Acts 16:40, House of Lydia.
Was Lydia a woman pastor?
The Bible, both the Tanakh (OT) and the Testimony of Yeshua (NT), promote male leadership, eldership and priesthood as normative. However, there have been times when men were not available to fulfill the plans and purposes of Elohim, so he used woman. A most notable example was Deborah who was both a prophetess and a judge in Israel (although she was most likely the wife of Barak who was a military leader in Israel, which would have made her the co-leader of Israel with her husband). Huldah was a prophetess, a judge and a counselor to kings.
The Testimony of Yeshua carries the idea of male leader into the church. In the apostolic era, the Head Leader, of course, was Yeshua himself, then there were his twelve male apostles, and then there were male elders over each congregation (1 Tim 3:1–7; Tit 1:5–9), and the head over each family was the husband and father (Eph 5:22–33).
The apostolic writings also promote the idea of the priesthood of all believers (e.g. 1 Pet 2:9; Rev 1:6). When it comes to salvation and spiritual equality, in YHVH’s eyes there is neither male or female, Jew or Gentile. All are equal and one in Messiah (Rom 10:12; Gal 3:28; Col 3:11).
However, the New Testament Scriptures record that the church was still led by male elders. Nevertheless, there are examples of husband and wife ministry teams. In Romans we see the husband and wife apostolic team of Andronicus and Junia (Rom 16:7). Another example of such a evangelistic-pastoral team was Aquila and Priscilla. They worked so closely together that sometimes Scripture mentions wife first, and sometimes the husband (Acts 18:2, 8, 26. Rom 16:3; 1 Cor 16:19; 2 Tim 4:19).
One example of a likely woman pastor is Lydia who, apparently, led a church in her home (Acts 16:40). The Bible reveals that if there is no man to do fulfill YHVH purposes, he will raise up a woman to do it. The only caveat is that to follow a biblical authority structure, she needs to be under the authority of or accountable to a male elder in some way. Lydia would have been under the eldership of Paul who led her to Yeshua and baptized her (Acts 16:14).
If a woman is leading a congregation and she is married, she should be doing so in conjunction with her husband, with his blessing. If she is not, then she is out of order spiritually. If she’s not married, then she needs to be working in conjunction with male eldership.
Thank you so much about this blog.
I can share it to the Pastors(both male & female)
I know so that they may be enlightened.
Most of them are not yet in Messianic Faith
but are in the Mainstream Christianity.
May YHVH grant your more wisdom & new revelations
about His Word so that many wll be taught correctly,
based what the Bible really says
(especially about End-Times & Prophecies).
I agree. Except I don’t think we should assume she was a pastor , it don’t say that. I don’t think she was, just that they had met at her house. Male and female are equal but God has and order of things, starting in Genesis shows us this. And the male should be the leader. Good write up though! Julie
Correct. The Scripture doesn’t specifically state that Lydia was a pastor. However, if you have a congregation in your home, you’re going to end up becoming the de facto leader of it, since it’s your home and you have authority over what goes on there (which is one step away from being a shepherd/pastor). I know, because we started our congregation in the 1990s in our home and it led me to an 18 year long career as a pastor. I’ve also acted as a pastoral advisor to numerous home fellowships over the years. It’s just the natural flow of things.
When it comes to Elohim and his Word, its not about gender, it is about circumcision of the heart and if one is called to preach. Elohim can just as easily call and raise up a man or a woman for His purposes. All are equal in Messiah.
Shalom, John
YHVH is a God of order. He designed and created men to be the leader of the family and for this reason, men were given specific physical and mental qualities. Women were designed for giving birth and nurturing the children and therefore needed different qualities. But because we live in a fallen world with premature deaths, diseases and other undesirable circumstances, the roles sometimes need to be reversed.
In regard to spiritual work for Adonai, like in Isaiah 6:8 when He asks “Whom should I send? Who will go for us?”, if a woman puts up her hand and she has the passion and suitable circumstances, Adonai will be pleased to use her for his purposes, I believe.
Sonja
It seems to me that if there is no man to do the work, his agendas won’t be hindered due to the lack there of. Once he used a donkey to speak for him, and Yeshua said he could raise up stones to praise him. How much more a woman?
Acts chapter 16 verse 11. Paul sailing from Troas, >to Neapolis and from there to Philippi, the foremost city of that part of Macedonia. On the Sabbath day they went out of the city to the riverside,where prayer was customarily made;and they spoke to the women that met there.
verse14: Now a certain woman named Lydia heard Paul scripture verse says heard us..She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira,who worshipped God.The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul..her & her household were baptized,she begged them if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord,come to my house & stay. ( Hospitality)
So obviously Lydia was a faithful believer once she heard the true word thru the Holy Spirit ( Ruach) was convicted in her heart that this was Gods truth & wanted to serve YHVH with
faithfulness & sincerity of heart.. radical conversion.. circumcision of the heart..
Lydia was a seller or merchant of purple cloth..from purple dye.Obviously she was very skilled & knowledgeable in this area..and ? a wealthy woman
Thyatira was a wealthy town on the Lycus river in the Roman Province of Asia ( modern day Turkey) …so I am thinking Purple can mean symbolize Royalty ..which could point to Yeshua being King of Kings.. then the warning to the seven churches ; one was- Thyatira was one of them in the book of Revelation: so perhaps Lydias conversion has a prophetic meaning picture of the church being redeemed thru Yeshuas precious blood which is the exact opposite of the woman it describes in the book of Revelation who sits on the beast.in Revelation Chapter 17 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold & precious stones & pearls having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations & the filthiness of her fornication ..on her forehead a name was written .Mystery, Babylon the Great,, etc..
.Just a thought… because of the purple.