What Mean Ye?
6. Appendix A: Female Participation at the Lord' Supper
Some perceptive readers may now be asking an interesting question. This paper has shown
that only adult males communed at the Passover. While that clearly eliminates infants and
young children from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, it seems also to eliminate female
participation. The pursuant question may be expressed, "Does the Church have any
biblical warrant for allowing women to the Lord's Supper?"
Exodus chapter twelve limited Passover participants to circumcised adults. Because women
were never circumcised in Israel, they never rightfully partook of the Passover.
Additionally, the problem and solution presented in Numbers chapter nine treated even
adult females as non-participants. An objection could be raised at this point that if this
paper is correct, then women as well as children should be kept back from the Lord's
Supper. However, such is not the teaching of Scripture, the Westminster Confession,
or this paper.
This appendix is not a study of the role of women in the Church. That may be a worthwhile
study in itself, but the purpose of this appendix is to clarify that women should not be
barred from the Lord's Supper solely on the basis of their sex. As baptized adult members
of Christ's Church, they are subject to the same restrictions regarding the sacraments as
are men.
In the Old Testament women never received the token of the covenant. In the New Testament
Church, however, women as well as men (or girls as well as boys) receive the covenantal
seal. It is at least possible that John the Baptizer baptized women as well as men. Luke
3:21 informs us, "Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass,
that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened . . . ." There is
also an intimation of female baptism in the great commission of Matthew 28:19-20, where
the risen Christ told His apostles, "Go ye therefore, and make disciples of the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you . . . . "
By Acts chapter eight, however, the apostolic example is clear. Acts 8:12 explains,
"But when they believed Phillip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God,
and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women." These
were, of course, Samaritans. But Gentile women also received the sign of the covenant upon
believing, as in the case of Lydia in Acts 16:15. From these specific examples we can
surmise that "he and all his" includes the jailor's wife and female children as
well as his male children (Acts 16:33).
The apostolic example is further confirmed by apostolic teaching in Galatians 3:27-28.
There Paul teaches, "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on
Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither
male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Paul explains that for those
who have received the sacrament of baptism, the former distinction between the Jew and the
stranger as established by Exodus 12:43 is passed away. Furthermore, the "hired
servant" who has been baptized into Christ is no longer to be excluded from the
covenant on the basis of such a text as Exodus 12:45. Finally Paul teaches that females
who have been baptized into Christ are also communicant members of the Church.
But Paul does not say that there is neither child nor adult. He leaves in place the
prohibition against infants and young children partaking of the sacrament. In fact, Paul
uses the distinction between adult understanding and childish "understanding" to
illustrate spiritual truths in I Corinthians 3:1-3 and I Corinthians 13:11. The writer of
Hebrews has a similar distinction in mind in Hebrews 5:12-6:2.
In the New Testament, the scope of the gospel expanded into the whole world (cf. Matthew
28:19-20). In that context women first began to receive baptism as the new token of the
covenant. Infant males, even in the Old Testament, were first circumcised and then
communed after demonstrating that they understood the meaning of the Passover (Exodus
12:26, etc.). Just as circumcision was one of the prerequisites for eating the Passover,
baptism is now one of the prerequisites for eating the Lord's Supper. But understanding
and discernment were then and continue to be further prerequisites to communing. While an
adult female (woman) is therefore potentially qualified to partake of the Lord's Supper,
neither infant males nor infant females can be thus qualified.
The question which we sought to answer was, "Does the Church have any biblical
warrant for allowing women to the Lord's Supper?" We found upon examination that
apostolic example and teaching extended the sacraments to females. The answer is
therefore, "Yes, the Church does have biblical warrant for allowing women to the
Lord's Supper."
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