Gender Roles in the Bible

This is a collection of papers on what the Bible says about gender with respect to marriage and ministry. We have put together this one page clarification on the background of the paper as well as pointers to help the reader as he/she studies this document.

This collection of papers resulted from the following process:

• Fall, 2018 a Teachers Taskforce diverse in gender, ethnicity, and nationality was selected from the ICOC Teachers Service Team to investigate what the Bible teaches about the Bible and gender. The process took over two years to complete.
• Nine Bible Passages were selected that seemed most pertinent to this topic.
• Research and writing began in January, 2019 with a lead author/researcher selected for each passage.
• After each passage was researched, the lead author presented his/her paper before the Taskforce for review and editing. This process was completed by late summer, 2019 and resulted in the first draft of the paper.
• This initial draft was reviewed again by the Taskforce in October 2019.
• In December, 2019 and early January, 2020 a subset of the Taskforce who were proficient in Biblical Greek and Hebrew, and who had been formally trained in Bible and theology were asked to review the paper and make deeper edits. This resulted in the first fully edited collection of the papers on “The Bible and Theology.”
• In late January, 2020 this collection was reviewed by the entire Teachers Service Team resulting in more edits and the second draft.
• In February, 2020 this second draft was reviewed by the Catalyst Team and the Elders Service Team. Edits were made and this resulted in the third draft.
• In early March, 2020 this third draft was reviewed and edits suggested by the Regional Chairs which resulted in the fourth draft.
• In late March, 2020 one last edit was done by the Teachers Service Team which resulted in this fifth and final draft.

• The paper is an exegetical paper, a study of what the Bible passages meant in the context of their day. It was written from a scholarly perspective for a target audience who are versed in scholarly biblical study.
• The paper attempts to elicit normative and non-normative principles of practice in Bible times. The paper is not intended to be directive for application to our present culture today. That is not the purpose of this paper.
• The paper represents over two years of community effort and community theology and is not the result of the study of one person. It represents a collaborative scholarly effort.

We hope you enjoy the paper and are enriched by it. We are developing a process for discussion of the paper for those who may be interested. Application and practices are being developed by the Rocky Mountain Region Leadership.