Why cant women hold a position in the Jehovahs Witness Church?

Question

I was just wonderin...I had a friend that was JW and she said the elders could only be men...why is that? are women not as important as men? Im not trying to be mean or put the JW religion down...just curious?

Answer 1

The premise of this question is somewhat misleading...

Briefly, It must be mentioned that Jehovah's Witnesses believe the bible to teach that a limited number of only 144,000 humans will be resurrected to heaven to rule as 'kings and priests' alongside Jesus. Witnesses fully expect perhaps half that number to be women, and cheerfully accept that every creature on earth will be subject to them. Even today, those JW women who profess the heavenly hope are considered "anointed" by the 99.9% of earth-bound Witnesses.

(Revelation 5:10) You made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earth

Yet even far more inclusive than that limited number is the fact that Jehovah's Witnesses actually have appointed tens of thousands of women as missionaries, branch volunteers, full-time "pioneer" ministers, and international construction volunteers. Each one of these appointments is to a full-time ordained minister position.

Millions of other women among Jehovah's Witnesses are also ordained ministers, in that they regularly perform preaching work as baptized Christians. The bible teaches that all Christians in the first century (male and female) were ministers commissioned to teach in connection with the public ministry, such as from house to house.

(Matthew 28:19) Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations

(Acts 20:20) I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house


The bible plainly teaches that the congregation's appointed elders and appointed ministerial servants (or "deacons") must be adult males.

(1 Timothy 3:1-4) If any man is reaching out for an office of overseer, he is desirous of a fine work. 2 The overseer should therefore be irreprehensible, a husband of one wife, ...a man presiding over his own household in a fine manner

(1 Timothy 3:12) Let ministerial servants be husbands of one wife, presiding in a fine manner over children and their own households

(Titus 1:5-6) Make appointments of older men in city after city, as I gave you orders; if there is any man free from accusation, a husband of one wife


Within the congregation, the bible plainly teaches that women would not take the lead in teaching, and would never publicly contradict any congregation teaching.

(1 Corinthians 14:33-34) As in all the congregations of the holy ones, let the women keep silent in the congregations [and not contradict what is taught there], for it is not permitted for them to speak [in a leading role], but let them be in subjection, even as the Law says.


When a 'sister' in the congregation feels that a 'brother' needs correction, she shares her "correction" privately.

(Acts 18:26) And this man started to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him into their company and expounded the way of God more correctly to him.

(1 Corinthians 14:35) Let [women] question their own husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in a congregation [by questioning aloud what is taught there].


The rare occasions when a Christian woman would teach congregationally, she would wear a head covering.

(1 Corinthians 11:4,5) Every man that [publicly] prays or prophesies [or "teaches"] having something on his head shames his head; 5 but every woman that [publicly] prays or prophesies [or "teaches"] with her head uncovered shames her head, for it is one and the same as if she were a woman with a shaved head.


Jehovah's Witnesses always handle this matter with dignity and honor. Really, the larger principle is one of subjection to Jehovah God. A Christian wife is subject to her husband ("believer" or not), except where secular and bible law conflict. The bible authorizes only males to serve as congregation elders and ministerial servants ("deacons"). Even the angels and human Christians recognize their subjection to Christ. In turn, Christ recognizes his subjection to Jehovah God.
http://watchtower.org/e/ti/index.htm?article=article_06.htm

(1 Corinthians 11:10) That is why the woman ought to have a sign of authority upon her head because of the angels.

(Ephesians 5:21-23) Be in subjection to one another in fear of Christ. 22 Let wives be in subjection to their husbands as to the Lord, 23 because a husband is head of his wife as the Christ also is head of the congregation

(1 Corinthians 11:3) the head of every man is the Christ; in turn the head of a woman is the man; in turn the head of the Christ is God


The Scriptures are relatively clear regarding the importance of subjection, and how head-coverings can help demonstrate a godly view of subjection. Christians do not believe that the bible indicates any superiority of one gender over the other, but simply an orderliness and a pattern which they must respect. Jehovah's Witnesses note that a substantial number of women must be among the humans resurrected to heavenly life to rule beside Jesus as kings and priests forever.
http://watchtower.org/e/20001001/article_02.htm

Especially in so-called "egalitarian" societies, even devout Christians such as Jehovah's Witnesses are sometimes not perfectly diligent to the bible's direction on womanly subjection. Thanks for the reminders!

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/19980408/
http://watchtower.org/e/20020808a/
http://watchtower.org/e/20020101/

Answer 2

If I understand this right, being an elder is not holding a position but rather a responsibility of teaching and shepherding.

This doesn't make them more important, just more accountable.

In the early church, shortly after Christ died and was resurrected, the same question came up.

Paul wrote that women should not be in teaching men publicly because of the O.T. description of headship.

Women have their husband as a head, men have the Christ as a head, and Jesus has his Father as a head.

