To say that the Bible is a very patriarchal book would be stating the obvious.  But if I tried to unravel that it could get me into serious trouble.  For example, if I said anything in defence of the Bible’s patriarchal slant I could get a lot of women offside.  I don’t want to do that.  Some of my best friends are women – in fact, I’m married to one of them.  On the other hand, in our culture there’s an extreme view that almost assumes that masculinity is toxic by definition.  So if I’m not careful in my critique of the Bible’s patriarchal slant I could alienate my male friends and play right into the hands of these extremists and further undermine male confidence.

So let me limit myself to just two observations.

One is that the Bible pictures a certain order in the relationship between men and women.  If you have a problem with that don’t complain to me about it.  You need to talk to God who ordered things that way and had them recorded in the Bible.  There is, for example, that classic passage in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians which gives some guidance on male and female relationships within marriage.

The second observation is that we human beings have never been very good at following God’s guidelines for relationships between the sexes.  If we’re honest we have to admit that things went wrong right from the beginning.  Think!  To whom did God give the command not to eat from a certain forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden?  Was it not to Adam?  And before Eve even arrived on the scene?  That helps us understand why the Devil approached Eve in Genesis 3 – rather than Adam.  She had received the command second-hand.  And then look at what happens: Eve acts without consulting Adam who had received the command in the first place.  And Adam, the silly goose, let’s his wife face the enemy while he stands beside her with his thumb in his mouth.  Well, the rest, as they say, is history.  However the point is that from there on sin also affects the relationship between the sexes.  I could make a very long list of ways in which that comes out in the Bible.  From Abraham, in the Old Testament, having a child by Hagar to the New Testament story of the woman caught in adultery.

Well, thankfully the good news of the gospel is that Jesus died on the cross for all our sins – also the relational sins between men and women.  Forgiveness is possible... and so are new beginnings.

Unfortunately that doesn’t solve all our problems with male-female relationship in the Bible.  What triggered this blog was reading the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible.  It’s an interesting book, written by King Solomon.  But in chapter 7 he makes a statement that is really over the top and that set me thinking.

Solomon has been contrasting wisdom and folly.  He indicates that he’s been searching – apparently for the kind of person who lives a life pleasing to God.  He then makes this statement: “One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found.”  Stone the crows!  Is that male chauvinism or is that male chauvinism?  Ok, it’s a difficult text... and some novel attempts have been made to get Solomon off the hook... but whichever way I read it I see male chauvinism.  And then I think of the man who wrote these words.  King Solomon... and we’re told in the book of Kings that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines.  Well, he must have been late for work every day, kissing all his wives goodbye.  Seriously though; this man has a thousand women in his haram.  How can a man like that see women as anything other than sex objects?

And yet...!  Is it possible that God used the male chauvinism of King Solomon to teach us a very important truth?  Because the fact is that since Adam’s fall into sin there has only ever been one – a man – who was sinless and who perfectly pleased God... and that was Jesus.  If my theory is correct then it’s quite remarkable.  God can use even the chauvinistic outlook of a randy old king to point us to the Saviour of the world.