In the previous lesson it was presented that women played a vital role in the spreading of the gospel of Christ. Their work began in the Old Testament days as the people were prepared for the coming of Christ and continued with the women of his time and those who came along later past the Day of Pentecost. The main argument of many churches is that women can’t teach men, with various scriptures cited to prove such doctrine. To see what the Bible teaches, it is important to study how various words are used in each context.

Let’s begin with the words of the Lord. When speaking to the Pharisees Jesus said in Matthew: [Mat 19:3] The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? [Mat 19:4] And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, [Mat 19:5] And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? [Mat 19:6] Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.  

In verse three the words man and wife are used. They are the translations of two Greek words, anthropos for male or man (can be a reference to both male and female in the general sense of human beings but the context will determine the meaning in all cases. Mostly the reference is to man or male, not a specific man or male as with aner to be studied later.) and gunay (goon-ay - long a) for wife (in the context specifically a female who is a wife and of the female sex, but can also refer to a woman as opposed to a man in other verses of the Bible.). Anthropos here means male or any man and in the context it has to refer to husband since the wife is specifically referred to by the Pharisees.

Jesus then gives them a history lesson in verse 4 with the use of arsna for male (meaning male or sex) and thalay for female (differentiated from the male, thus opposites relating to sex). Thus the plan of God is for a male and female relationship. (For those prattle on about Jesus not addressing the homosexual issue, he does here when he reminds the Pharisees about God’s plan for humans in the verses chosen for the study.) The words Jesus chose refer to the beginning of human kind before the marriage of Adam and Eve. Then in verse 5, he indicates more strongly that the reason for two different sexes is that they be joined together as one, fulfilling God’s holy plan. Jesus used the two Greek words, anthropos and gunay in verse 5, as used in verse 3.

So far the Bible tells us that God created man and woman with the purpose of being united as one, excluding all others from the bond and with man being the leader. For those who protest the man being the leader of the wife, God told Adam not to eat of the fruit and he violated his leadership when he followed Eve’s suggestion it would be okay to eat what was forbidden.

A brief look at Mark 10:2-12 shows that the word use is in harmony with Matthew in all respects. Jesus was very consistent and specific with and about the words he used to convey the message and there isn’t any conflict from book to book and writer to writer. The conflict occurs when the message isn’t understood and the reader doesn’t do as Paul told Timothy: [2 Timothy 2:15] Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

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