Was the New Testament Letters Only Written to Male Brothers?

 

Question:  Was the Bible written to men only and not to women?  Some teach that the New Testament letters address brothers exclusively.    

Executive Summary Answer:  Women and men share in the blessings of the gospel, Scripture was written for both women and men.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Gen. 1:27 ESV)

Answer:  The Bible recognizes differences between genders but also recognizes the commonality between male and female genders.  The book of Proverbs is written to sons to gain wisdom. 

“Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.”  (Prov. 1:8-9 ESV)

The book of Proverbs was written in order to teach young men wisdom.  Even so, often it is the female gender that teaches wisdom.  Early in the book, the male gender, a son, is to embrace the teaching from a member of the female gender, his mother.  Also, wisdom is repeatedly personified as a wise woman teaching.  (Proverbs 3:13,14; 4:5-13; 7:4,5; 8:1-36)  The culminating example of wisdom is the woman in Proverbs 31.  Post-modern Christians often discuss the woman in Proverbs 31 as a passage directed at women, however, the beginning of the book tells the reader that the original audience is young men who are to learn wisdom. We know from Proverbs 1:8-9 that the woman in Proverbs 31 is an example to men.  She is an example to me, a man.  She is industrious.  I, as a male Christian, should follow her godly example and be industrious.  She is wise to plan her work to prepare for the future.  As a male Christian in the 21st century, I am perhaps not going to spin clothing for my family, but I should prepare with adequate financial planning for my wife and I so we do not become an avoidable burden to our children and the community. 

The Hebrew arrangement of the Old Testament has both Proverbs and Ruth in the section commonly called the Ketuvim (Writings). Proverbs 31 is followed directly by Ruth.  Those who arranged the Hebrew Old Testament may have been saying that Ruth is an exemplar of the godly woman described by Proverbs 31.  Ruth’s godly example applies to both men and women.  Likewise, many other women in the Bible are examples of disciples to us male believers.  Rachael and Hannah are examples of godly people who faced disappointment.  These women faced disappointment through prayer.  Prayer in the face of disappointment is not just for women.  The woman in the Song of Songs is an example of love for her spouse but arguably by analogy she is showing how the church should be enthralled with God as our spouse.  The New Testament shows women who ministered to Christ in his death.

“There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.” (Matt. 27:55-56 ESV)

“There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.  (Mk. 15:40-41 ESV)

A surprising New Testament example of disciple is Lydia.  In Acts 16:9 Paul has a vision of Macedonian man (ἀνὴρ Μακεδών (Acts 16:9 NA28)) urging him to “Come over to Macedonia and help us!”.  Who is this Macedonian man?  Who is the “us” in the passage?  After Paul and Silas go to Philippi, a city in Macedonia, they meet the woman Lydia at a river side prayer service on the Sabbath.  She is the first recorded convert to Christianity in Europe.  Is the visionary Macedonian man a personification of people needing gospel?  If so, does he represent Lydia?  It seems at a minimum Lydia is included in the “us” in the Macedonian call.  Also included in this mission to Macedonia is ministry in the city of Berea.  The Bereans displayed their noble nature by examining the Scriptures to see if the teaching of Paul and Silas were in order.  Notably among the believers were “not a few Greek women of high standing”.  (Acts 17:12 ESV)  The Macedonian man in the vision likely represented men like the Philippian jailer, but also Lydia and the women of Berea.  Arguably he represents both genders.    

In our post-modern times, we have dismissed the gender-neutral use of the male plural.  The gender-neutral use of the male plural would be to understand that sometimes the male represents both genders in the topic of discussion.  When God makes man in Genesis 1:27, the creation of man represents humankind and includes the women.  This is clarified by the words “male and female he created them”.  The one man representing both genders in the group is an important concept when we get to Romans 5 where union, justification, and substitutionary atonement are explained. 

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned-- for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.  Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.  (Rom. 5:12-19 ESV)

Women are included in the many who are made sinners in Adam and the many who are made righteous in Christ. 

