Exodus 1:15-22

Shiphrah and Puah: Female Civil Disobedience in Salvation History

Exodus 1:15-22 introduces Shiphrah and Puah, two Hebrew midwives (or Egyptian midwives serving the Hebrews — the Hebrew construction allows both readings) who defy Pharaoh's genocidal edict to kill all newborn Hebrew males. Their motivation is explicit: "the midwives feared God" (v.17). When summoned by Pharaoh, they respond with calculated shrewdness (v.19), and the narrator concludes: "God was good to the midwives... and because the midwives feared God, He established households for them" (vv.20-21).

Theological Significance

1. Priority of Allegiance to God Over Earthly Rulers

Shiphrah and Puah risk their lives by placing allegiance to Yahweh above obedience to the highest political authority of their world. This is the earliest biblical exemplar of faith-based civil disobedience — predating Daniel (Dan 3, 6), the apostles ("We must obey God rather than men," Acts 5:29), and Paul's refusal of illegal beatings (Acts 16:37). The midwives' example grounds a robust biblical ethic of selective disobedience to unjust authority.

2. God Rewards Their Courage

Yahweh's response — establishing "households" (bāttîm) for them and ensuring the flourishing of Israel — demonstrates that God honors women who act decisively in obedience to Him, even when that action crosses social and political convention. The text does not hedge; it does not warn them to have been submissive first; it records divine blessing for female courage.

3. Pivotal Role in Salvation History

Without the midwives' defiance, Moses would not have survived. The entire Exodus narrative — the founding saving event of the OT — hangs on the courageous action of two women. This narrative placement is intentional: the Exodus deliverance begins with female faith-based resistance, not with male heroism.

Egalitarian Application

Complementarian theology sometimes teaches women to "preserve peace at any cost" or to avoid confrontation with male authority. Shiphrah and Puah embody a contrary biblical pattern: when earthly authority — even explicitly male, patriarchal, royal authority — commands what God forbids, faithful women defy it and are commended.

Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen (cited in article 423) puts it sharply: "If [women] settle for abnormal quietism as a way of avoiding the risk and potential isolation that may result from opposing evil... they are sinning just as surely as the man who rides roughshod over relationships in order to assert his individual freedom. For 'peace,' in the biblical sense, does not consist of 'peace at any price.' It is rather the shalom in which all things are in their rightful, creationally ordained place."

References

• May, G. "Who's Who? Biblical Models of Women in Leadership." Priscilla Papers 7:2 (1993) — article 423
• Van Leeuwen, M. S., Gender and Grace (IVP 1990)