Tim 2:12
“I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.”
WO-MAN preachers and teachers in the body of Christ, should it really be a topic for discussion? If we understand the New Testament, it shouldn’t. But because we are raised to train others, it imposes upon us that extra responsibility to know enough, not for bragging rights in an argument, but to be able to offer deep Biblical counsel based on Truth to as many as shall seek it, especially ministers who have upheld the error of this verse as a Church doctrine over the years.
2 Tim 2:15
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”. If it was Paul’s doctrine that women shouldn’t mount the pulpit and teach, it means He taught a mixture of Judaism and the Gospel of Christ.
It means also, that He ignored a vital aspect of Christ’s Kingdom Message which aimed at liberating women, children and all classes of persons shut out from free worship of God by Pharisaic interpretation of the Law of Moses.
It also means Paul was a hypocrite, and one who wants you to do as I say, but not as I do; because he companied with many women teachers and pastors, and actually commended their works.
But far be it from Apostle Paul to be and to do so, as we shall see in this study. If a woman shouldn’t teach or preach, it means that great generals of Christ’s army like Kathryn Kuhlman, Frances Hunter, and so on ran in vain, and all those miracles, healings and conversions to the faith were done against God’s will for the Church.
Oh dear. Don’t tell that to a multitude of ladies who teach in church.
But wait a second. Paul endorsed several female teachers including Junia, Priscilla, Euodia and Syntyche. Was Paul confused about the role of women in the church?
A proper diagnosis of this statement will entail looking at the pretext, and post text in-order to get the context in which the Apostle Paul spoke this. But before then, what does the New Testament teach about sexes?
Gal 3:25 -28 “But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster for ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus”.
If you may, you can trace the purpose of sexuality back to creation in Genesis 1:27-28. “And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. ” And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
*vs 27 tells you that God created “Man”. Composite term representative of both genders.
*It then goes further to tell you that in the crafting of ‘them’ (see vs 26 – “and let them” have dominion…, “And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and LET THEM have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. THIS IS NOT GOOD ENGLISH EXCEPT YOU UNDERSTAND THAT WORD “MAN” TO BE A REPRESENTATIVE OF A PLURALITY OF MANKIND
And vs 28 further tells you the purpose for making the sexes- male and female. For procreation using the phrase increase and multiply. So a male is a Man fitted to play a role in creation and a female is a Man fitted to play a role in creation. Could it be also that the English word woman is coined from “womb man” ?
But luckily enough, all the differences of gender end here on planet earth. That shows you how diminished in importance the issue of gender is when it comes to the Gospel, and the things of the spirit.
Jesus himself dismissed gender in Mt 22:30. “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven”
Also in 2 Cor 5:16, Paul himself dismisses the significance of viewing a person from the physical body. “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more”.
It means therefore that when we gather, it is the spirits of just men made perfect by the blood of Christ. The kingdom of His dear Son is a kingdom of spirits. Period.
Heb 12:23 “To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect”.
Jesus warned: “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart”.
That’s not the only sin you could commit looking at a woman. Equally, if you look at a woman as inferior, or in a condescending manner that’s a greater sin in the New Testament. It means you have truly not grasped the gospel.
I once joined myself to a Church whereupon on Sunday morning, all men relocate to pray with the Pastor in his office before rejoining women and children to worship.
I had to oppose this practice at the next Church council meeting. I told the council that this was not in consonance with the New Testament. Surprisingly, the only female member was first to oppose me. It was Eve who was deceived, not Adam she said… I was amazed. Don’t get me wrong! What she said is in the Bible.
1 Tim 2:13-14 “For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression”. But it is often interpreted with an erroneous mindset and many a woman have been clobbered into self-condemnation and inferiority complex in spiritual matters by this verse. But which is better? Eve was deceived, because the instruction was given to Adam before she was born, that’s why Satan chose to come in through her. The warning was given by God to Adam before Eve was born. But Adam was the one in actual rebellion with foreknowledge of the consequences and with his eyes widely open.
READ Gen 2:16-18 “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Later in verse 18, we see: “And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. Actually, after Satan succeeded at wooing Adam and Eve to fall, he latched on to the woman as a banana peel for all generations. In the world today, women are treated as tokens, and this is with their willful and active cooperation. By various cultures and various policies of governments , even in so called civilized nations. In some countries, a woman cannot stand a bail surety for a person from court or police detention. In the USA, equal pay struggle is still raging, where women earn 75 cents on the dollar as compared to men
Product advertisers exploit the attraction of the female body to male sights with active cooperation of ladies. Especially fashion designers who increasingly design very revealing clothes for the female folks. Women themselves sometimes try to get undue advantage over men using their bodies, and so on and so forth.
On the flip side of this, there are those women who have realized the folly of this tokenism and discrimination, and have embarked on “feminism” as a gender warfare. Feminism also has become its own distortion of order.
Either way, the female gender has become a banana peel and sort of concern to humanity. Today, if you want to measure how civilized a country is, look at how it treats its women. Equally, if you want to know how New Testament compliant a church is, look at the roles women play in that Church. If women are heard from or seen only on a designated day called “Mother’s day”, know that that Church needs the gospel.
SO WHAT DID PAUL MEAN BY LET THE WOMEN LEARN IN SILENCE?
