Where in the Bible does it clearly say that women cannot be priests?

Question

The Catholic church has its own manmade set of written policies, some of which collide the Bible.

There may be written suggestions that a celebate male would be better, but not mandatory.

The Catholic Church needs to see that old, elderly men, aren't the only ones who can hold a position in the Catholic church, especially Pope. We need a pope who is in his 20's or 30's too.

----UPDATE----

I read some of the Bible versus that the users here suggested so far. My conclusion is that the male can have control, sex and use of the woman. She must shut up and be silent and have no say so, etc....

This is definitely for me. Women's suffrage must come into the Catholic church now.

Answer 1

Its just because the bible is the worlds most sexist book.



There is a general assumption, especially in North America and Europe, that the Catholic Church’s insistence on a male priesthood is an obscure anomaly, which endures only because a Polish pope has refused to move with the times.

“But everyone agrees that the Catholic Church will one day ordain women. Surely it’s just this pope who is holding things back? The next one is bound to change the rule!”
The point is made frequently and always with the same confidence. There is a general assumption, at least in Europe and North America, that the Catholic Church’s insistence on a male priesthood is an obscure anomaly, which endures only because a Polish pope has, in the 1990s, refused to move with the times.

Yet the times have often favored a female priesthood and never more so than when Christ ordained His first priests, nearly 2,000 years ago. Virtually all the pagan religions of His day had priestesses, and it would have been entirely normal and natural for Him to choose women for this task. He had, moreover, a number of excellent potential candidates, from His own Mother, who accompanied Him at His first miracle and stood with Him as He suffered on the cross, to Mary Magdalene or the women of Bethany. Instead, He chose only men, and He remained immovable on this, continuing right to the end to exhort and train them all, leaving thus a Church which turned out to be safely founded on a rock. From those twelve men a direct line of apostolic succession has given the Catholic Church the bishops and priests it has today.

In the Church’s latest statement on this matter, Pope John Paul II, using his full authority as the successor of Peter, states categorically that the Church cannot — not will not, but cannot — ordain women, now or in the future. The Catechism of the Catholic Church sets it out clearly, quoting the decree Inter insigniores:

Only a baptized man (vir) receives sacred ordination. The Lord Jesus chose men (viri) to form the college of the twelve apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their ministry. The college of bishops, with whom the priests are united in the priesthood, makes the college of the twelve an ever-present and ever-active reality until Christ’s return. The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord Himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible.
We need to understand that Christians believe God to be the essence of divine omnipotence. To put it crudely, He doesn’t make mistakes. When He became Incarnate as a human being, He did so at a precise and exact moment in human history, which has been planned from all eternity. From the beginning, God had chosen that there would be a Jewish people, among whom His divine Son would be born. Their own priestly traditions would form part of the background and culture which would help them — and others — to see and know Him. Every detail about the Incarnation was known in the mind of God. He was born into the fullness of time.

He didn’t say: “Oops, sorry — I made a terrible mistake! I should have been born into the latter half of the twentieth century, so as to have benefited from the We are Church movement in Germany, or the feminist workshop sessions of America, or the Equal Opportunities legislation in Britain.” On the contrary, He was and remains omnipotent. He knew exactly what He was doing.

It is worth pointing out that, in choosing His apostles, Christ was not awarding them the priesthood as a reward for good behavior: courage, intelligence, or skill. On the contrary. One — the rock on which the Church was to be founded — denied Him, another doubted His Resurrection, and one even betrayed Him. The priesthood is not a badge of good-conduct (although, like eleven out of the first twelve, millions of Christ’s priests down the centuries have led heroic and noble lives). Rather, just as bread and wine are the essential “matter” of the Eucharist, so are men the “matter” of the priesthood.

If we wish to explore fully this question of the Church and the priesthood, we can start with Christ’s actions when on earth. But in a sense we must go further back to see the covenant bond that was established right at the beginning, and the male/female imagery and nuptial meaning that goes right through salvation history.

At every Catholic wedding you will hear the beautiful, scriptural, and profound statement that the relationship of a bridegroom and his bride is like that of Christ and His Church. Of course, we are mostly not listening. We are looking at the bridesmaids and reflecting that they look charming in blue, or admiring the graceful way in which the bride has managed her train, and soon we’ll be enjoying the cake and the confetti and the champagne.

But the words nevertheless convey a profound truth. Notice the order of things. Christ and His Church came first. They were an idea in the mind of God from the very beginning. And we, as human beings, when we unite together and marry, are an image of the ultimate Bridegroom and Bride.

