I, like many others, was furiously emailing about Deborah when the issue of only male elders came up.
It seemed curious that Angus didn't address Deborah, as he surely knew of it.
Thankfully, ol' Geoff, and WT, cannot resist trying to get in a last word, which opened the door for Angus. (He's one cool customer.)
341 In his written statement provided to the Royal Commission following the close of the
public hearing, Mr Jackson offered the relevant scriptural references to which he
adverted but was unable to provide during the hearing. Specifically, he referred to
various books of the Old Testament which, he said, describe judges and priests as being
all male.625 Mr Jackson said that although the Mosaic Law of the Old Testament ended
‘[o]n Pentecost 33 C.E.’, its principles ‘guided the first century Christian congregation
and served as the context for future practices’.626 Mr Jackson explained that it is on this
basis that the apostle Paul ‘identifies only male members of the congregation as
potential elders’ in 1 Timothy 3:1.627
342 It should be noted by the Royal Commission that, in his statement, Mr Jackson referred
only to those books of the Old Testament in which men are described as judges, and did
not refer to Judges 4:4‐5 which tells of the female judge, Deborah. Specifically, the
verses report that Deborah, ‘a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at
that time’ and that the ‘Israelites would go up to her for judgment’. Since a woman judge
was apparently accepted in the Old Testament, it is not apparent why women should
not be judges of ‘Christian’ guilt or innocence in the Jehovah’s Witness organisation.
