Traditional Roles among Men and Women

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Afterthought

Puritan Board Senior
In a couple of recent threads, mention has been made of traditional male and female roles: man as giver, woman as receiver; man as seeker, woman as being sought for; men being equipped for leadership in some settings, women not, etc. What is the Scriptural support for this position? What is the support from reason/nature, if it offers any?

I actually hadn't heard of traditional roles put in those terms until the philosophy classroom: wherein it was stated that traditional roles caused scientists to overlook certain phenomena, whereas a feminist philosophy of science allowed for new discoveries that were being overlooked.
 
Men make babies and women have them. OK, I'm being a bit droll here, men have roles as leaders, protectors and providers, and a couple together show the world the relationship between Christ and His church. I'm wary about some of the over-generalized teaching that sometimes occurs. We should flourish in the gender God has given us, and specifically avoid confusion between the two. But even that is partly driven by culture -- put a first century believer into a modern store with instructions to buy men's clothing, and he'd have no idea what to buy.
 
Brother Ramón, a great place to start is God, Marriage, and Family by Andreas Kostenberger. He goes through the biblical case verse by verse and develops some great insights on anthropology.

What is man for? Man is for representing the image of God in creation, exercising dominion, subduing the earth, and glorifying God.

What is woman for? Similar to the man, glorifying God, but chiefly for helping man in his role.

From Kostenberger:

Moreover, in the case of the woman, Genesis 2 does not teach that she may merely act as the man’s “helper” when she so chooses but rather that serving as the man’s “helper” sums up her very reason for existence in relation to the man. Being the man’s “helper” is the purpose for which the woman was created, as far as her wifely status is concerned…

By contrast [to the animals], the woman is equal to the man in kind, a fellow human being (cf. Gal. 3:28; 1 Pet. 3:7); yet she is also different, the man’s “helper” (cf. Eph. 5:22).

The man and the woman are jointly charged with ruling the earth representatively for God, yet they are not to do so androgynously or as “unisex” creatures, but each as fulfilling their God-ordained, gender-specific roles. Indeed, since these functional differences are part of the Creator’s design, it is only when men and women embrace their God-ordained roles that they will be truly fulfilled and that God’s creational wisdom will be fully displayed and exalted.
 
In a couple of recent threads, mention has been made of traditional male and female roles: man as giver, woman as receiver; man as seeker, woman as being sought for; men being equipped for leadership in some settings, women not, etc. What is the Scriptural support for this position? What is the support from reason/nature, if it offers any?

Just taking a stab at this... I deduced that if most men are to be heads of households (Ephesians 5:23, 1 Corinthians 11:3), they ought to learn how to lead in a number of situations. Perhaps this could be determined on a case-to-case basis. I'll include a few verses/possible "proof texts" for each case (and because I think the Bible tags are really neat).

Men as givers--or breadwinners, perhaps--might be implied by 1 Timothy 5:8, but that might not be aimed specifically at men. Titus 2:3-5 mentions women keeping busy at home, so I assume that God means for them to be primarily concerned with homemaking and childrearing. She cannot do these things well if she is caught up with being the breadwinner.

Women have to submit to their fathers--only for biblical mandates--and husbands--if they are married and again, for biblical mandates. If a man is searching for a wife, the initiative he shows in seeking for and courting her might be some indicator of what kind of household leader he would be (1 Peter 3:7).

[BIBLE]Ephesians 5:23[/BIBLE][BIBLE]1 Corinthians 11:3[/BIBLE][BIBLE]1 Timothy 5:8[/BIBLE][BIBLE]Titus 2:3-5[/BIBLE][BIBLE]1 Peter 3:7[/BIBLE]
 
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