Catholics are used to this imagery. The Church is often described as being the Bride of Christ. We also speak of her as being our Holy Mother Church. She is indeed a Bride who has become a mother — and we are all her children, the fruit of that union she has with Christ. Perhaps because we are so used to this notion, we do not think about it very deeply. But it is all part of the nuptial imagery that goes all through Scripture and explains much to us.

Christ began His public ministry at a wedding. Perhaps many of us think this is not very important. We are intrigued by the story of water turning into wine, but we think it could have been a birthday party or just a local harvest supper. But no — the wedding is a central part of the event. It was a genuine wedding. We don’t know the names of the young couple getting married, but they had invited Jesus and Mary, and it was evidently a happy and important occasion with food and drink and plenty of guests. But it was more. The whole story was a great significance. When Mary told Jesus that the wine was running out, He answered, “My time is not yet come.” Whenever Christ mentions His “time,” He means His passion and death. Already, we can hear the drumbeats of that event in the distance. And Mary told the waiting servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” That word “do” also will be heard again, when Christ’s time indeed has come. At Cana, they do as He tells them, and water is turned into wine. At the Last Supper, once again there is a commandment to “do,” and this commandment also has been obeyed down the centuries, with another transformation — wine into Christ’s own blood. The nuptial message from Cana is not an optional extra; it is central to the event. Pope John Paul II echoes this link between Cana and Calvary when he speaks of the “nuptial meaning” in the Eucharist.

We see this male/female imagery going right through our redemption history. It is at the heart of Christ’s being born among us as a man. When He founded His Church, it was with the love of a bridegroom for a bride, and when He gave us the Eucharist, it was as a nuptial banquet. This nuptial imagery was completed on Calvary. We are speaking here of holy things at the very heart of our faith. Paul speaks of this as being “a great mystery.” It gives a meaning — and a great dignity — to the human reality of male and female. It is in this context that we can see not only the significance of a male priesthood, but also the importance and beauty that the Church attaches to purity, to fidelity in marriage, and to the fruitfulness of married love.

There is an important sense in which the current debate about the ordination of women, even if it is sometimes couched in terms which Catholics find offensive, is going to be useful in the development of our understanding these things. Invariably, in the history of the Church, it is only when a doctrine is seriously challenged that its truth is proclaimed in greater fullness. Only when a heresy arises does it become necessary to proclaim truth to end the heresy.

Thus we will not find the word “Trinity” in the New Testament. Yet Catholics and most Protestants unite in professing that there are three Persons in one God and that God the Son walked this earth and was present among us and told us that God the Holy Spirit would descend upon His Church. It was only when the Arian heresy arose, effectively denying Christ’s divinity, that it became necessary to defend and explain the Trinity in authoritative and definitive terms. The Council of Nicæa gave us the Nicene Creed, which we say Sunday by Sunday at Mass, proclaiming Christ’s divinity in unmistakable terms: “God from God, light from light, true God from true God.”

Catholic women have played a central role in the life of the Church, from Lydia in the Acts of the Apostles, through Margaret of Scotland and Jadwiga of Poland and other great queens and women of influence, to the Englishwomen at the Reformation who arranged secret places for Mass, down to Edith Stein, whose quest for intellectual and spiritual truth led her to convent life and did not spare her Auschwitz. In no sense is there any authentic tradition of “If you’re not a priest you simply don’t matter,” despite fashionable attempts to present this as a standard part of Catholicism.

We can expect that, as the question “Why can’t Catholic women be priests?” is further explored, the Church will provide richer testimony to the unchanging truth of a male-only priesthood. There will be no change in this teaching — rather, the more it is discussed and debated, the more its scriptural and theological basis will emerge. The male-only priesthood of Jesus Christ and the bridal nature of the Church are spiritual realities of which our two human sexes, male and female, are profound and deeply important images, made in the flesh. Ours is an incarnate faith, centered on the great fact that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Nothing has been left to chance.

This debate about the priesthood will shed light on other issues, especially those surrounding questions of sex and gender, about which there is so much tortured re-evaluation in our times. In a society riven with doubt about homosexuality, transvestites, the idea of “same-sex marriage,” the legitimization of sado-masochism as an “alternative lifestyle,” and so on and so on, the Church’s affirmation that God has a meaning and purpose in the way He created us is a voice of reason and of sanity. It offers for a confused people a compass-point of truth.

In this, as in so much more, the Church holds the truth for which so many in these days are aching. We may find debating feminism and the priesthood tedious at times, but God calls us to do it, and we will find that presenting His truth will produce multiple blessings.


1. What is a woman's role in the church?
A woman is never to open her mouth in church. She has nothing valuable to say and should limit her participation to asking her husband to explain things to her.

