|
Tertullian: He-Man Woman Hater of
the 2nd Century
by Captain Amy Reardon
USA West, Northwest Divisional Christian Education Director
A number of
years ago I met an earnest Christian woman (I’ll call her
“Carol”) who recognized that she lacked a sense of mission in
her life. Learning that I was corps officer in one of the most
dangerous neighborhoods in the western United States, Carol
wondered if she could somehow engage in our activities while
maintaining faithful attendance at her own church. I suggested
she begin to teach our Sunbeams - a Christ-centered troop for
girls, ages 6 – 11. She could nurture our girls, who all came
from very rough home situations. It was a good fit.
After Carol had been with us for a couple of months, I
happened to walk through the room while she was in the middle
of a Bible lesson with the girls. “Well, you see, girls,” she
was telling them, “the reason a man is always the head over a
woman is because Eve ate the forbidden fruit first, and then
she tempted Adam. Woman is responsible for sin.” After I
picked my jaw up from the floor, I hurried to the group to
remedy the situation as best I could, explaining that both
Adam and Eve had sinned, we are all ultimately responsible for
our own sin, etc. Really Carol’s theology should not have
caught me so off guard. It is a centuries-old notion. The most
venomous comments conceivable were leveled at women by that
revered church father, Tertullian. In fact, one might trace
Carol’s theology directly back to Tertullian.
Tertullian stated his theology of women with unmistakable
clarity. In this quote, he addressed all of womankind:
“God’s judgment on this sex lives on in our age; the guilt
necessarily lives on as well. You are the Devil’s gateway; you
are the unsealer of that tree; you are the first foresaker of
the divine law; you are the one who persuaded him whom the
Devil was not brave enough to approach; you so lightly crushed
the image of God, the man Adam; because of your punishment,
that is, death, even the Son of God had to die.”
Each phrase is a blow. All of womankind shares responsibility
with Eve for her actions within the Garden of Eden. And if all
of womankind is responsible, then each individual woman is
responsible. Women alone have destroyed the image of God – an
image which, it would seem, was reflected in man, but not
woman. And, with no restriction placed on his harsh pen, he
proceeds to blame women alone for the death of Jesus Christ.
Today’s female reader understands bearing the blame for the
sacrifice of Christ. Basic Christian doctrine teaches that “he
was bruised for our iniquities”. But Tertullian’s doctrine is
crueler because he only blames half of humankind. In so doing,
he declares the other half innocent. Christ was made to die
because women have dragged humankind into a sinful state.
Tertullian was not the only theologian to put forth that woman
was responsible for the sinful state. (Ambrose and Chrystodom,
for example, wrote along those lines.) Pagan theology long
shared similar sentiment; Pandora (of Pandora’s box fame) was
the downfall of mankind, according to Hesiod. But while others
wrote about women – Tertullian wrote to women, which makes his
words that much sharper. He insists that women feel the full
weight of their guilt, in kinship with Eve. The first sentence
of the previous passage is treated this way in a different
translation:
“The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives on even in
our times and so it is necessary that the guilt should live
on, also.”
He does not declare womankind unsalvageable. But she is to
have no relief from her guilt. It should be noted, in
Tertullian’s defense, that he is driving toward a point, not
simply lambasting women. He is making the case that Christian
women must dress modestly. His argument is that if women
understood their guilt, they would never have the audacity to
adorn themselves or attempt to make themselves attractive in
any way.
He writes, “I think, rather that you would have dressed in
mourning garments and even neglected your exterior.” While
dressing modestly was (and is) important, such a point could
easily be made without chastising women. But Tertullian has
taken the opportunity to make plain his theology. Womankind is
guilty, and each woman alone is guilty, for he writes: “Do you
not believe that you are [each] an Eve?” A woman’s response is
to live a life in constant state of repentance, remorse, and
shame, as indicated by the inappropriateness of any remotely
cheerful garb, or any careful attention to one’s appearance.
Where did Tertullian go wrong? I suggest that he was far too
obsessed with original sin and did not spend enough time
reviewing the words and actions of Jesus Christ, who always
treated women as equals to men. I’m reminded of the story in
John 8 where men brought to Jesus a woman who was caught in
adultery. They wanted to stone her. Not the man with whom she
was having sex, of course - just her. The woman, the
temptress, the evil one. And Jesus looked at the group of men,
and dared anyone to declare himself innocent of sin and begin
the stoning. In a culture that usually blamed women, Jesus
looked the men in the eyes and called them on the carpet for
their own sin. That’s equality. That’s biblical. Tertullian
missed it, but I suppose those things are easier to grasp in
our age than they were in his. One can only guess what
misunderstandings of the Bible we entertain now – things that
may be better understood in an age to come.
|
