I had a precious woman recently tell me--with a wondrous joy--that she "knew God the Father in a way that ONLY daughters could." I have pondered this much, for as a father of daughters myself, I know EXACTLY what she means.
I have noticed that in the confrontation between Nathan the prophet and King David in 2 Samuel 12 that Nathan's parable has the man loving the precious sheep "as a man loves his daughter."
I have noticed the challenging examples of the female leaders of the early church--their ferocious commitment to the Lord of Love.
Yet I have noticed the abuses against women, as well as the slander against God, and the inflammatory (yet groundless) attempts to label God 'misogynist' or 'Male supremacist'. Writers of all persuasions make strange claims about the Living and Loving Lord, when it comes the subject of women.
The two MAIN arguments I hear (from outside of Christian circles) is that (1)The OT Law treated women like sub-humans (e.g. property); and that (2) in the NT, Paul carried on this great tradition!
The arguments I hear from WITHIN Christian circles concern (1) women leadership roles in the church; and (2) the 'authority' relations between husband and wife.
This study will try to surface the data and make some initial assessments on those positions. It will be essentially inductive from the text, and will in main confine itself to the 'canonical approach'--I will start with the Book that the early church gave us. I will not try to sort through potential sources and the like, but focus on the finished product--the literary product we call the Bible.
What I have discovered so far--my main thesis......is that God has revealed in this Book an incredible heart of love and appreciation and respect for His daughters, and He has used them to accomplish great acts of honor for His Name in biblical history.
The sources of data we will use for this study: