The following is a Bible Gateway exclusive Sneak Peek and First Listen of No More Holding Back: Emboldening Women to Move Past Barriers, See Their Worth, and Serve God Everywhere (Thomas Nelson, 2019) by Kat Armstrong (@katarmstrong1). Order the book and unabridged audiobook on CD in the Bible Gateway Store.

By Kat Armstrong

Two chapters into God’s Genesis story of redemption, we find Eve, the first woman, hoodwinked by the serpent. She doesn’t exactly portray us as trustworthy. Since my childhood, I’ve noticed every storybook picture of the fall of mankind placed Eve in the center of the narrative as the one who was easily deceived. Her failures follow her to the New Testament, when Paul used the sin in the Garden to explain why first-century women in Ephesus were not permitted to teach men. Here’s what Paul had to say about it: “I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; instead, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed” (1 Tim. 2:12–14 CSB).

Children’s storybook illustrations and the apostle Paul’s references paint a bleak picture of womanhood as it relates to following God’s instructions. Generations of respected church leaders and theologians influenced by misogyny made it even harder for me to see past Eve’s foolishness and resist taking it on as my own.

Marg Mowczko, a brilliant student of the Scriptures, compiled the following list of misogynistic quotes of early church fathers.

The renowned “Father of Latin Christianity,” Tertullian, wrote:
“And do you not know that you are (each) an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: the guilt must of necessity live too. You are the devil’s gateway: you are the unsealer of that (forbidden) tree: you are the first deserter of the divine law: you are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God’s image, man.”

Thomas Aquinas, doctor of the church, in the 13th century, wrote:
“As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active force in the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of woman comes from a defect in the active force or from some material indisposition, or even from some external influence.”

Martin Luther, a German priest, theologian, and Protestant reformer, wrote:
“For woman seems to be a creature somewhat different from man, in that she has dissimilar members, a varied form and a mind weaker than man. Although Eve was a most excellent and beautiful creature, like unto Adam in reference to the image of God, that is with respect to righteousness, wisdom and salvation, yet she was a woman. For as the sun is more glorious than the moon, though the moon is a most glorious body, so woman, though she was a most beautiful work of God, yet she did not equal the glory of the male creature.”

Augustine thought women’s only purpose was to help in childbearing. And now, in more recent years, pastor and bestselling author John Piper admits that, historically speaking, women have usually been understood as “more gullible or deceivable than men and therefore less fit for the doctrinal oversight of the church. This may be true.”

Famous megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll was instrumental in cofounding several influential evangelical organizations, including the Resurgence, Acts 29 Network, and the Gospel Coalition. Although his Mars Hill Church has now disbanded, his booklet on church leadership concerning women in ministry emphasizes the widely held belief about women being daughters of Eve based on Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 2:
“Without blushing, Paul is simply stating that when it comes to leading in the church, women are unfit because they are more gullible and easier to deceive than men. While many irate women have disagreed with his assessment through the years, it does appear from this that such women who fail to trust his instruction and follow his teaching are much like their mother Eve and are well-intended but ill-informed.”

If the writings of influential Christian leaders and theologians throughout history have taught that women struggle to overcome being duped, one might assume it’s not wise for women to be students of theology or hold positions of leadership in the workforce or in the church. Based on their interpretations, Eve did not steward her knowledge well, and look where it got us. According to them, it seems the gospel message was not safe with Eve. So that natural next question is, Will it be with us?

Get an entire gender uneasy about loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, and you will see how our enemy effectively sidelines women. Women are often told we need to be careful with knowledge, as if a universal holy reverence for the words of God is not for all people. I wonder if we are picturing ourselves in a garden, facing a serpent, tempted to be snared like Eve, and disregarding what Jesus redeemed on the cross.

