Expert: Marilyn - 1/1/2011

Question
Hi There,
I am a Christian woman who has returned to study after many years of looking after a large family. I have been given an assignment asking the question, "A woman's place is in the home". As I am Christian I would like to do my study from a Christian perspective. I find many writings suggesting that no where in the bible are women prohibited from working. Is this correct? This question also applies to me personally as I still have 2 small children aged 4 and 6.

Thanking you in advance
Jenny

Answer
Hello Jenny;

Proverbs 31:10-31 describes a working woman who does it all and has it all. As an example: "She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard," verse 16.

Lydia, who loved and worshiped God, provided Paul a place to stay and was wealthy because she was a business woman selling purple cloth, Acts 16:13-15 & 40.

I Timothy 5:14 in the King James says "I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully." Other versions take the context of the passage, which deals with widows, and translates this as "young widows." The phrase "guide the house," in Greek is "oikodespoteo," which means "rule": a mother should rule the house.

Titus 2:3-5 says, "Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the Word of God," NIV.

In the King James, "That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the Word of God be not blasphemed."

The words "keepers at home," is translated from the Greek, "oikouros," which means a "stayer at home." "Keepers" in the Greek were those who guarded, kept something safe from all attackers. The mother is the one who keeps the home and by extension, the children, safe from all attackers.

The passage in Timothy admonishes women to "guide or rule the home" so that the enemy cannot gain a foothold. In Titus the women are to "keep" the home the way a guard protects it from attackers. In a culture where 40% of women now work we see rampant problems with teens--it would seem that there is not a more important job for mothers than to be "keepers" or "rulers at home."

I think the issue comes down to the children--are there children at home? If so, then their mother should stay at home with them. It's possible when the children are older, the mother may take a part time job while the kids are in school. But no job is more important than raising God fearing, well-rounded children.

I hope this provides a beginning point for your study. It will benefit you to take it from here. You will learn a lot from research and answering questions, as I have!

Sincerely,

Marilyn