Eve, a Priest in Eden?

Chapter 2 of Women in Ministry tries to explain why there are no women priests in Israel. Its author, an Old Testament scholar, maintains that the absence of female priests in ancient Israel cannot be used as an argument against women’s ordination. The author states that he approaches the Bible through “exegetical research.” This, he explains, means that he “will not move from a priori definitions or from theological positions” but will seek an answer to his question “by listening to the biblical word in regard to its historical and theological contexts as it describes and signifies the institution of priesthood.” In other words, he tries to be as objective as possible. He gives two reasons for the absence of women priests in Israel: First, a reaction against the ancient Near Eastern culture where priestesses were often associated with sacred prostitution; second, the nature of priestly work in sacrificing animals, thus associating the priests with death and sin. Such priestly labor, he explains, was incompatible with the physiological nature of the woman, traditionally connected with “life and messianic pregnancy.” The author asserts that “had it not been for these two factors . . . women might well have been priests in Israel.” He adds that “this assumption is further supported by the Bible—implicitly in the messianic view of the priest as transcending the contingencies of birth (gender, class, race) and explicitly in the