"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church" (1 Corinthians 14:34-35).


2. What is a woman's role in the educational process?

Women should never be teachers because they are easily deceived.

"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (1 Timothy 2:11-14).


3. Is a wife permitted to follow her own conscience?

A woman must obey her husband in all matters at all times

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their husbands in every thing" (Ephesians 5:22-24). "But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God" (1 Corinthians 11:3). "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord" (Colossians 3:18).


4. In God's eyes, who is worth more between women and men?

God expressly says men are worth more, and actually provides dollar amounts proving this

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the Lord by thy estimation. And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary. And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels. And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver. And if it be from sixty years old and above, if it be a male, then thy estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female, ten shekels" (Leviticus 27:1-7)


5. What is the role of a widow?

She should be depressed and pray day and night

Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day. But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth" (1 Timothy 5:5-6).


6. How long is a woman unclean after the messy act of childbirth?

The woman is unclean for seven days if the child is a boy, but she is unclean for twice as long if the child is a girl

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days . . . But if she bare a maid child, then she shall be unclean two weeks" (Leviticus 12:1-5).


7. What are the requirements for a woman's physical appearance?

A woman must dress modestly and refrain from wearing expensive jewelry and a woman should wear her hair long

"In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array" (1 Timothy 2:9). "But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering" (1 Corinthians 11:15).


8. Can you trust a woman's promises or guarantees?

No, because women are deceitful and manipulative and because a woman's promise is null and void if her husband disapproves of it

"And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her" (Ecclesiastes 7:26). "But if her husband hath utterly made them void on the day he heard them; then whatsoever proceeded out of her lips concerning her vows, or concerning the bond of her soul, shall not stand: her husband hath made them void; and the Lord shall forgive her" (Numbers 30:12).


9. Under what circumstances are we to spare the life of a married or engaged woman who has been raped?

When the woman is raped in the country as opposed to the city or when the woman is a slave girl

"If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; Then ye shall bring them both out onto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city . . . But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die . . . For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her" (Deuteronomy 22:23-27). And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bondmaid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free" (Leviticus 19:20).


10. In times of war, what is God's plight for women in the captured areas?

While the men are to be killed, the women are to be taken as slaves. Pretty women are to become the wives of conquering men who find them attractive. Women in places the Lord gives His chosen people as an inheritance are to be killed along with every other living thing

"And when the Lord thy God hath delivered [a city] into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: But the women, and the little ones . . . shalt thou take unto thyself . . . But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth" (Deuteronomy 20:13-16). "When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies . . . And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife; Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house . . . thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife" (Deuteronomy 21:10-13).

11. What is an appropriate way to describe a woman in a second marriage?

Polluted, Treacherous, and Adulterous!

“If a man put away is wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted” (Jeremiah 3:1)? “Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me” (Jeremiah 3:20). “[W]hosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery” (Matthew 5:32).

12. Are women considered holy?

It’s hard to say. The Bible says all men are holy but is conspicuously silent about women.

“(As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord)” (Luke 2:23).

13. An attractive woman who sleeps around is like . . .

A jewel of gold in a pig’s nose.

“As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion” (Proverbs 11:22).


14. Why did God make childbirth so painful?

God decided to punish one woman’s disobedience by making every woman for all eternity suffer.

“And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat….Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee” (Genesis 3:13-16).


15. Are women generally moral?

No.

“Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies” (Proverbs 31:10).


16. Is a woman entitled to a share of her deceased father’s or spouse’s estate?

Only if she is the daughter and has no brothers. If there are any male children, they get the entire estate and the daughter gets nothing. Neither does the wife.

“And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter. And if he have no daughter, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his brethren. And if he have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his father’s brethren” (Number 27:8-10).


17. What are some things women cannot stop thinking about?

Clothing and jewelery

“Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number” (Jeremiah 2:32).


18. What can a woman expect whose husband angers God?

God will have the couple’s male neighbor rape her.

“Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun” (2 Samuel 12:11). “And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 6:12).


19. What adjective best describes a woman’s act of conceiving a living human being?

Sinful.

“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalms 51:5).


20. What connotation does God associate with the term “woman”?

Weakness and disgust. Being called a “woman” is as shameful as it gets.

“Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women: the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire shall devour thy bars” (Nahum 3:13). “As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths” (Isaiah 3:12).



Life would be so much better if everyone would be an atheist.

Answer 2

The Bible has nothing to do with what the Catholic Church states in its laws and regulations. The Bible was for the Hebrews remember and even in those olden days women were not part of the Hebrew Church.

King James had the bible altered to suit himself as did some Popes during the ages.
The left out whole books of The Bible because they did not want the peasantry to read it.

