Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, vol. 1 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950), 523-526.

Woman and the Divine Image

The Encratites, a Gnostic sect of the second century, later known as Severians, were led by their false asceticism to deny that Eve possessed the divine image (Eusebius, History of the Church, 4, 29). But Gen. 1:26-27 expressly states that the woman, too, was created in the image of God: “Let Us make man in Our image. . . . So God created man in His own image . . . male and female created He them.” This is corroborated in the New Testament. The restitution of the divine image in Christ (Col. 3:10 and Eph. 4:24) takes place in women as well as in men, for there is no difference made between male and female in regard to participation in the gifts of Christ. We read Gal 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” The woman shared with man also the dominion over the creatures. The plural form is used: “God blessed them, and God said unto them . . . have dominion . . . over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Gen. 1:28). Baier’s opinion that Eve had less knowledge of nature than Adam cannot be substantiated from Scripture. (11. Baier-Walther, II, 158: “In regard to her knowledge of nature, Eve seems to have ranked below Adam.” [this was originally a footnote, but is now in its place of referral].)

On the other hand, Scripture teaches that woman in her relation to man occupied a position of subordination even before the Fall. This fact is expressed in the term used in Gen. 2:18: “an helpmeet for him.” The same thought is voiced in the New Testament. 1 Cor. 11:9: “Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.” Hence woman is forbidden to exercise dominion over man. 1 Tim. 2:12: “I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man.” There are two reasons for this a) Adam was created first, then Eve (v. 13 ), and b) the woman introduced a disastrous innovation –- sin (v. 14: “Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression”). It is the plain teaching of Scripture that in relation to the man, the woman is in a position of subordination. Both the order of creation and the order established after the Fall assign her that position.

People in our day are becoming more and more oblivious to this divine order, and this for two reasons. In spite of its wide circulation the Bible exerts less influence on human society than formerly, and good common sense, in spite of all advances in technical science, is rapidly diminishing among men. –- We find in Luther two different sets of statements on the position of woman in human society. On the one hand, he says: “God did not set up womankind to rule, neither in the Church nor in secular offices” (St. L. II:687). Again: “The Holy Ghost has excluded women from the government of the Church” (St. L. XVI:2280). On the other hand, Luther requires men to show special reverence (reverentia) to woman, because the woman is the mother and educator of the human race. “Mulier ut est creatura Dei, cum reverentia spectanda est; ad hoc enim est creata, ut circa virum sit, ut filios nutriat et educet honeste et pie” (Opp. ex., Erl. XXI:170; St. L. V: 1516) . (“Since woman is a creature of God, she is to be regarded with reverence; for this purpose, indeed, she was created that she should be with man, that she should nurture and train children in honesty and piety.”) Luther maintains consistently that God’s creation of man and woman with a different sex appoints and fits them for a separate sphere of activity. He says: “Each one functions best as he has been created. ‘A woman with her little finger does better by a child than a man with both his fists.’ Let everyone stick to that work to which God has called and appointed him.” (St. L. V: 1517.) This is the Scriptural position. Scripture makes the home the sphere of the woman; it distinguishes sharply between the forbidden public and the permitted and commanded domestic activity of woman. It forbids the public speaking and teaching of women. It states: “It is a shame for women to speak in the church” (1 Cor. 14:35). Women are not even to ask questions in the public assemblies and thus start discussions, but they should ask their own men at home (en oiko) [transliterated]. Also 1 Tim. 2:12: “I suffer not a woman to teach,” pertains according to the context to the public teaching of women. On the other hand, Scripture declares the home to be the sphere of woman’s dominion and teaching activity. 1 Tim. 5:14: “I will therefore that the younger women [R. V.: “widows”] marry, bear children, guide the house” (oikodespotein: R. V.: “rule the household”) [transliterated Greek]. The matrons should be, according to Titus 2:3, “teachers of good things”; “teach the young women . . . to love their husbands, to love their children, to be . . . stewards of the home” (oikouroi, keepers of the house; another reading, oikourgoi, homemakers). Perhaps no teacher of the Church has so frequently and so eloquently extolled the glory of woman as wife and mother as Luther. Rome exalts thee state of monks and nuns, but Luther says: “What better and more profitable thing can be taught in the Church of God than the example of a pious housemother, who prays, sighs, cries, thanks God, rules the home, does what the office of a pious wife entails, desires to have children, in great chastity, gratitude, and piety” (St. L. II:540).

We hear people decry as “Oriental” the Biblical view that the home is the sphere of woman’s activity. Men have asserted in all seriousness that if the Apostle Paul had written to American congregations, he would not have said: “It is a shame for women to speak in the church,” and “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach,” but because of the changed conditions he would have written somewhat in this wise: “Women to the front!” “Get on the platform!” “It is not shameful for a woman to speak in the church.” These men are deluding themselves. 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2 are not dealing with a temporary “Oriental” order, but with a universal, permanent order, for Paul gives as the reasons for his vetoing any public teaching of the women in the church 1) the order of creation, that Adam was made first, after him Eve; and 2) the role that woman played in the Fall: “Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression” –- facts which remain the same in the Occident as in the Orient and at all times, and the order based on these facts remains the same.

One other point should be mentioned in this connection. Woman ought not be dragged from her place of honor into public life, for it is universally acknowledged that woman is the most influential teacher of the human race. If women prove themselves good teachers in the home (Titus 2:3), they thereby wield a greater influence on the coming generation than the men, including the pastors and schoolteachers.