1 Corinthians 11:3 “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” Take note of the first phrase: “But I would have you know”
According to the first principles of the Christian Revelation; in the sight of God all men are equal; Yet without distinctions of rank and office, society could not exist.
Second phrase is : “the head of the woman”. As any human organization the exercise of dominion over all the members proceeds from the head; In the Church: from Christ (see Eph 1:22,4:15 Col 1:18; Col 2:19). As the head directs the body, so ought every member of Christ’s Body to be governed and directed by Christ.
In the universe: authority flows from the Head, from God. See 1 Cor 15:28. Hence, in the family, headship is from man. This is man’s office in the home as an organization. But a woman is on an equality with man in her individual relation to Christ. The proper context is understood from looking back at the patriarchal Jewish religion, where women had few rights. They could not enter the main part of the temple, they were forbidden to speak in the assembly, and they certainly weren’t encouraged to learn. Christianity had indisputably done much for the emancipation of women, who in the East and among the Greeks were otherwise in a position of unworthy dependence. But this was done in a quiet, not an over-hasty manner.
It appears that the Christian women at Corinth claimed for themselves equality with the male sex, to which the doctrine of Christian freedom and the removal of the distinction of sex in Christ guarantees. In doing this, they may have taken to feminism which was another extreme. This counsel of Paul to the Corinthian Church was cultural, not spiritual.
“Let all things be done in ORDER”. Order is a function of so many variables. Jesus himself had laid down this precept in his earthly ministry when he emboldened Mary to sit close to his feet and learn, and boldly, praising her.
Lk 10:42 “But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” That was cracking the ceiling for women by Mary.
The context to consider here is that Paul was writing to Timothy, bishop at the Church of Ephesus. Ephesus was at that time the seat of the Artemis, the Greek mother goddess, and her son. So, in a city like Ephesus, a city of radical femi-nazis, Paul wanted to liberate women from religious bondage, but there was a danger the Ephesian Christian women might swing the pendulum too far. Lacking proper Christian role models, they might take inspiration from the priestesses of Diana Artemis, a cult where women did the leading and kept the men in line. That, it seems to me, is the proper exegesis of 1 Tim 1: 12.
Paul is saying, like Jesus in Luke 10:42 that women must have the space and leisure to study the word alongside men. But not in order that they may muscle in and take over the leadership as in the Artemis-cult, but so that men and women alike can develop whatever gifts of learning, teaching and leadership God is giving them.
You will notice this same moderation by Paul in 5:21-22, where Paul first admonishes Believers to SUBMIT to ONE ANOTHER before telling wives to submit to their own husbands.
BUT HOW ABOUT BECOMING PASTORS?
Are there examples of such under Paul’s ministry? YES, there are.
If you were a woman in the Jewish temple, under no circumstances would you ever be allowed to teach men. Sadly, this bondage is still experienced in parts of the world today. But this was not the case in the churches that Paul planted! Paul was a liberated man. Grace brings liberty. While we may debate the meaning of what Paul said, the evidence of what Paul did is indisputable:
Paul empowered women. He identified female teachers by name and, called them colleagues in ministry. So, Let’s meet one or two of these beloved New Testament female pastors:
First is Pastor Priscilla. Priscilla and her husband Aquila were Jewish business people who met Paul in Corinth and travelled with him to Ephesus (Acts 18:1-2). When Paul left Ephesus, Priscilla and Aquila stayed behind and continued to preach the gospel.
1 Cor 16:19 “The churches of Asia salute you. Acquilla and Priscillia salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.” Soon they were hosting a church that met in their house. Later, they went to Rome and planted another church. We know this because of the way Paul greets them in his letter to the Romans; “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. Greet also the church that meets at their house”.
Rom 16:3-5a “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus: Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Likewise greet the church that is in their house”.
King James version with it’s sexist orientation tried to reverse the order to Aquila first in many places(see Acts 18:26, 1 Cor 6:19),
BUT HERE THIS IS PAUL HIMSELF PUTTING RECORDS STRAIGHT. PRICILLA IS THE OVERSEER OF THE CHURCH. This brief mention speaks volumes. Priscilla and her husband weren’t merely homegroup leaders; they were church planters with a multinational legacy. Such was her influence that Paul said the Gentile churches owed Priscilla a debt of gratitude. Priscilla was Paul’s right-hand man and Paul considered her his equal and said she had risked her life for him like a good shepherd. Priscilla was not just a preacher or teacher. She was a pastor to the apostles. She trained Apollos in Ephesus and had two apostles, Andronicus and Junia, in her church at Rome. Indeed, Priscilla was not merely a pastor; she was a super-pastor who raised giants in the faith. She obviously never got the memo about women staying silent in church.
Second is Pastor Nympha : Paul greeted “Nympha and the church that is in her house”.
Col. 4:15. “Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house”.
We know very little about Nympha. Her house was located either in Laodicea or elsewhere in the Lycus Valley. Was she a pastor? Did she lead the church that met in her house? She must have done so, for Paul greets no one else in her church.
CONCLUSION: Many people say women cannot be pastors and they cannot lead churches, yet women did these very things in the Bible. The New Testament church had female pastors, female apostles, female prophets, female evangelists and female teachers, because God has commissioned all of us, men and women, to proclaim the good news.
– Dr Nich Mbaezue