Answer 3

They can. It is a personal choice whether or not they do. My mother attended the wedding of my cousin at a Greek Orthodox Church. Didn't understand a word as it was all in Greek. They got divorced less than five years later, mostly over disagreements about observing Christmas on January 5th or December 5th. The same thing with Easter, as the Greeks do them on different days. But than, they was why they split from Rome in the third century.

Answer 4

Because it's Judah's church, not Judge Judy's.
ok, maybe not.

The JW's follow the Old Testament laws for leadership in the temple. Female priests were not allowed. Period.

Answer 5

They do. Many of them are pioneers or full-time ministers who devote 60 hours or more to the preaching ministry each month. There are more female pioneers than their male counterparts. Many females work at Watchtower branch offices world wide. Some females are missionaries in the foreign field.

Answer 6

sure

doesn't the bible suggest the "sit down and shut up" position, for women? (1COR 14:34-35)

Im not trying to be mean or put down all the bible-based religions...just telling you what's written there...

PS -- steer clear of the women during their "unclean" periods, too. bad stuff. check leviticus, numbers, exodus and deuteronomy for some real humanisic gems of love -- especially toward women.

Answer 7

Jehovah values and appreciates women, and he requires people to also accord women with respectfulness, as shown in the Bible. The honorable position and the privileges she has as a wife, together with the blessings to her because of faithfulness, industriousness, and wisdom, are described in Proverbs chapter 31.

Privileges in the Christian Congregation. For those called by God to the heavenly calling (Hebrews 3:1) to be joint heirs with Jesus Christ, there is no distinction between men and women in a spiritual sense. The apostle writes: “You are all, in fact, sons of God through your faith in Christ . . . there is neither male nor female; for you are all one person in union with Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:26-28.) These all must receive a change of nature at their resurrection, being made partakers together of “divine nature,” in which state none will be women, for there is no female sex among spirit creatures, sex being God’s means for reproduction of earthly creatures.—2 Peter 1:4.

Proclaimers of the good news. Women, spoken of as “daughters” and “women slaves” in Joel’s prophecy, were among those receiving the gifts of holy spirit on the day of Pentecost 33 C.E. From that day forward the Christian women who were favored with these gifts talked in foreign tongues that they had not understood before, and they ‘prophesied,’ not necessarily making predictions of important future events, but speaking forth Bible truths.—Joel 2:28, 29; Acts 1:13-15 - 2:1-4, 13-18.

Their speaking about Bible truths to others was not to be limited to fellow believers. Before his ascension to heaven, Jesus had told his followers: “You will receive power when the holy spirit arrives upon you, and you will be witnesses of me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the most distant part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8.) The prophecy of Joel (2:28, 29) quoted by Peter on that occasion included reference to such women. So they were numbered among those who bore the responsibility to be witnesses of Jesus “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the most distant part of the earth.” Consistent with that, the apostle Paul later reported that Euodia and Syntyche, in Philippi, had “striven side by side with him in the good news”; and Luke mentioned Priscilla as sharing with her husband Aquila in ‘expounding the way of God’ in Ephesus.—Phil. 4:2, 3; Acts 18:26.

Congregational meetings. There were meetings when these women could pray or prophesy, provided they wore a head covering. (1 Cor. 11:3-16.) However, at what were evidently public meetings, when “the whole congregation” as well as “unbelievers” assembled in one place (1 Cor. 14:23-25 - women were to “keep silent.” If ‘they wanted to learn something, they could question their own husbands at home, for it was disgraceful for a woman to speak in a congregation.’—1 Cor. 14:31-35 -
While not permitted to teach in congregational assembly, a woman could teach persons outside the congregation who desired to learn the truth of the Bible and the good news about Jesus Christ (compare Psalms 68:11), as well as be a ‘teacher of what is good’ to younger women (and children) within the congregation. (Titus 2:3-5 - But she was not to exercise authority over a man or dispute with men, as, for example, in the meetings of the congregation. She was to remember what happened to Eve and how God expressed the matter of woman’s position after Adam and Eve had sinned.—1 Tim. 2:11-14; Gen. 3:16.

Men serve as overseers, ministerial servants. In the discussion of “gifts in men” given by Christ to the congregation, there is no mention of women. The words “apostles,” “prophets,” “evangelizers,” “shepherds,” and “teachers” are all in the masculine gender. (Eph. 4:8, 11) Ephesians 4:11 is rendered by the American Translation: “And he has given us some men as apostles, some as prophets, some as missionaries, some as pastors and teachers.”—Compare Moffat's, also Psalms 68:18.

In full accord with this, when the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy about the qualifications for the service positions of “overseers” (e·pi′sko·poi), who were also “older men” (pre·sby′te·roi), and of “ministerial servants” (di·a′ko·noi) in the congregation, he specifically states that they must be men and, if married, ‘the husband of one wife.’ —1 Tim. 3:1-13. Titus 1:5-9; compare Acts 20:17, 28; Phil. 1:1.

If you would like further information or a free home Bible study, please contact Jehovah's Witnesses at the local Kingdom Hall. Or visit their official web site - http://www.watchtower.org

Answer 8

Because JW love the old testiment.....