets an example of defiance of the authority of the Bible.

(2) To explain Paul by apologizing for Paul's faulty rabbinical logic involves the expositor in an attack on the inspiration of the Bible (see Lesson 46).

(3) If women must suffer domestic, legislative and ecclesiastical disabilities because Eve sinned, then must the Church harbor the appalling doctrine that Christ did not atone for all sin, because so long as the Church maintains these disabilities, the inevitable conclusion in the average mind will be the same as Tertullian's,—"God's verdict on the sex still holds good, and the sex's guilt must still hold also."

(4) At no point is faith in the entire Bible being so viciously and successfully attacked today as at the point of the "woman question," and the Church so far attempts no defense here of her children. It assumes that the interests of merely a few ambitious women are involved, whereas the very fundamentals of our faith are at stake.