The holy prophetess Dehorah.
III. The Revelation of the Great Women Prophets
In the resurrection, they are neither married nor given in marriage (Mt.22:30). There is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal.3:28)
When we think of the Old Testament prophets we are inclined to think only of the male prophets. We often lose the context of the great women of the Old Testament as prophets also. The tragedy in this is that it deprives us of the fulness of understanding of the Old Testament and of the nature of the Church itself. As we have seen above, marriage is a type and likeness of the Church, and Apostle Paul instructs us that in this likeness, the male is a type of Christ while the female is a type of the Church (see Eph.5:21f). This means that, as Christ was revealed through the male prophets in the Old Testament, the Church was revealed through the female prophets, beginning with Eve. It is not without reason that Christ says that the gender relation between men and women will not exist in the resurrection, and Paul instructs us that in the Kingdom, there is no longer the distinction of “male” and “female.” If human gender is given for prophecy, then when all prophecy has been fulfilled, there is no longer a need for prophets nor for the means of prophecy. When Christ and the Church have been visibly united, when all is clear and manifest, then the prophetic role of human gender will have been fulfilled and will pass away.
It is important for us to comprehend this, not only so that we will have a more complete understanding of the Old Testament and of the Church, but so that we can more easily correct the sin of relating the roles of men and women to relative value, placing a higher value on one than on the other, and the error of extrapolating the spiritual and liturgical role of each, removing it from the family and the liturgy and expanding it into industry and politics.
Somehow, the role of the men prophets of the Old Testament is more clearly understood. In order to balance our understanding, it is necessary to examine how the great women prophets revealed to us the nature of the Church, and in so doing, completed the prophecies about our redemption.
The Church existed before all ages, first in the eternal will of God. With the creation of the angels, the Church existed spiritually in the presence of God. When God created the paradise of Eden and placed Adam and Eve in it, He manifested His Church on earth. Adam and Eve were themselves a prophetic revelation about Christ and His Church, for the creation of man, as the holy fathers have said, was itself a prophecy about the incarnation of God the Word. God, Who knows all things from eternity to eternity, foreknowing the fall, revealed in the very creation of man and woman the nature of our future redemption. As St John Chrysostom says:
“As woman was formed out of the side of Adam as he slept, so the Church was fashioned out of the side of Christ as He died.” “For Christ was lifted up on the cross, and one of the soldiers pierced his side, and blood and water came forth; and of that blood and water, the whole Church was formed.” The saint continues saying that we are re-born through the water of Baptism and nourished through the Blood of Holy Communion.
In these words of this holy father, we already perceive the fundamental roles of male and female in revelation and prophecy.
With the fall of mankind, the “gates of paradise” were closed and, since Adam and Eve constituted the Church on earth, the Church also fell with them. It would continue, until its redemption, a shadowy existence. Now barren and no longer bearing the fruit of that blessed unity with God known in Eden, the Church continued on, bearing the hope of the promised restoration. God never stopped loving His Church, as the Apostle says, “Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for Her” (Eph.5:25). When all mankind had completely fallen away from that hope, God called Abraham and Sarah into the fallen Church and, through them, renewed the promise, so that in Abraham the prophecy of the Messiah, and in Sarah, the prophecy of His Church, might once more be made known. As Adam and Eve had been the apostles of God’s presence, so now Abraham and Sarah became the apostles of His promise.
Still, the Church had grown old and remained barren and without the fruit of life. Thus she was revealed by Esdras and by the Bishop of Hermas in the passages cited above. It is for this reason that the great women prophets of old were aged and barren women, unfruitful until they were touched by the grace of God and called to a special spiritual revelation in the bearing of children in their old age. Thus, the holy prophet Sarah had grown old and barren (like the Church), but hoping against hope in the promise of God, she waited with patience, trusting that what He had promised, He would surely fulfil. In the fulness of time, God chose to reveal not only His love and truth, but even the mystery of the Trinity. As Sarah and her husband waited out the heat of the day beneath the spreading branches of the great oak at Mambre in the land of promise, at midday, the Word Himself appeared to them with two angels. Abraham, recognising his Lord, rushed to worship Him and offer hospitality to his awesome visitors. So great was the revelation and promise about to be fulfilled in Sarah that the incarnation of God itself was shadowed in the type of the Holy Trinity which had appeared. For, truly, the mystery of the Trinity would be made manifest only when the incarnation of the Word restored the true holy nation and redeemed the Church from bondage, claiming her for His bride. It is for this reason that Christ, as God the Word, appeared personally at Mambre to initiate the founding of the Holy Nation by reaffirming the promise, as it were, “in person.”
In prophecy of this great redemption, Sarah was visited with the grace of God and became the mother of the holy nation, the foreimage of that “new nation called after” the name of Jesus Christ. Thus Sarah was the restoration of the revelation given through Eve in the beginning, the first in the great chain of women prophets through whom the Church was revealed. Christ, the founder of the Holy Nation, the redeemed and sanctified Church, is foretold in the son whom Sarah bore.