Not only do men represent the mixed group, but this is also reversed.  A woman in the Bible often represents the mixed group of male and female genders.  In Hosea, the unfaithful woman represents the nation of both male and female who are not faithful to Yahweh.  While this is a negative image of the female, that is not to say women are more or less morally corrupt than men.  It is saying that the members of the nation should be heartbroken that the nation as a whole is following the false god Baal.  They should be heartbroken on the same level as if their own parents were suffering the horror of infidelity in the marriage.  (Hosea 2:2)  When in the New Testament the church is represented as the bride of Christ it is a mixed group of male and female genders who have transparent fellowship with Jesus Christ our LORD. (Revelation 19:7)   

While these are big theological themes in Scripture, it is also languages use one gender to represent both. Traditionally the word “he” could be used as a non-gender specific exemplar of either gender. For instance:

If the athlete is conditioned properly, he will have less chance of injury. 

In recent years there has been a trend in using “she” as the non-gender specific exemplar.  In that case, “she will have less chance of injury” is a means of emphasizing the equality of the genders.  The use of “he” or “she” as a means of saying a truth about a hypothetical individual in both cases is having one gender represent both.  This use of one gender to represent both is what happens in New Testament when the term brothers is used.  Brothers can mean only male, but the brothers can mean siblings too.  The Greek word adelphoi can mean more than one brother, but when a group of siblings of both genders is present, adelphoi is also used.  If it is only female siblings then adelphais is used.

Conclusion: 

The words of Scripture lift up women as speaking truth to be embraced and examples to be followed.  The audience of the Scripture is the whole of the covenant community, both female members and male members.  Language usage commonly distinguishes between the male and female genders, but also in many contexts has one gender represent both.  Often speakers and listeners understand these distinct usages intuitively.  Sometimes it is less understood intuitively due to culture and context.  Scripture was written to the brothers and sisters who believe.   

        

Technical Answer on the Word for Brothers: 

The various letters from Paul and other New Testament writers uses the word adelphoi (ἀδελφοί) 98 times in the Nestle-Aland 28th edition of the Greek New Testament.  The Majority Text (MT) has 101 time.  This word can mean males who come from the same womb, brothers.  It is not limited to biological brothers in the New Testament like James and John.  Those who share in belief or are associates.  Generally, the term brothers in the letters means those who share in belief and are associates in Gospel ministry.  Does that limit it to just males?  One of the premier lexical works on New Testament Greek was written and revised by a number of authors Bauer, Danker, Arndt, Gingrich, and Danker.  This Greek dictionary by the title A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature is most commonly abbreviated BDAG.  An extract from BDAG says this: 

 

The pl. can also mean brothers and sisters (Eur., El. 536; Andoc. 1, 47 ἡ μήτηρ ἡ ἐκείνου κ. ὁ πατὴρ ὁ ἐμὸς ἀδελφοί; Anton. Diog. 3 [Erot. Gr. I 233, 23; 26 Hercher]; POxy 713, 21f [97 AD] ἀδελφοῖς μου Διοδώρῳ κ. Θαΐδι; schol. on Nicander, Ther. 11 [p. 5, 9] δύο ἐγένοντο ἀδελφοί, Φάλαγξ μὲν ἄρσην, θήλεια δὲ Ἀράχνη τοὔνομα. The θεοὶ Ἀδελφοί, a married couple consisting of brother and sister on the throne of the Ptolemies: OGI 50, 2 [III BC] and pap [Mitt-Wilck. I/1, 99; I/2, 103-7, III BC]). In all these cases only one brother and one sister are involved. Yet there are also passages in which ἀδελφοί means brothers and sisters, and in whatever sequence the writer chooses (Polyb. 10, 18, 15 ποιήσεσθαι πρόνοιαν ὡς ἰδίων ἀδελφῶν καὶ τέκνων; Epict. 1, 12, 20 ἀδ. beside γονεῖς, τέκνα, γείτονες; 1, 22, 10; 4, 1, 111; Artem. 3, 31; Ptolem., Apotel. 3, 6; Diog. L. 7, 108; 120; 10, 18. In PMich 214, 12 [296 AD] οἱ ἀδελφοί σου seems to be even more general=‘your relatives’). Hence there is no doubt that in Lk 21:16 ἀδελφοί=brothers and sisters, but there is some room for uncertainty in the case of the ἀδελφοί of Jesus in Mt 12:46f; Mk 3:31; J 2:12; 7:3, 5; Ac 1:14.

The grammar for the plural, if a group is all male brothers, the proper word is adelphoi (ἀδελφοί).  If the group is both brothers and sisters, the proper also is adelphoi (ἀδελφοί).  Mixed gender groups of siblings is adelphoi (ἀδελφοί).  If it is all females then it is adelphais (ἀδελφαῖς).