If you are waiting for women and young men to be in the top level of the Catholic Church then you will waiting a long time.

Better to support a church that has women or younger men in them than to try to make the Catholic Church bend...which is impossible as time and history has proved.

Nice ideas though, but I have my doubts they will change in the future.

Answer 3

See... The Bible is correct is style of a daft factor to mention to begin with. The complete declaration style of assumes the complete of the Bible is a unmarried purpose. The Bible, truthfully, can nice be defined as an anthology. It is many texts, placed in combination through the years, written by means of many distinct humans, who didn't seek advice every different and didn't have a grasp plan. If there is any grasp plan to be learn in there, it is the grasp plan of the Catholic Church, who first compiled those texts into an reliable canon within the first situation. But probably, the complete inspiration is simply nonsense. Kind of like looking to reply the query: "What was once XIXnth century literature looking to say?"

Answer 4

1 Timothy 2:11-12 proclaims, “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” In the church, God assigns different roles to men and women. This is a result of the way mankind was created (1 Timothy 2:13) and the way in which sin entered the world (2 Timothy 2:14). God, through the Apostle Paul’s writing, restricts women from serving in roles of spiritual teaching authority over men. This precludes women from serving as pastors, which definitely includes preaching to, teaching, and having spiritual authority over men.

Answer 5

Well that depends on how you read the Bible. If you take a specific verse out of cultural or historical context, then you will read verses like those mentioned in 1Tim.

If you dig a little deeper, you will read that Paul actually comissioned MANY women leaders/teachers/preachers over men, and sent them to travel to other churches. He even sent the other churches letters to admonish them to treat these teachers well and respect them.

So in a broader (and I feel- TRUE) context, there is a great deal of support for the idea of women as leaders within the church (pastor, elder, priest or other).

To those who take the passages literally, don't forget Ephesians 6:5
[ Slaves and Masters ] Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.

This verse used to be used as support for white men owning slaves too..... maybe you should look at the WHOLE context?

Answer 6

1 Tim 2:11 - Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
1 Tim 3 says the overseers or bishops and the decans must be a the husband of one wife.

Women can not lead the flock but they can still be preachers or lead the womens and childrens ministries at church. Plenty for women to do.
Jesus picked 12 apostles who were men. He could have picked men and women but He picked men. Women walked with Jesus and still were women in high position in society. See Romans 16.

Answer 7

It doesn't. What people are typically referring to is a statement made by the Apostle Paul that seems to have been more like a question rather than a statement.

People forget, especially Catholics, that there were many women in the Ministry long before Jesus was born. Like Myriam, Moses' sister who was a prophetess, and Deborah, a judge and general, or Susannah, that supported Jesus' ministry financially, or Eudora and Syntyche, who supported Paul and were his intercessors.

They also forget that God said that in the last days He would pour out His spirit on all men (emcompassing women) and that his sons and daughters would prophesy, etc.

Hope this helps.

Answer 8

You will find that Gods word tells you at 1 Timothy 2:11-14. It says; Let a woman learn in silence with full submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach, or to exercise authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. Also Adam was not deceived, but the woman was thoroughly deceived and came to be in transgression. This is a protection for the congregation, if Satan deceived Eve a perfect woman think what he could do with an imperfect woman.

Answer 9

I don't think the Bible says that women can't be in leadership, what it does says is that men are supposed to do it. Stated in 2 Timothy and in Titus. It is the catholic church that teaches celibacy, the Bible teaches that an elder or bishop or whatever term you want to use, MUST be the husband of one wife.

Answer 10

Do you realize that Catholic Priests, like many other Clergy in other religions, have to go to the seminary and don't get out of the seminary until they are at least 24-26. Once they are ordained they have to minister and "work their way up." Think about it. Most Pastors, at least in the Catholic Church, weren't appointed to that position until they are at least 30 and usually later.

As far as having women as priests, I would love to have the opportunity to go for it but in all reality it probably won't happen for awhile.

Answer 11

In the OT, the Jewish Rabbis were always male, as with all of the prophets.
The Church also goes along with the lines of Jesus choosing 12 male apostles etc., and using the OT line ".. a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek"..

However, as you mentioned, the Catholic Church generally creates its own laws and guidelines, which may or may not have anything to do with scripture.. as is the case with the host/bread in a mass being the actual/real body of Christ in all respects.. (scripture is clearly refering to this symbolically, not literally in the passage where it is mentioned "This is my body").

Hence they could easily twist around the words of scripture to support female priests is they so desired.. as has been done with everything else in Church history (crusades, divorce, strange theology etc.)