Epic Eden Redo

In light of these misguided and defeating interpretations of Scripture, we may need to remind ourselves that while there are a select few verses that are confusing about the role of women in the Fall and in the church, there are plenty of timeless truths that all agree apply to women: We are image bearers of the one true living God, and we reflect his glory because we were made in his likeness (Gen. 1:26). We were designed to wage war against spiritual forces, to push back the powers of darkness (Eph. 6:10–17). We have been sealed with the Spirit of the almighty God. As a result, we are competent ministers of the gospel (2 Cor. 3:6). We have been called by God into a holy calling, not according to our gender, abilities, or education, but based on God’s grace, an irrevocable calling to be God’s own (2 Tim. 1:9). Matthew tells us we are the light of the world (Matt. 5:14–16). Sister, Paul says we have everything we need for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3), every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph. 1:3).

And we probably need to be reminded that Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection secured us all an epic Eden redo. John, the beloved disciple, started his Gospel with “In the beginning” the same way Genesis does. As a parallel work to Genesis, John’s Gospel is like a second Genesis or a second beginning. By the time we get to John 20 and Christ’s resurrection, John has prepared us to see Jesus’s words and actions as a movement of redemption. He wrote:

On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark. She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put Him!” (John 20:1–2 HCSB)

As Peter and John sprinted to the garden tomb to verify Mary’s story, they found the stone rolled away and Jesus’s linens just as she described. Likely distraught by the missing body, both men headed back to the Upper Room to mourn, but Mary stayed at the grave site to cry. Two angels appeared to Mary and asked her why she was sobbing, but they already knew why. Jesus’s body had disappeared, and she didn’t know where to find it. Turning around, she saw Jesus, mistaking him for the owner of the garden. Mary supposed Jesus was the gardener and—I want us to catch this—she was not right, but she wasn’t wrong either. Jesus is the Cosmic Gardener, and he was about to replant humanity in the second garden.

Saying her name, Jesus caught Mary’s attention, and she found her Great Teacher. “‘Don’t cling to Me,’ Jesus told her, ‘for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to My brothers and tell them that I am ascending to My Father and your Father—to My God and your God.’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord!’ And she told them what He had said to her” (John 20:17–18 HCSB).

For anyone like me, assuming a woman’s passion for service is restrained by Eve’s example, look again at John’s Gospel, which highlights Mary Magdalene as a model disciple in the resurrection story.

In the first garden, Eve was placed inside it by God’s initiative, and we can assume it was during the day because the lights had already been turned on (Gen. 1). In Mary’s story, she comes from outside the garden by her own initiative, and it is still dark outside.

In the first garden, Eve was created after Adam, but in Mary’s story, she is the first person to see the resurrected Jesus—before Peter, before John. She’s the first. Hashtag it, please.

In the first garden, Eve faced the fruit-producing tree of life and initiated with her rebellion a curse of death for all. And the fruit was available when she reached for it. In the second garden, Mary Magdalene faced a tomb of death, only to find Jesus had initiated the resurrection life for all. And in the grave, there was no body.

In the first garden, the serpent approached Eve with cunning questions that sowed doubt. In the second garden, angels greeted Mary Magdalene and then Jesus himself appeared, all asking compassionate questions that sowed hope.

In the first garden, Eve hid her naked shame from God’s presence before being ousted from Eden. In the second garden, Mary wept without shame in Jesus’s presence, and it was Jesus’s clothes that were missing.

Eve was deceived, but Mary was commissioned.

Eve rebelled, but Mary obeyed.

The contrast, the repurposing, is so vivid, so clear. I can barely make it through either passage without weeping. I am no longer a gullible daughter of Eve, and neither are you. When my concerns about biblical deception arise within me, I stand condemned as I hear my enemy say, “You are just like your mother, Eve.” Instead, I should replay my Savior’s words to Mary: “Go and tell your brothers.” The curse of being easily deceived died when Jesus rose from the dead.

Somebody get my Wonder Woman crown; I’m feeling inspired.

The above is a Bible Gateway exclusive Sneak Peek and First Listen of No More Holding Back: Emboldening Women to Move Past Barriers, See Their Worth, and Serve God Everywhere (Thomas Nelson, 2019) by Kat Armstrong (@katarmstrong1). Order the book and unabridged audiobook on CD in the Bible Gateway Store.

No More Holding Back is published by HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., the parent company of Bible Gateway.

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