In the days of the prophet and judge of the nation Eli, his sons, the priests of God’s tabernacle, had fallen into the sin of indifference and lost their faith and fear of God. Then, God chose his servant and handmaid Hannah to reveal yet more about the Church and the Messiah.
In like manner as Sarah, the holy prophet Hannah was old and barren (like the Church). Praying constantly to God, with vows and fasting, she received a promise from Him. He would touch here aged womb with healing grace that she might bear a child to His glory. In the fulness of time, she gave birth to Samuel, that prophet who would replace the corrupted priests in the house of Eli. By God’s grace, Hannah became the mother of the new priesthood in Samuel, foretelling the redemption of the Church by the eternal High Priest, Jesus Christ, who replaced the corrupted priests of Israel and restored the Church with the perfect and everlasting sacrifice.
Finally, as the “fulness of time” drew near, God chose two more faithful handmaids to serve for the revelation of His Church. Like Sarah and Hannah, the holy prophet Elizabeth was barren into her old age, beseeching God to grant her a child. God called her to give birth to the forerunner of the redeemer, John the Baptist. Through Elizabeth, the Church cried out with the voice of the Forerunner. He announced the day of God’s Kingdom and proclaimed the Messiah to the barren and fallen Church and brought it to the very eve of its restoration. A little earlier, Anna, the wife of Joakim, being also barren and unfruitful in her old age, had prayed with vows and fasting for a child. She was called to be the mother of the Theotokos, the one chosen out of all ages and generations to be the mother of God in the saving incarnation.
And here, a great and dramatic change takes place. Suddenly, this unique manner of prophecy about the Church passes from barren older women to a very young virgin. Why? Because the “Old Testament” phase of the Church is passing away. The Church had become old and barren, no longer bearing the fruit of unity with God, as in Eden. Now, however, the prophetic role passes to a young virgin, who gives birth to her special child solely by the grace of the Holy Spirit, without the participation of a man. The barren Anna, the Church of the Old Testament, gives birth to the Ever-Virgin One, and Mary becomes the holy prophet through whom the New Testament Church, the redeemed and restored Church is revealed. The Church is renewed, redeemed, made fruitful once more. The Church has become a new creation, thus the revelation is no more through an elderly, barren woman, but through a young maiden, and in a completely new and unique manner. The Church is no longer the barren old woman of the Old Testament, but the “Pure virgin bride of Christ,” revealed in the pure virgin Theotokos. This transformation from shame and dishonour, for so the Jews considered childlessness to be, to grace filled purity and exaltation, brought about the twilight of the Old Testament and the end to the exile of the Church; it ushered in the everlasting dawn of the New Covenant and welcomed the new day of restoration and glory — the eighth day of creation, the day of redemption. The fallen human nature would be recapitulated (Eph.1:10) in Christ, the Church would be re-created from His life-bearing side and the descent of the Holy Spirit. Paradise would be restored.
What of the specific revelation of the Old Testament women prophets? Christ is the new “founder of the holy nation.” The “holy nation” is seen to be not the ethnic Israel, but the Church itself, as Apostle Paul so clearly reminds us. This is what Sarah was foretelling in her miraculous childbearing. Her child, the firstborn of the “holy nation” was the work of God’s grace and not of human will and design. Nevertheless, it was a foreimage and prophecy and so destined to pass away with its fulfilment. As with Hannah, the child borne by Mary will replace the corrupted high priesthood (Hb.6:2-7:28), and restore and fulfil the priesthood. With Anna and Elizabeth, this line of revelation was brought to an end, for “type” and prophecy stand only until their fulfilment.
What of the other women of the Old Testament? We will not discuss them in detail here, for we have established the facts that are necessary. Let us only recall them by reading the eighth ode of the Akathist Hymn for the Theotokos, Joy of Canada:
Irmos Eight
When our forebears lost paradise and brought the Church to barrenness, God proclaimed His promises prophetically through the holy women and filled it with hope. Thou, O Theotokos, art the seal of the promises, the fulfilment of the hope of the fallen Church, wherefore we cry out to Him Who came forth from thee: Alleluia.
Ikos Eight
In thee, O Theotokos, are the promises made manifest and all prophecy is fulfilled in Him Whom thou didst bear. The expectation of the ages has come to pass and the hope of the holy women prophets is made complete. Wherefore we cry to thee:
Rejoice, with Eve, for the serpent is bruised,
Rejoice, with Sarah, for the Holy Nation is redeemed,
Rejoice, with the righteous daughters, for the inheritance is secured,
Rejoice, with Esther, for the spiritual Haman is slain,
Rejoice, with Ruth, for the gentiles are delivered,
Rejoice, with Hannah, for the priesthood is perfected,
Rejoice, with Elizabeth, for her son’s prophecy is fulfilled,
Rejoice, with Anna, for the barrenness of the Church is healed,
Rejoice, Joy of Canada.
To be continued…
Source: http://www.manastir-lepavina.org/vijest_en.php?id=2846
His Eminence, the Most Reverend Lazar (Puhalo) of Ottawa, is a retired hierarch of the Orthodox Church in America, and is the founding abbot of the Monastery of All Saints of North America, Canada.
